Its been awhile....

Almost an entire year has gone by without any words uttered by either Jesse or I on this blog. Over the past year, so many life decisions have been made and our life together is taking a new direction. We decided back in November that our time overseas needed to come to an end. Mixed feelings definitely abound while we try to rationalize with ourselves this incredible change of lifestyle.

Anyway... We have not traveled around Colombia as much as our other "homes away from home", so the Classroom Without Walls trips actually allow us to see a bit more of Colombia. I went to the Zona Cafetera or Coffee Zone again this year with a bit change. I spent three nights camping in the Valle de Cocora, with 40 kids each night. The Valle is absolutely gorgeous and I was reminded of how much I enjoy waking up in the fresh air, snuggled into my sleeping bag, only to emerge surrounded by beautiful landscape. Despite the lack of sleep endured because of excited students shouting into the wee hours of the night, spending time in this immensely gorgeous area of Colombia certainly rejuvenated me and lifted spirits. Enjoy my favorite photos of the Valle de Cocora.

 This last one may be my favorite of all...

Zona Cafetera

Our school year includes a week-long (for Middle School), classroom without walls, trip for the students. For the past few years, the sixth grade trip has been to the Zona Cafetera, or the Coffee Zone of Colombia. The Zona Cafetera is about a 30 minute flight from Bogota, to the north-west. Most of our students do not travel within Colombia, so a strong focus of the Classroom Without Walls trips is that they learn about their own country and the differences in culture throughout the country.

It was incredibly interesting for me to see the area where the biggest, legal export of Colombia comes from and to learn about the coffee culture. It is completely agriculture, with small towns dotting the countryside. In addition to coffee, this area also grows plantains, bananas, and other tropical fruit. Coffee plants/bushes grow on the mountainsides, at about 5,000 feet in elevation.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip.

One of my students picking coffee. One key feature of the trip was that the students had the opportunity to pick coffee and realize how difficult a job it actually is. The mosquitoes were biting, it was hot, and they could only pick the red beans. Coffee workers make very little per kilo, so for the students to actually be able to conceptualize the difficulty of the work and the amount earned, was incredibly powerful.

Above, is the mythical Cocora Valley. Those tall trees are wax palm trees, where palm oil comes from. The Valley is often shrouded in fog, and has an incredibly feeling of peace and tranquility. We spent a morning here with a hike for the students to experience hiking and see this famous landscape of Colombia.

The most important part of our trip was the social project. We went to a local school where we planted trees and painted their outside wall for them. Often, our students are used to donating money, clothes, or school supplies for the less fortunate, but they don't often spend their time to help others. For the majority of the students, it was an eye-opening experience. They talked with the students from the school, got to know a bit about them and their culture, and then realized how poverty affects children. Most of our students assumed they were working with second or third graders, due to their low height, but they were actually fifth and sixth graders. Some of the local students told my students stories about their home life which included drugs and violence. My students realized how fortunate they are because of their education and the quality of the school structure in which they go to school. Many of the local students thought we were from Argentina because of the paler skin of the students. Before we left the school, we gave each student school supplies (pencils, pens, notebooks, and folders) since the majority of the local students do not have enough money to purchase them on their own.

Overall, the trip was a success. My students got to learn about a different area of Colombia, learn what poverty really is like, and they had some fun as well.

Tierra Nuestra

For the last two days, I went on an overnight trip with my fifth graders to an estancia (ranch) called Mamborei, which is about two and a half hours outside of Asuncion. The goal of the trip is team building and nature appreciation. The group that runs the activities is called Tierra Nuestra, which means our earth. They do team building activities for schools that can afford it to fund their other environmental programs in poorer neighborhoods and schools. The group was great, and my students really enjoyed their time. The highlight of the trip is the campfire and the night games, which include two Guarani myths, the Pora and the Pombero. Both are spirits that cause bad things to happen. The Pora is a white spirit, that will capture those who are alone at night; the Pombero is a spirit that does naughty things, like lift women's skirts or steal babies. During the night games, the students tried to stay away from the Pora while catching the Pombero.

I didn't take any pictures this year, but I did with last year's group, so here's the link http://wanderingwisconsinite.blogspot.com/2010/06/tierra-nuestra.html

Some of the activities were different this year than last year: the students tie-dyed shirts, tried passing water balloons without they breaking using tarps, made campfire skits. My personal favorite activity from both years is the nature hike where the students learn about the native plants and animals of Paraguay. It never fails to surprise me how little the students know about their own country.

El Bicentenario de Paraguay!

