First day of school and I didn't miss the chicken bus...

Before I even start this entry, I have to tell you all how much fun it is to come home to your comments at night! When I wrote the initial entry for this and said that I hoped that this would be a way to “take you with me”, I guess I didn’t even really believe that myself...but seriously, when I come home and read your comments, it is like you are here! So keep ‘em comin’ folks...and I’ll try to keep the blog as interesting as possible!

Ok...so again, the last two days have been jam-packed and trying to write about all of it right now seems so overwhelming that I have decided I’m just going to write about the school where I teach today. I have this irrational fear that after the first week when everything is just “routine”, I will run out of things to write...so I’m trying to spread out the good material! Although I must say that after 4 days, it is hard to see how these days will ever seem routine.

So today’s topic: La Escuela de Santa María de Jesús

After the complete “surreal-ness” that was Sunday, I headed straight to bed. It’s funny how some things never change. When I woke up to get dressed for my first day, I couldn’t decide what to wear...first day jitters...should I wear my dark or light khaki pants?? And which solid Gap t-shirt would be appropriate?? Huge, huge decisions. I finally settled on an outfit and at 6:30 am, I had a delicious pancake breakfast and it was off to the bus station.

It is about a 25 minute bus ride up a volcano to the school and we take one of two types of vehicles:

Option 1: a “chicken” bus which is essentially a very run down old American school bus (some of them even say things like “Michigan Public Schools” on them). I have yet to see any chickens on them but I heard they do exist.

Option 2: a kind of shuttle that is designed to fit ~10 people but they easily stuff about 28...all I have to say is that thank god I am a mouth breather!

Anyway, after the 25 minute ride, we arrive at the school and within moments, the ride dissolves away in your mind. About 10 kids await for the bus to arrive and immediately flood the volunteers with huge hugs. It only took the kids about 10 minutes to warm up to me enough to start asking for piggy back rides and tight squeezes. During orientation, I was told that often many of these kids do not get any physical affection at home so school is the only time they really get to be hugged by an adult. It is incredible to me how resilient they are and how readily able they are to show such outward affection...and to a complete stranger!

So when I got to the classroom, I had my first surprise of many...I am not teaching English. Nope...these kids do not know a lick of English...so on Day 1, my Spanish skills were very much put to the test...and I have to say that I think I would have made my high school Spanish teacher Sra. Chapman pretty darn proud! Sure I sounded like a complete idiot but the kids seemed to understand what I was saying.

My kids are about 8-10 and they are seriously freaking adorable. I’ll save another entry to tell you about them each individually but after only two days in the classroom, it is amazing to see how they each have their own unique personality and again, it’s funny how some things never change! There is still the super smart quiet girl, the not-so-bright kid that still wants to volunteer for everything, the spunky little girl who won’t clean up no matter how many times you tell her, and the one girl who just giggles through the entire class like she gets something the rest of us don’t and so many more! I can already tell it will be impossible to say goodbye to them!

There are two different groups of kids: Morning and Afternoon so they only come half days and actually attend the state school in the other half of the day. So far, I have only met the morning kids since I am going to Spanish Immersion classes in the afternoon (that’s a preview for the next blog entry!) We’re teaching pretty “normal” stuff...addition, subtraction, story telling, reading comprehension, etc. Yesterday I kept saying TREINTE, TREINTE and the kids just kept looking at me like I was crazy until one looked at me and said in a sweet voice, “Trece?” (turns out there is a slight difference between the number 30 and the number 13!) It really is amazing that these people trust me with their children. But the kids are incredibly patient and very used to having volunteers who aren’t very good at the language.

Ok...so as I type this, I realize it is impossible to describe, as I’m sure so many things will be, but hopefully this is a basic overview of what I’m doing...I am going to post pictures TONIGHT!!

Tomorrow’s entry: The Adventures of Learning Spanish...

xoxo, Debra