Friday, March 13, 2009

Me? A Teacher? Who decided that?

Hello my deprived fans. I have been in my site for officially 2 months now and I can honestly say that I am happy to be there. My site is pretty big in scope and divided into several sectors. To get from the sector I live in to the center of the community, I hike about 15 minutes up and down hills. I realize that I haven´t done a great job of hanging out in the other sectors as much as I should but that´s what I´ll be working on over the next year and 9 months, right?

So to get familar with the kids in the community before school starts (Panamanian school year is March-December but for some reason the government pushed the start date to April this year), to be productive and pass time, and to help my name spread throughout the community, I started a short 3 week English course. In the mornings for 2 hours I teach 6-10 yr olds and in the afternoon I teach 11-17 yr olds. My class in the morning averages over 30 kids and the afternoon class averages to 20 students per class.

In latin american culture, its generally acceptable to show up late. If you tell someone to show up at 8am, showing up at 8:45 is pretty normal. They made sure to warn us about this during training since it directly applied to Panamanian culture. I´ll tell you what, these kids are really excited about English class because for my 9am class, I see kids passing my house on the way to my class when I´m standing in my pajamas outside brushing my teeth at 8:20! Its not unusual for some kids to come to my house and hang out while I finish getting ready and then we walk to class together.
(Above) Here is a pic of my morning kiddos.

So although I didn´t come to Panama to teach English, its a great way to get integrated into the community and my original perspective on teaching still remains... not the profession for me :)

You may have noticed that I mentioned my house. Yes fans, I HAVE MOVED INTO MY OWN HOUSE! I won´t dare put photos up until it is properly decorated so you might have to wait until the next post to see it. Having my privacy back after 7 months of being without it is absolutely amazing. Until next time... chao!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Your class looks nothing like mine
back in Houston.

From Cheski
p.s. Are the Hills steep?

Unknown said...

Was the pig good?

from mina bina
p.s. do the kids have homework?

I hope to see you soon. I love you.
from: Lucy

Sarah and Jim said...

Hey there...my name is Jim and I was a PC volunteer (1999-2001) in Guanico Abajo, Los Santos...

Unknown said...

Sounds cool..can't wait to see your house! I like the whole being late but really being on time thing. We gotta get that thing going on in the states.

Elizabeth said...

So glad to hear things are moving along...especially with home situation! I really want to see pics soon!!!

BTW - I've called you like a million times and still have had no luck. I called you last Tuesday, Friday then again on Saturday...y nada.