If I were to choose one sound to describe the last month, it would probably be ¨mehhhh,¨ or any similar sound that signifies a mix of indifference and laziness. October is usually the rainy month in Costa Rica, and by rainy, I mean the hardest rain you´ve ever seen, every day. Since the country is basically subjected to Noah-level rains for thirty days, I´m pretty sure they adjust their schedules to have as little work as possible in the month of October. This year however, as I´ve been told by the Ticos, is different. A mix of global warming and the El Niño climate phenomenon (which, for those of you who don´t habla español, means... the niño) has caused October to be relatively mild. It still is raining a good majority of the days, but it hasn´t been of the usual torrential variety. The problem is, nobody knew this would happen when they made the schedule, so our school has basically been a joke over the past four weeks. I usually have a four day work week. The past four weeks: 2 days, 2 days, 3 days, 0 days. While such a schedule looks awesome, I long ago became vacationed-out, especially when I have a lot more material I want to cover with the end of classes coming up in about a month. This upcoming week is finally looking to be a full one, but exams are coming up, which invariably means that at least some of my classes will be cancelled.
I took a good chunk of my free week to head to Bocas del Toro, Panama. Bocas is a set of islands just over the border that is a prime stop on the ¨Gringo Trail,¨ or the key vacation spots for the 20 to 30 year old backpackers who make their way through Central America. I needed to leave Costa Rica for three days to get an extension on my visa, as it expires on December 31st and my flight home isn´t until January 5th. Just in case you´re wondering, it´s reallllly easy to border hop, but considering that the official border is a sketchy old train bridge with dozens of ways to fall to your death to the river below, why would you ever want to do such a thing? I´m now back in Costa Rica, completely over-ready (is that a word?) to head back to Boruca, eat nothing but rice and beans, speak Spanish, take cold showers, and chase chickens out of my classroom.
Messages and e-mails are always appreciated, especially at this late point in the year! Until next time...
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Mmmm pictures
There's been a lot going on in the past twenty or so days since I've updated. Unfortunately, as some might have heard, the internet has basically stopped working in Boruca. Every once in a while, there'll be a good enough connection to load up and read a few e-mails, but almost never enough to actually send anything back or be online for more than a minute at a time. At this point in the year, though, I'm pretty much over my American internet ways, and the couple of minutes every few days is good enough. (This does not apply to weekends away at places with wireless internet, where I go crazy downloading anything that will entertain me for the following two weeks.)
As far as school news goes, we've just started up a school project to improve basically anything we can think of. I can usually follow these meetings but not chime in too much, but this time the teachers took the time to ask me what I though could be done better. I'm not about to use this space to rail against the educational practices of Costa Rica, so let's just say that I gave them a few pointers on how I would run things differently. Within an hour or so, we had eight points to improve upon - including the schedule, types of instruction in the classroom, communication with parents, use of technology and the new library, and ways to promote more reading and creative writing. Each task was split up between the teachers, and I helped (/pretty much did everything) on most of the projects. I had the schedule to myself, and came up with one for next year that gives the kids more consistent hours at the school, English class every day, a space in the day for extra help/projects/acto civicos, and ends the day for most teachers almost two hours earlier. (And don't worry, I didn't take away any of the kids' recreos) Since most of the ideas that I shared are pretty much foreign to Costa Rican education, I probably have a ton of work ahead of me to get this all going... but the teachers and my director were pretty excited about it, so it's a good start.
I mentioned in my last post that Independence Day was coming up. We had two days off of school, the 14th and 15th, in order to celebrate. The 14th is dedicated to lighting a torch in a nearby community, having the kids run up and down the mountains in 95 degree weather to deliver said torch to another community, then having the directors advise the kids that the best way to rehydrate is to drink coffee. This was a fun time. We even set my "most people in a pickup truck" record for the year, when we fit in 25 students and staff in order to drive to Bella Vista, our neighboring town. The night of the 14th was dance presentation/lamp contest/parade with the lamps lit up. If you're wondering if overzealous parents exist in Costa Rica, your answer is 'yes.' There were definitely some 4 year olds in the lamp contest with lamps made of intricately carved balsa wood.
