English!

Well the first week of school does not actually mean there are classes here. Unfortunately, things are still a little unorganized. I went to the Instituto yesterday for the ´´official`` first day, but it was basically a large assembly introducing all the teachers and reading out loud what classes they will be teaching. There were speeches from the superintendent, principal, and vice principals. A priest also came and prayed. Fortunately I got to leave around 10am when they had a break. It was pretty boring.

I finally found out my counterparts´schedules today and we were able to talk about which classes I would be working with. I´m still trying to figure it all out because I´m not sure how many hours I should take. I was planning on just teaching 7th and 8th grade, but one of my counterparts teaches 7th and 8th, but the other teaches 8th and 9th (among other classes), so I will be working with 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. There are several sections of these classes though, so I need to work out my schedule to see which ones I´ll be teaching. It´s kind of weird the way they set up the sections here. They actually separate the students by their ability levels (not sure exactly how this is done). So, there is a 7A, 7B, 7C, 7D, and 7E. 5 sections of 7th grade and I bet you can just imagine how the 7E class is with all of the ´´low`` students together… I don´t like how they do this, but it´s country-wide. Anyway, I´m just glad to finally have the schedule so I can figure out what I´ll be doing. I arranged to meet with my counterparts Friday afternoon to plan with them for next week because they aren´t teaching this week. One of my counterparts said he was improvising and laughed. Hmm, I´m not sure that´s funny, but that´s just the way it goes.

On the better things…

Last night there was a concert in the central park and it was a group of gringos from Missouri on a mission trip. It was so fun to hear some familiar music (in English). I talked to some people in their group before the concert and I guess they´ve been coming to Nicaragua for a couple years now and they travel around and do concerts. It was neat and I´m glad they came to Boaco because not very many gringos come out here. As I sat down to listen to the music, a Nica asked me (in English) if I was going to sing, and I said no as I laughed a little. I guess it would make sense for him to assume that because I´m a gringa and there was a group of gringos here. We started talking and he realized that I spoke Spanish. He has a mariachi band and they travel around Nicaragua and he also spent 5 years travelling around the U.S. with his band so he speaks a pretty good amount of English. He was very friendly and introduced me to his family there. He said that his son wants to learn English too and he´s taking courses in the university. I told him that I would be starting a community English group and that I would contact them to let them know when that would be. He then invited me and Veronica (my counterpart´s daughter who was with me at the concert) to sit at a table at the restaurant in the park with him and his family. He bought us coffee and rosquillos (a cheese7corn biscuit type thing). They were so nice and it was getting pretty chilly so the coffee was perfect.

At the end of the concert, I was waiting around to talk to the gringos again and I saw some other white folks standing on the side. I went over and asked them if they were part of the group, but they were actually part of a group of doctors from Canada on a medical mission. They were very friendly and invited us to their hotel for some ice cream. They´re staying at the big hotel in Boaco on the side of a cliff that has a nightclub/bar on top with a great view. The other members of their group had already gone to bed, but we chatted with 5 of them and they invited us to come back tonight to go out to dinner with them. I´m excited! It was so nice to meet so many new people yesterday and I felt so good sharing what I´m doing and hearing about what the others are doing to serve Nicaraguans.