Bat Man

A ver…
I feel like we have gone from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds. But this is good because school is about to start and then we will be even busier!
What we have going on right now: We are co-teaching some summer school classes M-F for the students that failed their English class last year. This has been great because it is giving us a chance to see how our counterparts function and to practice some ideas with small class sizes. (Before we start teaching rooms of 45-50 kids….)
We are each co-teaching one University level English class on Sundays. This has also been really good, though Matt has had some tough lessons---ie. the future perfect and the future perfect progressive----I will have eaten gallo pinto every day for 5 months by next week./ I will have been studying Spanish for 4 years by 2012. Now, explain that to a class of non-native speakers (-: Matt did a great job.
We gave a couple free community classes to the kiddos in our community---in an abandoned Casino----the sign is still up—it says “Casino Atlantic City” but really it is now just an abandoned building. The owner lets us use it for free. These classes were really fun, and the kids took it pretty seriously---they left during a break on the second day to buy notebooks (we were not going to make them take notes). And it was fun to see the shocked look on people’s faces when we told them it was free and all they had to do was show up. One of my counterparts helped out with this and that is great, because maybe she will continue the class next summer and the summer after even after we are gone (ie. SUSTAINABLE).
Annnnd tonight we are meeting with a group of adults that already speak some English who are interested in forming a possible conversation group. But we still do not know exactly what levels they all have or where or when we will meet…..
****Ok so it is later and that meeting was SUPER!!! Matt and I show up not knowing what to expect and the guy who organized it has chairs set up out back on his patio—about 8 people are there in the chairs quiet and waiting for us---there were all there BEFORE 6pm. (This is sort of insane for a Nica function). He had a whiteboard already set up facing the class and whiteboard markers. He also had a jug of water, some coca cola and crackers for everyone. Ummm wow! We introduced ourselves and then met the group---most of whom are related somehow---mostly adults between 29-40 years old. The guy who organized the group lived in the States for over a year and took an English course there---he speaks really well already---the others don’t have the same experience but they are all SUPER motivated. They seemed sort of disappointed that we don’t have any books or anything to like that to guide the course, but we told them we would come up with a program based on their specific interests=some more work!
Annnnd Matt’s counterpart has started his community English classes on Tues and Thurs nights from 5-8pm again---we are thinking of supporting these groups too.
I admit, I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of keeping all this up when actual school starts next week, but we’ll just have to see what happens and take it a day at a time. We may have to make some choices and say no to a few things….
STORY OF THE MONTH time
NIGHT OF THE BATS
We recently spent the night out in a communidad—more like out on the farm—with my counterpart and one of her friends/family. It takes us about an hour to get there. Their house sits off the road and right on the river, making it an ideal place to go for a swim (- : Plus the family is super kind hearted and easy to talk to---We had a normal day of eating rice and beans and tortillas and coffee, swimming in the river, eating more rice and beans and tortillas and coffee, and then we watched a baseball game on TV—It is the championship series. Ok, nothing too out of the ordinary---we go to bed and about 20 minutes after laying down this sound starts----I am thinking “what in the world is that?” It sounded like a wind turbine or an industrial fan. I could feel movements of air over my face and see shadows dancing all over the room. Finally it hits—the house is full of bats! Ohhhhh. I spent most of the night thinking how I needed to get up and use the latrine but was too afraid of crashing with the bats!
Funny thing is, no one else seemed to think this was the slightest bit abnormal and no one mentioned it to us before we went to bed. But when I later asked my counterpart if she heard the bats at night, she said “well yeah, of course”. (silly gringos).
I will leave it there. For now, we are waiting for the electricity to come back on and thinking of going down to the river to do our laundry…..
Sending lots of love to everyone!