We teach our classes at three different locations during the week. Sundays, Tuesday, and Thursdays we teach two English classes at Compo Verde in the evening which is 3 km down our road. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we teach three classes, one English, one music, and one music class at Los Pinos which is right down our road. And two classes Tuesday and Thursdays in the mornings at Yerbos Buenas which is a ways down a nice bumpy dirt road. Every day Tara and I wake up and make breakfast, do dishes, and if we have time shower before we hop on our bikes and head to one of the schools.
Yerbos Buenas
The road to Yerbos Buenas is better now that they compacted it but still not wonderful. Our bikes are a little rickety but still seem to be in better condition than most of the bikes I have seen down here. One morning Tara and I made it to the school and while we were there, there was a huge down poor of rain. Mud, rain, and bikes do not mix. After walking and pushing our bikes through the mud, cleaning the mud from the tiers every 5-10 minutes so that the wheals will keep on turning, our fifteen to twenty minute ride turned into an hour and a half. I was so excited to see that the end of the road was a little bit harder and hopped on my bike just to get stuck in the mud and fall over. I was determined that bikes were supposed to be ridden and not pushed but after trying to ride the bike and falling over straight into the mud numerous times, I finally gave in and pushed the bike to the paved road. We were tired and very muddy, but glad to get back to the house. The classes started out a little tough at Yerbos Buenos because the age range in the classes were so big. The kids took a while to catch on but I see it in their faces every time we come to teach that they love the class and love it when we are there. The have picked up very well, and what we thought would be a hopeless class turned out to be amazing. The kids caught on and are rapidly learning more every day. It is so exciting to see the change right in front of our eyes.
Campo Verde
Our classes at Campo Verde ended up being to separate classes at the same time. Tara teaches one class which is an upper level English class, and I took the lower level English class. We ride our bikes there which is uphill both ways but it seems like a lot of the time we say we will bike next time and catch a moto into town. The class is fun to teach. It’s a little hectic because its not a school hour setting but its people from the community who want to learn English. Every class there are new people which makes it a little difficult to keep up a steady pace of learning. Its coming together slowly and should pull together nicely.
Los Pinos
Our class at Los Pinos is one of our favorite of the classes so far. The bike ride is short and the teachers are very dedicated and love what they do which has made our teaching experience very delightful. The teacher offered us to go to the zoo on their field trip last Friday. We agreed and were on our way. Tara seemed to be swarmed by all the girls holding her hands, arms, and legs most of the day. I hung back with the little boys and spent most of my time with them at the monkey, tiger, snake, and crocodile cages. After we went through the zoo and the museum, we ate lunch. One of the moms offered us food which we gladly took and ate most of. The park has this fun little playground. After we ate we spent a good hour or so on the playground playing and taking tons of pictures of them. They are all so cute. The playground was so much fun. It had all the old stuff like seesaws, merry-go-rounds and four big slides coming from this tall tower. We had a great day at the zoo and have tons of pictures to prove it.On another Friday, the professor offered us to join in on their physical education class. It sounded like a good idea but… They ended up doing these crazy drills in the middle of the afternoon. It was rather humorous. For them anyways. One of the drills we were in two lines, one of boys and one of girls and we had to run to the other side and go under the little boys legs then run back 20 times. Ha… I can barely get my body under that little boy with out him just sitting on me. After a few more drills similar to that one they decided to run. I started and then veered off to the side at a neighbors house and sipped lemonade and helped her son with his English homework. The kids and teachers at Los Pinos are so much fun to be around and I often see some of our students as we walk do the streets every day. They are so cute
Yerbos Buenas
The road to Yerbos Buenas is better now that they compacted it but still not wonderful. Our bikes are a little rickety but still seem to be in better condition than most of the bikes I have seen down here. One morning Tara and I made it to the school and while we were there, there was a huge down poor of rain. Mud, rain, and bikes do not mix. After walking and pushing our bikes through the mud, cleaning the mud from the tiers every 5-10 minutes so that the wheals will keep on turning, our fifteen to twenty minute ride turned into an hour and a half. I was so excited to see that the end of the road was a little bit harder and hopped on my bike just to get stuck in the mud and fall over. I was determined that bikes were supposed to be ridden and not pushed but after trying to ride the bike and falling over straight into the mud numerous times, I finally gave in and pushed the bike to the paved road. We were tired and very muddy, but glad to get back to the house. The classes started out a little tough at Yerbos Buenos because the age range in the classes were so big. The kids took a while to catch on but I see it in their faces every time we come to teach that they love the class and love it when we are there. The have picked up very well, and what we thought would be a hopeless class turned out to be amazing. The kids caught on and are rapidly learning more every day. It is so exciting to see the change right in front of our eyes.
Campo Verde
Our classes at Campo Verde ended up being to separate classes at the same time. Tara teaches one class which is an upper level English class, and I took the lower level English class. We ride our bikes there which is uphill both ways but it seems like a lot of the time we say we will bike next time and catch a moto into town. The class is fun to teach. It’s a little hectic because its not a school hour setting but its people from the community who want to learn English. Every class there are new people which makes it a little difficult to keep up a steady pace of learning. Its coming together slowly and should pull together nicely.
Los Pinos
Our class at Los Pinos is one of our favorite of the classes so far. The bike ride is short and the teachers are very dedicated and love what they do which has made our teaching experience very delightful. The teacher offered us to go to the zoo on their field trip last Friday. We agreed and were on our way. Tara seemed to be swarmed by all the girls holding her hands, arms, and legs most of the day. I hung back with the little boys and spent most of my time with them at the monkey, tiger, snake, and crocodile cages. After we went through the zoo and the museum, we ate lunch. One of the moms offered us food which we gladly took and ate most of. The park has this fun little playground. After we ate we spent a good hour or so on the playground playing and taking tons of pictures of them. They are all so cute. The playground was so much fun. It had all the old stuff like seesaws, merry-go-rounds and four big slides coming from this tall tower. We had a great day at the zoo and have tons of pictures to prove it.On another Friday, the professor offered us to join in on their physical education class. It sounded like a good idea but… They ended up doing these crazy drills in the middle of the afternoon. It was rather humorous. For them anyways. One of the drills we were in two lines, one of boys and one of girls and we had to run to the other side and go under the little boys legs then run back 20 times. Ha… I can barely get my body under that little boy with out him just sitting on me. After a few more drills similar to that one they decided to run. I started and then veered off to the side at a neighbors house and sipped lemonade and helped her son with his English homework. The kids and teachers at Los Pinos are so much fun to be around and I often see some of our students as we walk do the streets every day. They are so cute
One day we went to the zoo so i took a bunch of pictures of the kids before and after. They are just too cute!!!
this was a really mudy day. We left our school and it had just finished raining for our walking pleasure. We walked back pushing our bikes and walking bare foot.
1 comment:
Hey. I was there in the last group. I'm glad you guys are doing some teaching down there, that's awesome. Good luck with it all. Praying for you guys. Do me a favor and tell the kids from Los Pinos Hola.
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