Class Begins!!!

Started with actual students today after a week and a half of in service meetings. It was a relief. I will be teaching English to all students at Libertad grades 7-12 next week. Today I had only two groups, tomorrow three more. This week is starting slowly with half days for students and full days for teachers. We started our day with prayer and ended it with prayer. I can only hope that all this prayer makes for a better working environment than what I experienced last year. Students and school culture are very different from Mission. What this cultural difference means as far as my role as teacher remains to be seen. Less money here is evident here at Libertad, but better manners also seemed evident today. We shall see.....

Surrounded by Widows

We had our first dinner party on our large patio tonight with Mel and Anna. They have entertained us so often over the past year it was nice to finally entertain for them. Mel told us about the new real estate project he is developing in Cabo for a gay clientele. We cooked seafood pasta and a nice salad. Greg and Brenda stopped over unexpectedly and I had bought a cake for Greg's birthday so it all turned out unexpectedly well! We had had our friend, Mary Ellen, over for dinner also this week so we are connecting with our friends here again and it feels very good.

I realized today that the important people in my work life here this year are all widows. Rosie, my boss, is a widow. The owner of the school, Elsa, is a widow with six young children. My team-mate Patty is a widow of 20 years. I got to work today and no one was there except for Katy, the recent high school graduate from Chicago (not a widow) who is taking a gap year before she starts college. She had come to San Jose three years ago during her spring break with her middle school class to paint classrooms at Libertad. I told her we should go out to breakfast at the French Cafe a block away and we did. She is having the usual culture shock, loneliness and adverse reaction to the extreme heat. When we returned to school a few people were around, including my team-mate Patty, the rest being on Mexican time. Patty and I spent the morning telling each other our life stories. She has had a rough one. Widowed at 38, husband an alcoholic. She raised her two daughters alone and now works two jobs. One of her grandsons is severely disabled. She teaches each day from 7:30 in the morning until eight at night. She is two years older than I am. Made me think twice about complaining that I am too old to be teaching full time.

The air con repair guys came back today as we had been without air for two days. The $50 repair job did not last too long. It is working beautifully again and there was no charge. We hope to get to the beach this weekend. Our maid who comes every Friday, Herlinda, did all my ironing today as well as the cleaning so I can have a little fun this weekend with no guilt. Have decide not to do any major school planning until I see what my groups look like next week. I was stressed out about having no class lists or plans and developed a major headache, of course. I came home today from school, had two Excedrin and a mild tranquilizer and felt fine in 20 minutes and have not looked back. I have been trying to adopt the Mexican approach to life and just relax. It is a hard thing for me to do.

Estuary burning!

Last night, as we watched from our balcony, a huge fire raged in the estuary. We have had no rain and the temps are 99 to 100 every day, so a fire was not unexpected. The palm trees were going up like flaming torches and the sky was full of smoke. Our neighbor Greg stopped over after it had been raging for an hour and asked us if we had called the fire department. I said I could not believe the fire department in town could have missed such a blaze although we did not hear any sirens. He went back to his condo and called them, telling us later no one had called it in. It raged on into the darkness along the beach and about nine p.m. the fire began to move across the estuary towards us. The fire was red hot in the night sky, beautiful but rather scary especially when it started to move away from the beach and towards us. About ten p.m. it died out completely and I felt safe going to bed. We had seen a brief fire in the estuary last May that was short lived and contained to a small area. This time it was a huge area. I guess they just have to let the fire burn not being able to get the fire trucks into a swamp. I don't really know and will have to get more information about this from someone who knows. We are having a little birthday party for Greg tonight here at the condo and our friend Mel is coming and Mel knows everything so I will ask him about it.

I took the day off today so we could go to the beach but we are here waiting for the air con repair guys. Yes, it broke down again. What can on really expect from a $50 repair bill after all? We have been waiting for two days for them to show up. We know all about Mexican time by now of course. You must learn that when they say they will be out on a certain day and time they do not really mean it. They just do not want to make you unhappy telling you the truth: they have no idea when they will actually come. However, we do seem to be acclimating to the heat better, this has been good training for a classroom without air.

