Well I am now an experienced bilingual teacher as I have an entire week under my belt. The week of school definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it was good. It’s a tricky balance of figuring out how much instruction to give in English and how much to give in broken Spanish. Almost all of the kids know very little to no English. The feedback I got after the first day was that nobody understood what was going on. I know it’s just going to take time. Luckily, the kids really want to learn, though they have some hurdles to overcome. They have severe gaps in their educational backgrounds, and they don’t seem to be accustomed to high expectations. My Honduran co-teacher is really helpful. She is only 19 and is studying education at a university on the weekends. Everyday she walks about a mile to school and then walks back after school with other teachers. She lives in the nearby town where we all go to Mass on Sundays if it doesn’t rain too much on Saturday. We have to walk or drive across a river to get to the town, and if the river is too big, we’re stuck so we have a prayer service on the grounds.
Last weekend, there was a soccer tournament in the nearest town. It was pretty serious business. There were even official Amigos de Jesus jerseys. Both of our teams of the younger boys and the teenage boys were victorious so it was a good day. After dinner last night, I played soccer with several of the little boys ranging from about 6 to 9-year-olds. Yes, that is the level of my soccer skills. Plus, these little guys are really good already! Like I said, it's really serious here. First of all, I had to ask them if I could play. They gracefully agreed, and then proceeded to yell a bunch of complicated rules at me in Spanish. This wasn’t just an ordinary game of soccer. It took me about 10 minutes to figure it all out, but I eventually got it. They were so cute and mighty running up and down the field in their bare feet. I see bright futures for them in their futbol endeavors here.
One of the awesome things I get to do this year is have a caseload of kids with whom I check in periodically. I began that process today with an 11-year-old boy who is quiet and kind of hangs out on the fringes. I taught him how to play Crazy 8s and Go Fish. He learned quickly, and we played for a good hour. It was really cool for me to spend some time one-on-one with a kid, and I think he really enjoyed the individual attention too. With ninety-plus kids here, just about everything is shared. Sometimes its hard for me to figure out how to share time, attention, and activities with everybody so I really enjoyed my time with him.
The other volunteers here are doing amazing things in different roles. Click on this link to read an amazing story written by one of the other volunteers about one of our newest kids: http://www.amigosdejesusblog.blogspot.com/
Your little friend Jaime is a doll. God bless her!
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