200 years of independence from Spain. We were lucky enough to be in a country when they were celebrating a this wonderful occasion. There were events going on all week long all around town and our school also celebrated this wondrous occasion with many different presentations and activities. One activity that the whole school did together was a flag raising of both the U.S. and Paraguayan flags, and the singing of the Paraguay national anthem.
On that same morning, the elementary had their Folklore Day. This day happens every year, but this year it was done as the culmination of the Bicentenario activities. The indigenous language of Paraguay is Guarani, and students are required to pass a proficiency test in Guarani before they can receive their Paraguayan diplomas. Guarani is the main language outside of the city. On Folklore Day, the students all learn traditional Guarani dances, wear costumes, and perform the dances for their family and peers. The students are really quite adorable in their traditional outfits!
As a prelude to the festivities, the Paraguayan department and the PTA had gotten together and had decorated the school in celebration.

In Your Face!

While Jesse is away at Rancho (will be explained later), I thought I would take this opportunity to share a high school event. As an elementary teacher, I don't often get to partake in high school events, but last week, there was a pep rally, and it happened to be during my prep time. So I went. And I'm glad I did. I think the pictures speak for themselves

Jorge Gayoso, Remansito

Three years ago, a teacher started a Sunday program of going to an area, just outside of Asuncion, and feeding the students there and playing educational games with them. Well this little project has expanded into the Jorge Gayoso School, in the area of Remansito, becoming our school's sister school. The high school sends a community service group out there a few times a year, the middle school started a school supplies drive, and the elementary student council organized a clothing drive.

I'm not a student council leader, but I was asked by the teachers to help out on the day of the drive. The purpose of the drive was to collect gently used clothing from students and their families, go out to Remansito, sell the clothing for 2-3 mil (roughly 30-70 cents) a piece, then use the money to purchase books and other supplies for the school.

Nothing ever seems to go smoothly in Latin America, so of course, 15 minutes into our trip, the bus breaks down. So we had to unload the bus of all the clothes for the drive, and wait on the side of the road for another bus to come.
But we did make it there, with all the student council students safe and sound, with plenty of time to set up shop.
There were a lot of people waiting for us to open shop.
We had native Spanish speakers manning the registers, just to make sure everything went smoothly. We also weren't sure how many of the parents would speak Spanish or Guarani (native indigenous language) so Lorenzo was a big help in making sure it went great!
The elementary school had collected over 2000 pieces of apparel. This is a picture of the baby clothes/toy room.
It seemed as if everyone from the community came out to shop. Here, a little girl and her big brother!
All in all, the student council collected plenty of money to put back into the same community, through books, notebooks, a lock for the office door, and other miscellaneous school supplies that they need.

On a side note, our school also just purchased new desks and chairs, and the old ones are being donated to Jorge Gayoso as well. So our school is definitely giving back to those in the community who are in need. Our elementary students did so well during this event, that I'm sure more events like this will come.

Tierra Nuestra

A few weeks ago, (I realize I am very behind in posting, bear with me, its been a rough/busy couple of weeks!) our fifth grade class had our big overnight trip to an estancia out in the campo. There is a non-profit foundation called Fundacion Tierra Nuestra that goes around to different schools in Asuncion and the neighboring suburbs and teaches the kids about ecology, the environment, and different ways to care for the earth. This fundacion raises money by having camping trips for schools that have a money. Our kids pay money (almost $100) to spend two days camping in a bunk type setting with different counselors doing all sorts of activities. I fully support the idea and I think its a great way for the fundacion to raise money while getting our students out of the city and realizing that there are different things to do instead of watching TV. In fact, our students were not allowed to bring any electronics with them on the trip, except for a camera.
We traveled by bus for almost 2 hours to get to the estancia. The location was absolutely beautiful, with a view of the Paraguayan hill in the background of the soccer field.
The fundacion had some excellent games and activities for the kids, including making instruments from recycled materials, making chipa (a bread made from mandioca flour), night games with scary stories, and free time to ride horses and play soccer.
It was a great way to spend some time with the students outside of the classroom and a test to my Spanish skills since the whole weekend was in Spanish! I was proud of myself when my American students were asking me to translate for them the scary story, because usually, its the other way around!

Halloween Part II- The Festival

The festival begins at quarter past 5, with the kids all excited and dressed in their wonderful costumes. It contains a magic show for the kids, a parade, trick or treating in the classrooms and then games. This year, my 5th graders had a special presentation for the school, a Thriller dance, which they did twice- once for the students, once for the parents during the parade.

My teaching partner Tim and I.