My boss Rosie gave me curriculum materials yesterday I can use to begin writing my curriculum. Harry pointed out that this is the perfect situation for me because when a school gives me the curriculum I have to use I always hate it, never use it and develop my own from pieces I find that suit my students needs better. It is more work but much more satisfying and meaningful. The Internet is such a good source nowadays for materials and my dear friend Linda is sending Libertad her collection of tutoring materials, so with all this stuff, I should be ok. I met a guy yesterday at school who teaches an hour of math everyday and I am thinking maybe I could teach fewer hours each day. I still love teaching but the whole day everyday thing is extremely draining at my age. I figure I will just put it out there into the universe and see what happens!! (I don't know how I suddenly started using italics but I can't seem to go back into regular print) Probably a sign I should stop writing.

From Miss to Maestra

Had a rather intellectual day today, as these sort of days go from my experience, at our teacher workshop. The primary teachers went on their merry way to put up their bulletin boards and those of us teaching secondaria stayed together. The topic of today's study and discussion was UNESCO's goal of decreasing the world's illiteracy rate 50% by 2015. The goal is particularly aimed at the high level of illiteracy in women. We were put in small groups and each group had to read and prepare a PowerPoint presentation from the material provided to us by the Mexican government. (the group that got me was polite, but I am sure not happy about getting a Spanish illiterate) Nevertheless what happened was quite impressive. Teachers took turns getting up to speak to the group with much style and professionalism. The directora de secondaria kept calling people either maestra or maestro rather than my name. At Mission it always bothered me that the female teachers were referred to as Miss and the male teachers were called the diminutive for professor: Profe. I found this offensive in two ways. Men somehow seemed more respected by the use of their title and the term Miss I found dismissive in comparison. What was wrong with "profa?" A title I never heard used. This shift in school culture and the formality here at Libertad I do not really understand at this point. Tomorrow the topic continues and we have to study up at home tonight. I just happened to take my little dictionary computer with me today and it helped a lot. My brain gets very tired trying to understand the gist of what is being said, but there are more moments when I float along understanding completely. I find that I speak more Spanish in this setting so far because fewer people seem interested in using their English when speaking to me. My team-mate Patty, whose English is excellent, came right out yesterday and asked me why I didn't speak Spanish. I didn't really have a good answer for her.

Miracles, small and large

Had my own little miracle today, one I had been hoping would happen for months. Betty, our condo owner's husband stopped by with a friend today to pick up some medication that had been left in the frig. The friend, Irma, did not speak English and she asked if I spoke Spanish, I said no, but I could understand ok. Well, she was off and running and I was able to follow her and sort of lost consciousness of the language we were using. I found I was speaking Spanish and was getting along pretty well. We actually conducted most of our conversation with Betty's husband, who is from Madrid, and their friend, Irma, in Spanish, switching over occassionally when our brains got tired. I had gone down to have breakfast earlier this morning at our corner cafe and had spoken Spanish quite well with the waitress. Harry was not there to rely on and that was good. I had known my comprehension was improving of late and I may have inadvertently jumped over a small hurdle of fear today. I was enjoying the conversations so much I found that I had to do more than understand, I had to contribute. Maybe because my comprehension is better I am not quite so afraid to speak. Or maybe now that I understand what people are saying most of the time, being the extrovert, I cannot just smile and nod. I find that if I pause and wait for the native speaker to correct me when I cannot conjugate the verb properly things go pretty well. It was so much fun I could hardly stand it!!! I have to just get up my courage and do more hurdle jumping. Of course I could also study up on conjugating verbs properly.

