Thursday, March 10, 2011

adelante

So, among schedule changes and general chaos being part of the first month of school, our community suffered a loss yesterday. We had a professor lose his younger brother---twenty something--in a bicycle accident. I was pulled out of class to visit the house, view the body, and see the mother crying for her lost child. Intense. Yes. Surreal. Yes. All the kids from the high school eventually made their way over to view the body and show support for the family. Is this strange? I am not sure anymore....(i feel this way a lot lately)....I just know it was heartbreaking and it feels odd to be part of something this intimate.

Other news, we moved into our own place, well sort of our own place. I lovingly refer to it as the garage....see pics on FB. My mom says it looks like living in a strip mall...we share it with a little store that is connected, so there are other people about during the day...our giant garage door opens right up to the street, so if we want air we keep it open and the entire world is pretty much at our house...it is also on the same street as one of our high schools, so alllll the kids pass by. but we love it. there is some uncertainty whether or not we will be able to keep it, but we hope so. we are lucky enough to get running water 2xs a day, an hour in the early early morning and an hour in the afternoon. my best day is when i catch the water and i get a cold shower with running water!!!

also, we will be returning to masaya, where we had our training, for a week of intense Spanish classes and an exam at the end, well, an oral interview, to see how our language ability is coming along. I am very excited to take a little break from our site, but at the same time, sad because establishing a school routine and getting to know the kids will be further hindered.

I am tired. and full of thoughts. happy mostly and busy mostly. Miss you guys as always ALLWAYS. please keep the emails, comments, cards, letters, phone calls comin´. every one means more than you know!!!

LOVE

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

aiy senor

The beginning of an era blog…aka beginning of the school year….
Rendida! Or worn out! Even though we don’t put in nearly as many teaching hours as our counterparts, I find myself well worn by the end of most days. Even though school has been “in session” for 2 weeks, the schedule is still changing and classes are still added and dropped….mainly because kids can still enroll until April……it’s fun (-: I have given up on everything making sense or ever staying the same, and am trying to focus on making myself consistent. (The one thing I can control).
In other news, there is a group of students visiting here from the states as part of a church group and tomorrow I will accompany them to a nearby community to look at a latrine project they have out there. Supposedly, I will also get to help translate some. The group is small but fantastic—and they have done a few things here already like paint the Casa Materna, hand out food bags, and play with the neighborhood kids.
My schedule for now is something like this
Monday- take a bus at 10am—arrive in nearby community to teach at 11am…wait an hour for class to start ( unfortunately there is no other bus I can take…) Teach from 12-415 or 445, this is uncertain still. Take bus back at 430 or 5---I am home by around 530. I had my first go at this today and I am super tired.
Tuesday—my one free day!!!! For now….except tomorrow I will be with the church group from 1-530 or so….and maybe will be starting up another English community group in the afternoon…..LAUNDRY day!
Weds—I teach from 7-12 at my other school that is actually in my town. I try to plan for our adult community English class on Weds. afternoon.
Thursday—something like teach from 7-10 30 in town, then I meet and co-plan with a professor for a couple hours for the University class I co-teach
Friday—teach 8-10:30, often there are teacher meetings that take up the last couple hours of class and I go to those to until 12. Then I co-plan with a different professor for 2-4 hours. THEN Matt and I have our adult community English class from 6-8pm. Usually when Friday night rolls around I am beat.
Saturday- Mornings I have free for now! I try to go to the market/stock up on household things we may need/check my email. Then in the afternoon I spend a couple hours co=planning with my third counterpart.
Sunday- Co-teach in the University from 10-12ish….matt has a class from 12-2, sometimes I stay to observe.
So that, for now, is sort of what my week looks like. I try to do my laundry every other day, since things just take a little longer by hand etc (-: and maybe cook some meals in advance when I have a gap in time, since cooking takes awhile too. (the danger there is that the power will go out and all that food will go bad!!!)
Our sitemate leaves soon, and we will miss her dearly!!!! They are going to send a new person in her place, but we won’t meet them until they arrive in the end of March.

I feel like I could go on quite a bit but my mind is already wandering…..feel free to shoot us any questions

SCRATCH THE ABOVE SCHEDULE!!! Today is 2 days later, and EVERYTHING has changed again—ie. classes eliminated, new classes formed, new schedules for everyone---me at school 4 hours early….taking buses places and sitting for hours, not being able to teach etc. I am learning to be more flexible than I ever thought was possible for a human being!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!