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.
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