On Tuesday we had class a little bit later so me and Bri went and explored town a little bit. We were trying to go shopping, but we ended up just walking around and stopping in a few shops. It was really interesting. There is a lot more American influence here than I thought there was. Nosotras went in a couple boutiques and saw clothes similar to those sold in the US. We had class and the normal schedule.
Wednesday was the first day that we went to the local Elementary escuela. We had planned two lessons, one on letter writing and another on leaves. We got to the school and Emmanuel, the man who came and spoke on Monday, told us that instead of being in the upper grades English classes and 1st grade we would be in Kindergarten and in the special needs class. This threw us off...but I went into the special needs class and it made me realize even more how hard is was for me to communicate. I read to a little boy in Espanol y English. He had a hard time hearing me and he was speaking really low...about halfway through me reading/trying to talk to him he put in his hearing aids...that was the problem! lol Sierra (one of our chaperones from CPI) sat with me and helped me talk to him in Spanish. It was a good experience, but it was extremely difficult. After the elementary school we went to Spanish class and then there were a couple members of a local indigenous tribe called the Baruka who gave us a little presentation on their community and explained to us that they live on a reservation and artisan work is one of their main forms of income. They were selling bags, coinpurses, masks, drums, etc. Last night we went via public bus to the mall in Heredia. That was another intersante experience. The bus was extremely full (standing room only). When we got to the mall we headed straight to the food court. There was a Pizza Hut, Mcdonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Quiznos, and a few other places I didn't recognize. I got pizza and lemonade...my first "American" meal in a week! We shopped around the mall for a while...we got followed around in each store we went into. I have never had this happen to me before so I felt really uncomfortable. I don't know if they thought we would steal because A) we are Americans, B) we are young, C) because our backpacks or D) all of the above! I bought a couple gifts and we headed back (on an even fuller bus) back to San Juaquin and some of my friends walked me home on there way!
A group of the special needs class at snack time!
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| The little boy I worked with! |
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| Some of the masks the Baruka were selling! |
Today we went back to the school and did as planned! I taught the leaf lesson to 2 small groups, which was very interesting. We were in the 6th grade English class and were supposed to be teaching the students in English, but the girls in my first group didn't know very much English at all and my lack of Espanol didn't make things any easier. We got through it and I think they learned something! The second group I taught the leaf lesson to knew a lot more English and by that point I knew some of the words in Spanish because I had already taught the lesson once! This was a great experience! It was awesome to see how receptive these students were to us because we were from the US and to see how excited they were to speak English to us and learn words in English! I also helped teach a lesson on letter writing in a 3rd grade class which was my favorite! Dr. Powell had some letters written by students in Estados Unidos and we read those aloud to the students and then had them write a letter back. There were five of us teaching this lesson and it was a good thing! Between all of our Spanish we got the ideas across and we put some sentence starters on the board and walked around and helped the students individually! I loved this! For one thing it was in English and since we were teaching and English lesson I knew a lot more Spanish words that were helpful. The science lesson was more difficult because of the vocabulary used. The students wrote some great letters! We then had snack provided by the school and met the principal. We went back to CPI had UNCW class, Spanish classes, and then went by the supermarcado and came on and spent some time talking to my papa tico in Spanish, today is his 67th birthday! When he told me that all I could say is wow and they all thought it was hilarious!
A group of boys who loved having their picture taken!
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| My small group for the second leaf lesson! |
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| My small group for the first leaf lesson! |
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| Some of the 3rd graders we taught the letter lesson to! |
Tomorrow we head to a small village full of immigrants from Nicaragua. We will be helping out in a Montessori school (started by an American woman who was in the Peace Corps.) and visiting a few places around that area. It is a very impoverished area and I am really anxious to see what it will be like. I have never been exposed to anything like that so I know it will be an awesome experience! Hasta Luego!
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