Yes, we changed Flat Stanley to become Spanish, so now he is Flaquito Estanley! (Thank you Sean and Auntie Paula!) At Semillas, we started this program where every Thursday we would do an activity, one with the big kids, and one with the little kids, concerning a different country in North, Central, or South America. We made a huge map on poster board, and every week when we do a country, we color in the country and write in the name of the country on the big map. We´ve done six or seven countries so far, and we´re moving bottom to top, so we started with Argentina and we´ll move all the way up through Canada (eventually).
Auntie Paula had sent me Flat Stanley in the mail a few weeks ago, and we all decided that it would be a really fun thing to try and have the kids make their own, and then we´ll send them in one envelope to different countries all over the world. Caitlin has a friend doing AmeriCorps in Massachusetts, so we´re thinking that the Flaquito Estanleys will travel to her middle school class first. From there, they´ll travel to Tanzania, where Kipp has a good friend (who we all met through orientation) doing JVI. Then, they´ll head to South Korea, where Jon has a friend doing the Peace Corps. All these friends are working with kids in one way or another, so we thought it would be really fun for our kids to have some type of connection or communication with kids in other countries all over the world. Each Semillas kid put their name, age, and Duran, Ecuador on the back of their Flat Stanley. Each kid in the other countries will get matched up with a certain Flat Stanley and write their name, age, and hometown. They´ll also take a picture with themselves and their Flat Stanleys, so that by the time we get these back (who knows how long this could take!), each kid at Semillas will get their Flat Stanley back with names from kids in three other countries! And, we´ll be getting pictures via email, so we can print them out and show the kids.
Teaching the seventh graders has had its ups and downs over the past few weeks, and although I´m currently on an up, I´m only just recovering from some large bumps and kinks in the road. The kids exam scores were more or less what I expected them to be; some kids scored very well, others not so great, and a lot of kids fell somewhere in between. A mother who was quite angry with me for the grade I gave her son (and that´s putting it lightly) took the liberty of telling me I was not a real teacher and needed to learn the Ecuadorian grading system; needless to say that made me want to crawl into a hole. I don´t say this to paint a bad picture of Ecuadorian parents or the people here in general. They truly are wonderful people and for the grand majority they´ve been so extremely welcoming and friendly. I just have to remember that there are crazy parents everywhere, in every country; it´s a fact of life, and when it comes down to it, parents are really just fighting for extra points for their kids in order to secure a better opportunity for their child. This was kind of hard to come out of with a positive outlook, but I think I´ve finally found it, and teaching really has been hilarious as much as it´s been challenging. I just discovered how much my students like translating (why they like this I have no idea), and it might be because it´s a good exercise that is challenging enough but not too difficult to overwhelm them. They have a test this week...we´ll see how it goes!
One of our neighbors, Jenny and Oscar, just had a baby! The baby´s name is Maria Sarita and she is so incredibly tiny and already home from the hospital. She has three older brothers to watch out for her, so she´s in good hands. We spent some time at their house yesterday, and it was so great to see the baby! Jenny wants us to speak only English to the baby haha so maybe it´ll turn out bilingual with all the volunteers that are coming and going all the time.
Things are definitely going well, and I´m starting to feel more and more at home here. I remember the volunteers from last year saying that by the time we feel comfortable, we´ll have to leave, and I´m starting to really realize how true that is. We´ve definitely adjusted a lot since we got here (when I was scared out of my mind just to ride busses alone!) but we´re still learning so much every day. I really am happy here, and we find ways to laugh at each other all the time. We try not to take things too seriously; getting too serious or upset or stressed just isn´t worth the energy. And it´s funny because you never know what will bring you out of a bad or upset mood. Sometimes all you need is a kid at Semillas to offer you a hug instead of hanging all over you and trying to rub chalk all over your face to paint you like a Geisha (true story...although on this particular day this ¨face painting¨made me laugh so hard I may or may not have peed my pants a little bit...). Sometimes, it´s just your roommates suggesting we watch Star Wars (true story, the Arbolito house loves Star Wars...all six of us). Sometimes, it´s the fact that you wait five instead of thirty minutes for the bus to come. So instead of just being sad or upset, we´re trying to keep this outlook where we never know when the next little thing will make us feel better. That way, we´re paying attention to the little things that go right, and then by the end of the day, we´re in a much better place than we were earlier. Oh, and this is really hard to do and sometimes it just feels like it´s not possible hhaha but typing it out makes me realize that it´s definitely worth the effort.
ps I actually passed my driving test, so now I can (almost) effectively drive stick shift. Thank you uncle steve for putting up with me and teaching me this summer!
Again, i´ll try and keep this updated! Happy Thanksgiving (a little premature but let´s be honest, I won´t update this before Thanksgiving...)
Paz, Amor, y Ecuador <3