The "Melrose Apartment Ladies", Chaya, Shauna and myself.
Jesse and I before the nighttime teacher party.

Halloween Part I- Decorations

Apparently, since our school is the American school, they have grasped onto some American ideas, one being Halloween. Last week, room mothers (yes, each classroom in the elementary have assigned room mothers to plan birthday parties and I'm not sure what else) started showing up to decorate the school for Halloween. Now, most people would assume that decorations might include a few streamers, some pumpkins, and some pictures of some kind. Well not these decorations. You could say, that Halloween has gotten a bit out of control. It almost appears to be a contest between the rooms to see who can decorate the most.

This is outside of my room.

In front of the office.

These decorations do little for the education of the kids and do a lot for exciting the students. It makes me a little bit sad to think about the amount of time and money spent on our school's decorations when there is so much poverty still around us.

They also decorated for the Halloween festival that happened after school on Friday. I didn't take pictures of the decorations there, but they were quite a sight.

Folklore Day

A few weeks ago, the elementary school has their Folklore Day. Folklore day here is somewhat similar to the Dia Tipico's that we had in Honduras, but it did have some differences. To start, a little history is needed to understand Paraguayan schooling. For most people in the country, Spanish is not their first language, Guarani is. Guarani is the name of the traditional indians that lived in Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina when the Spanish took over.

Outside of the big cities, Guarani is the main language of the country. Jesse and I hear Guarani being spoken almost daily by our guard and our maid. However, during the 1930's and 40's, Guarani was viewed as an inferior language, and therefore was banned in the nation's schools. Sometime in the 1970's (my dates may be a bit off) the government realized what a diservice it was doing to its youth, and now, every student has to take a Guarani class as part of their education. It is still viewed as a campesino language, a poor person's langauge, so many of our students don't value the language or its culture.

Fast forward to today, and as a part of the elementary school Guarani program at our school, they have a Folklore Day. This is where each grade level is taught a traditional dance and they wear traditional clothing as well. The girls wear traditional colored skirts, and wear fake hair braids to give the illusion of long hair. The boys wore gaucho clothing with a traditional belt, and the 5th grade boys also got to carry a guompa (my spelling may be off) to simulate a machete to harvest crops with.

The celebration is held for the parents to come and watch, with announcements made in three languages- Guarani, Spanish, and English. As it is the 5th graders last year dancing for Folklore Day, they got to do an extra dance to celebrate. Teachers were also asked to participate, although for my first year, I chose to sit out and just observe the celebration.

School Concert

Every year, the school tries to bring in a musical group from somewhere around the world to bring culture to the students. This year, the group brought in was from Germany, and they played Boogie Woogie music. I was originally thinking something along the lines of "The Wiggles" from the Disney channel, but actually, the music was a mix of blues and jazz. The groups was really quite good and they got my elementary students up dancing.

Dia Del Nino

In Paraguay, they celebrate the holiday "Dia del Nino" which is day of the children. They celebrate the children that during the wars, sacrificed themselves for their country. The holiday is celebrated in Honduras also. This year, the students were treated to a Disney type play. Here are some pictures of the play.
The kids got a real kick out of the actor on the left. He played a very good villain.
Snow White is Blanca Nieve in Spanish, and the villain kept calling her Blanca Vaca which means White Cow.
The evil villain played the Beast too. It was very entertaining for me to see all the students getting into the play, from 4-K to 5th graders. And I got to practice my Spanish during the play.

First Days of School

The first two and a 1/2 days of school are done and I have survived (Jesse will have to speak for himself later!). I have 24 students, most of whom are Paraguayan, but I do have some embassy students as well. My schedule is very similar to what I had in Honduras (the first year-not the second) and I am enjoying the energy of the students. My kids look like babies compared to what I had two months ago. It also feels good to be back in an elementary classroom, and all the technical things that elementary teachers have to do.

Here is part of my classroom. The school is set up similarly to the school in Honduras, with outdoor covered walkways between sections of the school, with trees and plants everywhere. The whole school shares a cafeteria and library, and there is no teacher's lounge or workroom. Overall, I like it so far. Ask me again in a few months!

Former Students

Today, there was a basketball game at school and it was my current students against my former students. I have randomly run into two of my former students earlier in the year, but today, I saw 6 of my former students. Even though they are the same age as my current students, it amazes me how much older they look compared to what I remember them being. They wanted to joke around, and they brought up some of the sillier moments of my first year teaching, and also reminded me of some of the mistakes that I made. Thankfully, students don't really realize those too much! I had a really good group of students last year, and they reminded me of the good times I had. They, of course, asked me which school I like better (since I switched from the tiny, sister campus to the main one), and told me that they missed my jokes. They have changed so much already, one commented on his lack of a girlfriend, then proceeded to ask me my age and phone number.

