So you want to know about work...
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2005
1
19
40
Trip End
Ongoing
Cayambe,
Ecuador
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
After three months of living across the river I could use a bit of family indeed. However I do see the potential of things coming together nicely in the next few months. Right now I switch time between Mondaña public school (equivalent K-8 where I ¨teach¨ English with another volunteer to 6 classes of 30 and 3 classes of 5) and the private Yachana High school where I live with a total of 70 students
Man on Canoe
. Next month I will be breaking into what really interests me, Community Banking, where members of these small banks can provide loans to other members and eventually provide themselves with other opportunities in small business. My counterpart, FUNEDESIN, has been assisting dozens of these types of projects for many years now, but as they are getting out of this sector of development in the upcoming months, I hope to be able to pick up and carry on where these groups along the Napo River need me.I have needed much patience for the teaching however so perhaps it is good that I didn't jump into all of the projects at once. There is a huge difference between the two schools as the public school receives no real funding from the government. What was the hardest thing to get used to is how the students at Mondaña have to carry there desks from room to room, the teachers have no chalk to write with, the classrooms themselves are ´slabbed´ together with wood and the class that I teach English in looks like a chicken coupe if you can imagine that. It is filthy and really helps in providing the vintage Peace Corps experience as I teach in these surroundings.
Perhaps these surroundings are the reason why the students are so disorganized. I now understand some of the moods that my classmates and I forced on our teachers during my own schooling..
Rainbow over the River
. but if I can say there was a great sense of classroom-organization of our school system thanks to kindergarten lessons of raising your hand, single file lines, hands to yourself, face the front, no hats, no sunglasses, no eating, etc... in this fiscally-ignored region of an already underachieving country, there is no such sense.I don't think that the school itself has any set of rules and if so they are not followed nor are they posted. I soon found this fact, along with the administrators and faculty, as the reason that my classes went on like this: students come in, some in pairs carrying tables, and some would go back to the other classroom to get their seats. After about 5 minutes when every one was in the class chatting I would have to quiet them down by yelling over their voices, and thanks to a few years of football, this process only takes a few minutes. I would then kindly, in my coarse voice, ask them to take off their backpacks (which they have apparently become accustomed to sitting in their chairs with them on) and take out a notebook and pencil, a novel idea for a classroom setting to all of my students. After they finished taking their time of standing back up, taking off and opening up their backpacks to pull out these materials, I would then start acting as police officer for the next 30 of the 45 minutes allotted to me: moving kids around, asking the girls to quit their giggling, telling kids to face the front, and one time physically taking off the hat and sunglasses from my 8th grade clone, Clever (yes, I am paying for it Mrs. Bacon).
In the last month things have been better. I have three basic class rules for my Mondaña classes which have helped me... and I have realized that even as a Peace Corps Volunteer turned teacher turned probation officer, I will not always be the best friend that I mistakenly imagined myself being as I was envisioning my service in Tucson and Kenai.
In Yachana High School is where some interesting things lie ahead. As my only superstition is in not stating what has yet to happen, I will say that I am in the process of working out a nice USAID grant of a few thousands of dollars to start a T-Shirt business for the students to sell them to the tourists who come through; therefore, feeding the community bank which I also plan on assisting the students in the organization of. I also help out with English, lead the students in health discussions, and am the teacher of Computation where the high school has just received 4 of the 10 laptops which are powered by solar energy and receive internet by satellite... infringing on some of the digital divide with tens of thousands of dollars, for better or worse. And for a quick insight into this, teaching home-row, 3rd grade computer class for my generation in the states, has been beyond basic and very uncomfortable for them up to this point.
Okay... Pphewww... so for those who have wrote me and asked what my work really entails, or if I am even working, the honest answer would be, kind of... I would be slightly dishonest if I left out the hours that I spend reading, thinking of home, taking my daily jog with my slowly developing running club, rock jumping into the Napo River, and sometimes allowing the thoughts of what is next after this adventure to take a hold of me.
Overall, this is what is going on in my speck of jungle and my little contribution of this huge, sometimes scary project by FUNEDESIN during these first, freakishly quick three months as a volunteer.
