I appologize for any and all typos, the spell check doesn´t work.
The Pecitos (little fish) classroom at the guarderia (daycare center) is like any other kindergarden classroom you could imagine. Bright posters displaying important vocabulary words and phrases. Bold letters and numbers stuck upon the wall with cute designs and patterns. Small tables and chairs for the 18, 5 year olds, that make up the Pecitos class. It even smells like kindergarden- crayons and glue.
I stood in the colorful classroom timid and not sure what the expect on my first day of work. The excited children filed into the room one by one and quickly ran to put away their backpacks and fight over who sits in what chair. They are full of energy, excitment and love- expect for when they are hitting each other during recess. They ran past me as if I were another object in the room some gave me a second look, but others just went about their 5 year old business of fighting about who is cooler.
Within minutes the room grew to an amazing level of volume as the 18 Pecitos began to yell, scream, sing and some cry. Oh, my lord, what had I gotten myself into? The teacher was able to immediatly regain control of the kids by yelling out ¨niños silencio¨´ Why hadn´t I thought of that?
The teacher then turned to me and said ¨¿ahora ellos tienen ingles. Estas lista?¨ I stared at her with horror, she wanted me to do what? Teach them English? For how long? 30 minutes?! I had no idea what to do and she just began preparing the next lesson. I frantically looked around the classroom for ideas and my eyes fell upon the numbers, and at least I know those, I thought.
¨Quien saben los numeros en ingles?¨I called out
¨YO! ONE, TWO, FIVE, FOUR, EIGHT...¨was the response from the 18 little Pecisitos who are now my kindergarden class.
And thus began my first day of work at the daycare center. It´s been a rough week to say the least. I work at the daycare center from 8-12pm and then starting next week I will start work at the school Nuevo Mundo from 2-6pm. I´m in for some long days, but I´m excited. Nuevo Mundo is an amazing school started by the most admirable Pat Mattee (sp?) and Sonia. The morning school is for the wealthy population of Guayaquil, and the afternoon school is for the children of Duran-the area of Ecuador in which we live.
The tuition of the morning school kids goes to fund the afternoon school progam and allows students, from all different economic backgrounds, access to equal education. The school is very well recognized among the schools in Guayaquil and the actual premisis is a beautiful osasis for kids to escape to. I will be working with 8th, 9th and 10th graders teaching their English classes in the afternoon. It´s an immersion education so I can only speak English in the classroom in order for the students to be exposed to a native accent and pronunciation...hope they don´t all end up with a Chicago accent!
Life has been good here. I´ve struggled with working at the daycare center and feeling overwhelmed and useless, but I must remind myself that I am not here to DO but to BE and so I need to BE patient with myself and with the daycare center.
In other news, I went out for a driving test with Megan. Don´t worry Mom no one got hurt. To make a long story short after peeling out of the drive way and stalling the car twice, it looks like I will NOT be driving in Ecuador. Perhaps for the best. The bus is where I belong. Commuter for life I swear.
Speaking of buses, oh man, if you think Chicago buses and trains get packed you haven´t seen anything! People literally hang out of the bus here and with no fear it seems. No baby carriages or bikes, but people carry on small infants and live chickens. It doesn´t even phase me anymore. Just part of life down here.
The neighbors are great and they have all asked if I was single, and how could that be? I must have a secret love back home that I´m just not telling anyone. Did I mention Ecudorians are funny?
Walter, our neighbor across the streets says that at the rate my tan is going I´ll be ask black as him the end of the year. I doubt I will be, but the sun is strong here. I already got a horrible sun burn on my back 2 weeks ago. My skin turned a nice shade of fire engine red and then peeled for a week. Lovely.
This blog has turned into just a stream of thoughts but thay may be better than anything else. So much happens here, that it´s hard to keep it all up to date. I love it here and it´s only been 3 weeks, and I know times will become hard, but I know that it will all be worth it in the end.
Some funny quotes from the RdC community¨:
¨I just peed out my but¨ -sickness is no laughing matter, but it can be funny
¨What does giardia smell like? Cause I think (blank) has it.¨
¨It´s made of the ocean and you write on it¨-Laura trying to describe sandpaper
Love and miss you all! Send me letters or e'mails let me know how life is!
