This morning I read an interesting article about the prevailing narrative of Africa as hopeless, despondent, violent, etc:
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.4/jina_moore_africa_journalism_colonialism.php
Latin America is served better by the US media, I think. I mean, nobody really blankets stories under the broad characterization of Latin America as a whole. But the simplification still exists, as one scholar argues, just on a smaller scale: http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/venezuelas-colectivos-and-the-broken-u-s-narrative-of-chavez-as-the-wizard-of-oz/
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Settling in
In our new apartment! It really is beautiful - tiled floor (easy to clean), wooden furniture, and a colorfully tiled bathroom with a shower big enough, and nearly deep enough, to qualify as a hot tub. There are a few odd things, like the lack of a towel rack in the bathroom and any storage space in the kitchen, but those are oversights expected from someone like our landlord. The man is ALWAYS drunk. Or asleep. Or trying to get drunk. He took us on a fishing trip - at 530 am, mind you - and he and his brother got Emile to drive the boat so they could drink margaritas while fishing off the back. They caught one king mackerel, and we saw lots of sea turtles. By the time we got back, Salvador, the landlord, was staggering. But he mostly keeps to himself, and he's amiable even at his most inebriated state, so I don't foresee any problems. His girlfriend (poor girl!) takes care of everything anyway.
Teaching is going moderately well. I'm slowly realizing that many of the students, and maybe some of the teachers, see the school in a summer camp light. We teach the kids a little something, babysit them/keep them out of the house for a while, and have fun. I tend to take things like this more seriously, so I'm afraid I'm not the "cool, fun teacher" at the Barrio Planta Project. This week we'll be working on a project, though, which will hopefully achieve both the students' and my objectives. Wellford inspired me for it, actually! Remembering how his Shane Battier book was the only school activity that got him excited about reading and writing, and that was largely because he got to draw pictures, I decided to twist that a little bit. Instead of writing the story first, I'll have them draw a storyboard. A comic-strip-style thing, with only pictures, so they aren't thinking in English or Spanish, just in images. Then we'll put words to the story - in English - and make a book out of it, complete with larger illustrations. One boy in my class, man actually, is 20 years old and has a learning disability/developmental disorder leaving him at the maturity level of an 11 year old. He's always drawing beautiful pictures, though, and I'm hopin this project will draw him into actually learning some of what I'm trying to teach. He's woefully behind despite his being one of my only students that shows up consistently.
Teaching is going moderately well. I'm slowly realizing that many of the students, and maybe some of the teachers, see the school in a summer camp light. We teach the kids a little something, babysit them/keep them out of the house for a while, and have fun. I tend to take things like this more seriously, so I'm afraid I'm not the "cool, fun teacher" at the Barrio Planta Project. This week we'll be working on a project, though, which will hopefully achieve both the students' and my objectives. Wellford inspired me for it, actually! Remembering how his Shane Battier book was the only school activity that got him excited about reading and writing, and that was largely because he got to draw pictures, I decided to twist that a little bit. Instead of writing the story first, I'll have them draw a storyboard. A comic-strip-style thing, with only pictures, so they aren't thinking in English or Spanish, just in images. Then we'll put words to the story - in English - and make a book out of it, complete with larger illustrations. One boy in my class, man actually, is 20 years old and has a learning disability/developmental disorder leaving him at the maturity level of an 11 year old. He's always drawing beautiful pictures, though, and I'm hopin this project will draw him into actually learning some of what I'm trying to teach. He's woefully behind despite his being one of my only students that shows up consistently.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Teaching and learning
The first thing noticeable about the school is what's next to it. A concrete playground, usually used as a soccer field, with two netless metal goals at either end. Surrounding the playground are murals advertising every philanthropy in town, from the town's biggest resort's charity fund to nonprofits to local restaurants that helped sponsor the construction of the recreation area. Children playing, yelling, are near-constants here, at nighttime even more than during the day. The soccer league playing nearly every night draws a big crowd lined up against the wall and behind the gate entrance. The nondescript building on one side houses a Spanish school, where tourists take lessons from locals, a fruit and snack stand run by a wrinkly grandmother, and BPP.
The Barrio Planta Project, where I'm teaching, consists of four rooms and a bathroom, which has been a huge conversation topic of late. Complete with tiles and a lightbulb, the bathroom is a luxury the school just added with money saved for the project. It's a young and energetic atmosphere - the school's director is 26, and its administrative director at most the same age - but relatively quiet between classes. A few kids arriving early to class and asking to play with a ball from the office, that's about all. It's humble. The rooms have benches for desks; pencils are given out only with collateral from the students to ensure they are returned, and notebooks are donations from Casa Oro, the biggest hostel in the area. But this school is free, and kids come here by choice. They attend "regular" school in the mornings or afternoons, and go to BPP because they WANT to learn English, though it's no obligation for them. The best way to get them quiet (even if it only lasts a moment)? Ask who wants to learn English, and they all raise their hands so eagerly you'd never think they would speak out of turn. It's a lesson in humility for those of us who were pushed and prodded into our stellar educations... We think we worked hard. We did work hard! But these kids thirst for it, and their best bet is someone fresh out of college with no training and poor Spanish. And I can't even give them homework because there are no textbooks.