The 15th is the actual independence day, and we celbrated with a big parade that made a loop through the town. This parade definitely had the lowest spectator/participant ratio in the history of parades, but the kids still loved it. I was at the front with my group of flag-bearers, but I still managed to take about 200 pictures. Here are some favs:
Alannis is ready with the torch.
Yup. No way she made that.
Kid stole my sunglasses. (This is the same kid who once scratched me, looking to uncover my browner, non-white skin. We're buds.)
The two dance teams from the colegio battle it out in an epic "Worst Outfit Ever" contest.
The rest of October is a bit of a joke as far as actual school goes. October is traditionally the month where it pours down rain Noah-style, so I think they schedule a ton of meetings and days off to avoid the double whammy of working in what amounts to a monsoon. In any event, we have two days off this week, the following Monday off, and then three days off two weeks after that. I need to get an extension on my time in Costa Rica to stay for New Years, so I'll be heading to Panama or Nicaragua for one of those trips.
About time to check out of the room and head to the beach one last time. We're hoping to catch the Pats game (or any football) before we head back to the pueblos again. Until next time...
As far as school news goes, we've just started up a school project to improve basically anything we can think of. I can usually follow these meetings but not chime in too much, but this time the teachers took the time to ask me what I though could be done better. I'm not about to use this space to rail against the educational practices of Costa Rica, so let's just say that I gave them a few pointers on how I would run things differently. Within an hour or so, we had eight points to improve upon - including the schedule, types of instruction in the classroom, communication with parents, use of technology and the new library, and ways to promote more reading and creative writing. Each task was split up between the teachers, and I helped (/pretty much did everything) on most of the projects. I had the schedule to myself, and came up with one for next year that gives the kids more consistent hours at the school, English class every day, a space in the day for extra help/projects/acto civicos, and ends the day for most teachers almost two hours earlier. (And don't worry, I didn't take away any of the kids' recreos) Since most of the ideas that I shared are pretty much foreign to Costa Rican education, I probably have a ton of work ahead of me to get this all going... but the teachers and my director were pretty excited about it, so it's a good start.
I mentioned in my last post that Independence Day was coming up. We had two days off of school, the 14th and 15th, in order to celebrate. The 14th is dedicated to lighting a torch in a nearby community, having the kids run up and down the mountains in 95 degree weather to deliver said torch to another community, then having the directors advise the kids that the best way to rehydrate is to drink coffee. This was a fun time. We even set my "most people in a pickup truck" record for the year, when we fit in 25 students and staff in order to drive to Bella Vista, our neighboring town. The night of the 14th was dance presentation/lamp contest/parade with the lamps lit up. If you're wondering if overzealous parents exist in Costa Rica, your answer is 'yes.' There were definitely some 4 year olds in the lamp contest with lamps made of intricately carved balsa wood.
The 15th is the actual independence day, and we celbrated with a big parade that made a loop through the town. This parade definitely had the lowest spectator/participant ratio in the history of parades, but the kids still loved it. I was at the front with my group of flag-bearers, but I still managed to take about 200 pictures. Here are some favs:
Alannis is ready with the torch.
Yup. No way she made that.
Kid stole my sunglasses. (This is the same kid who once scratched me, looking to uncover my browner, non-white skin. We're buds.)
The two dance teams from the colegio battle it out in an epic "Worst Outfit Ever" contest.The rest of October is a bit of a joke as far as actual school goes. October is traditionally the month where it pours down rain Noah-style, so I think they schedule a ton of meetings and days off to avoid the double whammy of working in what amounts to a monsoon. In any event, we have two days off this week, the following Monday off, and then three days off two weeks after that. I need to get an extension on my time in Costa Rica to stay for New Years, so I'll be heading to Panama or Nicaragua for one of those trips.
About time to check out of the room and head to the beach one last time. We're hoping to catch the Pats game (or any football) before we head back to the pueblos again. Until next time...
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