My former students have had a very challenging year. Last year, one of the students had cancer, and left halfway through the year to get treatment. This year, another student got kidnapped for 5 1/2 weeks, and then the principal of the school got shot. When I asked them how everything was going, they said it was good, and that everyone is okay. They all have a really good spirit around them and look towards the positive side.

As another year ends, I wonder how often my current students will look back and remember me. My students from last year, from talking to other teachers, talk about me often and generally with good will. I am looking forward to the move that Jesse and I will be taking in a few short months and returning to 5th grade, but I will remember my fifth grade class very fondly, and hope that someday, I'll have a class like them again. They were a really good group of students for a first year teacher to have.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Situation: class is over, and one of my students, slightly angry with me for giving him a detention, is begging and pleading with me to take it away. His two friends are around him, laughing at his antics, when one of the friends asks me, "Miss, do you hate Jose?" I reply yes. "Miss, do you hate me?" Yes. "Miss, do you hate everybody?" Yes. "Even people from the church?" Yes, I tell him. "Miss, are you a NUDIST?" No. I am laughing too hard right now to say anything else. The other two students are laughing hysterically as well. He starts blubbering out, "Miss,Miss, I didn't mean nudist. I said Jewish. Are you a Jewish?" His friends walked him out of the classroom laughing.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Since last weekend was Valentine's Day, and since 6th grade girls love romantic stuff, some of my students asked me what Mr. N was getting or planning for me for the day. I told them nothing, we were just going to Tela. One of my students replied, "but Miss, he's a bad boyfriend. A woman has to get roses on Valentine's Day." This started a conversation on Mr. N's and my relationship. Since I choose not discuss our relationship with the students, they sometimes come up with their own ideas. However, as I tried to stop the conversation from continuing, one sweet, helplessly romantic sixth grade girl asked me, "Miss, one question. He's so tall. Do you have to jump to kiss him?" Priceless.

Asilo de Ancianos

This past week, I went on a field trip with my 6th graders to an asilo de ancianos- or a nursing home. This is not our typical idea of a nursing home- elderly people wearing a cable knit sweater, sitting in their wheelchairs in the living room knitting or playing checkers, looking at pictures of their grandkids. These people, for the majority, have been dropped off their children or relatives because they could no longer take care of them or afford to feed them. Many of the elderly were barefoot, with deformed feet after years of abuse, and senile. Some of them had wheelchairs that had been donated from the states, others had walkers or canes. Their common areas were outside, with a thatched roof over their heads, and dirt for a floor. Each adult had a twin sized bed and a three drawer nightstand as their only personal space. And these beds and nightstands were in a room with 30 plus other beds and nightstands.

The students were instructed to bring with them a bag of non-perishable food items to give to the elderly people. They were very happy to have it. This center is not a state funded facility, those don't really exist in Honduras, so it mainly runs on donations from the wealthy people in the community or from charities in the U.S. In December, the center has plenty of food, however January and February are lean months there. Some were eating their Pringles and Jello snackpack immediately upon receiving, while others were storing them away. There was one man who had dropped his cookie on the ground and was picking the crumbs off of the floor to eat them. I did hear stories of some of the elderly people stealing food from others that couldn't walk or protect their food supply.

A lot of parents came with us, and they brought with them a chicken rice dinner with dinner rolls for the residents. The children served a plate of food to each resident and then sat down and ate with them. Many of my students were telling me that they couldn't really understand what some of the residents were telling them, because they had problems with their gums, jaws, or teeth. There was a Red Cross station there, but no medical supplies that I could see of, except a makeshift catheter- a gallon jug carried around by the person with the tube coming out of the bottom of their shorts into the jug.

I'm extremely glad that my students were able to have this opportunity and that I was able to come with them. It was the most depressing thing that I think I have seen so far in Honduras. My students behaved very admirably; sitting and chatting with the residents, buying some of the goods that they had made in their spare time. I live in a developping country, but I don't see the true extent of what that means very often. This two hour field trip re-opened my eyes to the circumstances in which many people here have to endure, and I feel incredibly greatful to have the type of life that I am living.