The Barrio Planta Project, where I'm teaching, consists of four rooms and a bathroom, which has been a huge conversation topic of late. Complete with tiles and a lightbulb, the bathroom is a luxury the school just added with money saved for the project. It's a young and energetic atmosphere - the school's director is 26, and its administrative director at most the same age - but relatively quiet between classes. A few kids arriving early to class and asking to play with a ball from the office, that's about all. It's humble. The rooms have benches for desks; pencils are given out only with collateral from the students to ensure they are returned, and notebooks are donations from Casa Oro, the biggest hostel in the area. But this school is free, and kids come here by choice. They attend "regular" school in the mornings or afternoons, and go to BPP because they WANT to learn English, though it's no obligation for them. The best way to get them quiet (even if it only lasts a moment)? Ask who wants to learn English, and they all raise their hands so eagerly you'd never think they would speak out of turn. It's a lesson in humility for those of us who were pushed and prodded into our stellar educations... We think we worked hard. We did work hard! But these kids thirst for it, and their best bet is someone fresh out of college with no training and poor Spanish. And I can't even give them homework because there are no textbooks.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
First day of school
Was a success! My first class was exhausting, though; a class of middle school boys and two troublemakers makes for a rough first class ever, but all in all, I think it's going to go well. My second class (only five kids showed up, and they were a bit older) went as smoothly as I could have dreamed. Part of that was the smaller size, part was that I could gauge their progress in the curriculum from the morning class. I was flying completely blind in the first one!
I know I need to keep my expectations reasonable... I'm only teaching these kids for three months, after all, but I have high hopes. They know more than I had anticipated, and the younger kids are very sharp. One kept telling me to stop explaining things in Spanish! It's nice to know that they want to be there, want a challenge. They just need to learn a little discipline :)
I don't know how St. Mary's drilled that into us so thoroughly; even our middle school classrooms - many elementary classes, too! - were well-oiled machines. Most of us would get frustrated when class time wasn't perfectly efficient or when someone caused disruptions. Pretty amazing. At times, I think that was for the worse, as nice as it sounds right now. Mom and I talked about the uniformity created by that extent of discipline, at least for very young children. Little kids need room for creativity and play! We'll see how well I can balance that dichotomy at the close of these three months.
I know I need to keep my expectations reasonable... I'm only teaching these kids for three months, after all, but I have high hopes. They know more than I had anticipated, and the younger kids are very sharp. One kept telling me to stop explaining things in Spanish! It's nice to know that they want to be there, want a challenge. They just need to learn a little discipline :)
I don't know how St. Mary's drilled that into us so thoroughly; even our middle school classrooms - many elementary classes, too! - were well-oiled machines. Most of us would get frustrated when class time wasn't perfectly efficient or when someone caused disruptions. Pretty amazing. At times, I think that was for the worse, as nice as it sounds right now. Mom and I talked about the uniformity created by that extent of discipline, at least for very young children. Little kids need room for creativity and play! We'll see how well I can balance that dichotomy at the close of these three months.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Happy Birthday!
It was Granddaddy and Uncle Bucky's birthday a few days ago, and it's Mom's birthday next week... Happy Birthday, y'all!
Today was our neighbor's birthday, and the whole neighborhood came out to celebrate. Piñata, loud music, dancing, musical chairs - it was all there. Except the birthday boy was the dad, and everyone dancing and singing and having all the fun was under 10. Until they made all the women (including me!) get up and dance. They were all shocked that I actually did ;)
Most of the time I spent taking pictures on my nice camera, but I did take one video on my phone. You have got to watch this little guy! He cracks me up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE8D5uPeMRg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Today was our neighbor's birthday, and the whole neighborhood came out to celebrate. Piñata, loud music, dancing, musical chairs - it was all there. Except the birthday boy was the dad, and everyone dancing and singing and having all the fun was under 10. Until they made all the women (including me!) get up and dance. They were all shocked that I actually did ;)
Most of the time I spent taking pictures on my nice camera, but I did take one video on my phone. You have got to watch this little guy! He cracks me up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE8D5uPeMRg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Hermitting
Life is good: sitting inside the house in hammocks, reading and eating watermelon. No complaints :)
I surfed horribly yesterday... Smaller board + bigger wave = Estes like a cat in a bathtub. It was not pretty; the closest I got to standing up was riding the wave on my knees. But I was proud of that, for as badly as I was doing! Given I have surfed a grand total of five or six days over a three month period, I have a long way to go, and that's okay by me. We went to Playa Romanso, which was beautiful as always. And a friend of Emile's, Tomas, stopped by the beach in the afternoon and wants to rent the apartment next to us next month. He just got married to a Canadian woman, but it'll easily be six months before he can get a residential visa to go with her. Tomas is nice though; he'd be a fun neighbor to have!
I always thought hermit crabs lived like, well, hermits - alone. But there was an entire colony hiding out behind our little hay-roofed canopy. They chowed down on our orange and mango peels.
I surfed horribly yesterday... Smaller board + bigger wave = Estes like a cat in a bathtub. It was not pretty; the closest I got to standing up was riding the wave on my knees. But I was proud of that, for as badly as I was doing! Given I have surfed a grand total of five or six days over a three month period, I have a long way to go, and that's okay by me. We went to Playa Romanso, which was beautiful as always. And a friend of Emile's, Tomas, stopped by the beach in the afternoon and wants to rent the apartment next to us next month. He just got married to a Canadian woman, but it'll easily be six months before he can get a residential visa to go with her. Tomas is nice though; he'd be a fun neighbor to have!
I always thought hermit crabs lived like, well, hermits - alone. But there was an entire colony hiding out behind our little hay-roofed canopy. They chowed down on our orange and mango peels.
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