The weather today is another small miracle. The temps are in the low 90's instead of the low 100's and the humidity is down. We actually turned off the air con. I am sitting on our small balcony with the sun shinning, (this is Cabo after all) a slight breeze blowing and not a cloud in the sky. I do find this weather addicting. I like the way you can count on the sunshine everyday here. (unless of course you are having a tropical storm or hurricane) Last week was unbearable weather wise, sunshine or not, and it will probably be unbearable tomorrow, but I am just going to enjoy the moment here on my little porch.

Harry is still battling the kidney stone but feels it is moving and not stuck, so that is good. I just hope we do not end up in the ER like last time. We do not know how to navigate for medical help here very well yet. We may be learning to do that shortly however if things get worse. I am on the second to the last treatment Baja Doctor Gloria prescribed last May and am feeling physically much improved. The treatment has been a bit grueling at times but I persisted. I guess when one is not well for so long you really do not know what if feels like to be healthy. Now I am beginning to feel healthy. Since miracles seem to be my topic today I would say this is a big miracle.

The picture is one I wanted to post from San Miguel. It is the little donkey I wrote about in one of my blogs. She (?) was the one leading the group of singing people down the street one night in San Miguel and I wished I had had my camera to take a picture. Well she showed up a couple days later for a musical event in the town square and I was able to photograph her. She was wearing a different outfit but I would have recognized her anywhere!

mexico tries to enter the 21st century

The priest went a little long today at our teacher workshop, 4 hours long to be exact. We had a short break of about 10 minutes. I was not comprehending well today and probably not trying hard to understand so it was a very long, long, long, morning. American teachers would never stand for having to sit and listen for that period of time. These Mexican teachers took it all in stride. At one point, after about an hour into the lecture, we stopped to sing a few religious songs and of course there were the prayers to break up the monotony. My boss, Rosie, interrupted to ask the priest if he would bless our attempt to use more modern educational techniques this school year. The Mexican government is promoting change to try and bring Mexican education into the 21st century. She said it has been her experience that if someone with higher authority does not give the ok for change it traditionally does not happen in this culture. The priest seemed to balk at her request. I think he responded with saying that it is not Mexico's goal to be more like the US. Rosie is an American and it shows in her direct approach to things. I feel she is looking to me to implement some of my American teaching techniques. I don't think I will bother to ask the priest for his blessing, however. I included a photo of a view of inside the courtyard area at Libertad. I tried to find a pleasant area because much of it is not real pleasant.

Harry and I finally have a "two butt" kitchen, meaning we can both be in the kitchen cooking at the same time. It is our dream come true and I have included a picture. We are tempermentally unsuited to bumping into each other when trying to cook, being astrological fixed signs and all.

Had an interesting first day at Libertad. It is culturally a very different scene. Upon entering the building the first thing I noticed was a mission statement and a vision statement on the wall. At Mission the first thing you notice in the main office are Carla's certificates from the cooperative learning courses she has taken in the states. (she was a teacher college drop-out so I guess these pieces of paper were very meaningful to her) We were on Mexican time today, the workshop scheduled for 8:30 started at 9:30. I actually felt sort of stupid because I arrived on time. I must be acclimating to the culture. The meeting began with a prayer from our very own priest. Carla was the inspirational inspiration at Mission. Now we have a direct pipeline to the real inspiration. The school setting is humble at best. It takes up an entire city block but it is meager. There is a courtyard inside and the classrooms face the courtyard. My boss Rosie told me that many parents this year are having a hard time paying for school tuition and books. I do not know what this will mean for my salary which I have not discussed with the owner of the school who resides in San Diego. I think I will be grateful to have a pension from the states. Living on what they will probably pay me would not be possible. I like my boss, Rosie, I find her abstract random and probably an ENFP Myers Briggs. See my facebook page to take the test for yourself. (thanks Pete!) I decided to go back for a second day after a Russian immigrant teacher told me that she knows how it is to be a new commer and to call her if I need support. Lastly, my boss Rosie speaks even worse Spanish than I do. She comprehends better, but her pronunciation is terrible. I love her.