Animales in mi aula parte II

So last week, I needed a pencil. I keep the pencils in my desk drawer. I open the desk drawer, and there is a small furry creature in my drawer. I, of course, freak out, slam the drawer shut, and race to the office to tell my story. Miriam (7th grade science teacher) joined me and we returned to my room and small rodent. We opened both desk drawers-no mouse. However, the mouse had been making a nice, cute, little home in my second drawer with the carbon copy paper. As we move the drawers again, the mouse was hiding under the three hole punch and proceeded to race all over my room and out the door. I really have had enough of these animals in my classroom.

Gotta Love the Way Things Work

So, I had left Honduras last year not expecting to be a returning, 2nd year teacher at EIS. So when I left last June, I handed in my cell phone, my keys, and my residency card to the HR department. Upon my re-arrival here in September, I was told that my case is "unique" and that I'll need to register again with Immigration just like a first year teacher would.

Approximately two weeks ago, I received a knock on my classroom door. It was Alex, telling me that he could cover my class, but I had to head down to the library and get fingerprinted in order to get my renewal residency card, since my old one, the one that I had turned in, was expiring soon. The HR department called me a week later, requesting my residency card, since they needed it to give to Immigration for the renewal card to be processed. I told them that I don't have it, I turned it in, in June. Ok, they would look around for it.

Today, I got the joyous honor of going to the police station to report my residency card stolen. Since the HR department lost my card, Immigration can't issue me a new one without first collecting the old one. And since HR doesn't have my old one to give to Immigration, I had to report it stolen, in order to get the police report to give to Immigration to get my renewal residency card. Yes this is how the system works. You can't just "lose" something here. There are five to six steps for everything. To add excitement to this wonderful event, I had the guy who drives us to school every day, Arturo, as my trusty translator and helper in the police station. This becomes a problem since Arturo doesn't speak any English, sometimes I don't think he's speaking Spanish. Now the problem with reporting it stolen, is that I had to say that it was stolen yesterday, because all thefts have to be reported within 24 hours. So if it actually had gotten stolen way back in July, and someone had been using it for the past three months (highly unlikely), there could potentially be a problem. However, this is Honduras. They won't even look for the "theif." Needless to say, I had a wonderful morning hanging out around the police station with a guy who I really can't understand, nor who could actually help me say anything to the police officer.

On another note, last night, three other wonderful ladies and myself went out to dinner; a ladies out on the town for dinner and cocktails kind of evening; when we started commenting on how it doesn't seem like crazy things are happening to us, like they did last year. Last year had the crazy episodes of my shoe getting stolen in the movie theater, Caitlin losing her sandals in the flooded market, Jesse getting two door knobs put on his door so he was required to use both hands to open his door, and other such nonsense. That's when it dawned on us; its not that the crazy things aren't happening, its just that we're so used to them that they don't seem crazy anymore. Our faucet getting completely broken off by the maid, and neither one of us really noticing or caring; Jesse drawing a picture of where we live for the cable company since there are no addresses; getting our fingerprints taken again because fingerprints change from year to year; getting pedicures at a salon/ tatoo parlor; the potholes in the road getting filled in with sand during the rainy season; and etc. Its just Honduras, and it doesn't seem all that strange anymore.

Conference in Tegucigalpa

This past weekend, four hard working teacher from EIS middle school joined teachers from the other divisions to attend a teacher's conference in Honduras' capital- Tegucigalpa. We left school early on Thursday, which one of my students was very unhappy about.

Five extremely cramped hours, and only one short stop later, we arrived in Tegucigalpa. The best part of the weekend, was the hotel where we stayed- the Mariott!!! Jesse and I were on the 7th floor with an amazing view of the city.

The thing about Teguc is that it actually feels like a big city, with tall skycrapers, and houses built into the surrounding moutainside. The climate in Teguc is also a lot cooler. We wore sweatshirts and jackets most of the time, while some native Tegucians were wearing mittens and scarves. The premise of the conference was teachers sharing what they do in their classroom with other teachers. The problem was that there wasn't a lot of seminars for middle school or high school. I had plenty to go to, but Jesse, Alex, and Caitlin had a little bit more trouble. Caitlin and I did go to the only art related seminar entitled: Green Art. The synopsis of this seminar stated that they were using recycled items to create art work. What we actually did was create cookie cutter art projects using paper plates and construction paper.
I really felt like I used a lot of recycled goods; can't you see the recycled newspaper in my turkey?

Caitlin is very proud of her turkey. Since Caitlin teaches art, this seminar was hard for her, because this isn't "green" art!

Overall, I learned a couple of things from the weekend, which Ximena (middle school principal) said is all that we can ask for; learning a few things at each conference we attend. The best part of the weekend was the hotel room, which included a king sized bed. Jesse actually fit in it. Amazing!