Each week, we would plan out our teaching schedule on a whiteboard. Days of the week across the top; classes down the side. Teaching topic and which one of us was teaching it. Once the board was complete, Bex! took a picture of it for posterity's sake, we would each make our own planning notes from the board and start in on lesson plans. As the year went on, we got better and faster at it. Below is a video montage of all the board photos, accompanied by music from our friends Los Tigres de Ometepe playing their original song 'Ometepe'. This video represents ALL of our work here. You'll see one board that was half erased before we remembered to get a picture and a couple that we took of our notes because we forgot altogether. For the record, we taught a total of 927 classes through the year! Enjoy the video and the music!! Bex! and David
… no more students dirty looks!
After an entire school year of teaching here, we finished up all of our classes! Can I get a 'woot woot'! Thank you. Bex! had the great idea of ramping them down slowly, a couple each week, so that we could teach the last session of each group together. The plan worked terrifically, too. We sit them down over a three week period.
We'll go week by week here and hit the highlights.
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Week One Wrap: First class to end was our high schoolers. We showed up with some games and prizes, assuming we'd play some Hangman, Pictionary, Charades using vocabulary from the entire year. Well, they surprised us, bringing a cake, balloons and a big ol' bottle of Coke! We played games and listened to music and had a blast!
Mmmm… cake.
(clockwise from lower left) Ericks, Edar, Paulina, Kori, Jhony, Zacarias
(l-r) Priscila, Levis, Paulina, Kori
Marili and Profe
Priscila, Javier, Paulina
This class was probably our most challenging of the year. Attendance was hit or miss, although there were a handful that showed regularly; the students' experience with English varied greatly, with advanced beginners and true beginners in the same class. Varying degrees of maturity (theirs, not ours) were an issue at times, as well, with some kids coming just to hang out with their friends and with no intention of trying at all. We figured it out eventually and had some great classes with them but we also know we'd approach it differently if we had it to do again.
Best part of the night, though, was the speech they made - in English!!!
We truly love these kids and wish them the best of luck with their education in the future!!
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This was the week we also finished up our morning class. This class was unique - only two young ladies consistently showed up at the 7 AM class time. But as we've said before, if even one student shows up, we teach! These two made the class worthwhile for us. I am not a morning person but having this class to look forward to made getting up easyier. Good luck to Adele and Maria!!
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We administered an English test to our OBS first graders, a 'final exam' - some animals, emotion identification, Q&A. They all did great and we were very proud of them. I ran an activity with the kids and Bex! took them out one at a time for testing. All of the kids save one were oblivious to what was happening. Cute little Dulce snuck over to see what exactly Teacher Bex was doing and when she realized it was an English exam, she quietly took a whiteboard marker and wrote a warning to her classmates.
"Today there is an English test!" Seriously, Dulce will rule this country someday.
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This next 'last class of the year' wasn't expected, not this week anyway. We had been told that the bilingual school was having their last day on Thursday 4 December. As it turned out, this was actually the last day for the teachers to finish and submit grades. The last day for the kids was a week earlier - 27 November. Yikes! We weren't really ready for this but we made it work and it turned out great. Thank goodness we were informed ahead of time - by a 6 year old. Yeah. Remember Dulce, from just up the page a paragraph, the little girl who warned her classmates about the English test? She told us. Bex! was walking by her house on the way to teach one of our night classes and Dulce came out to inform/remind her that 'mañana es la ultima dia de escuela'. Tomorrow?! The last day!? We confirmed this with Esther. Sad, because we had some cool activities to do with the kids the last days. But… like we've done all year, we figured it out and had a great sendoff with cake and a piñata and lunch with the kids. We also gave the kindergarteners and 1st graders some gifts - crayons, coloring sheets, colored pencils, regular pencils, stickers.
Esther and Julia, the party planning committee.
The butterfly piñata filled with candy!
A couple of videos for you: The first is a little mashup of the kids and the unlucky piñata. You'll hear them shouting "Terminamos!" in unison. It means "We're done!" Very cute, right?!
This second clip is of my dear wife's first Nica piñata experience!!! The kids love it when we the adults get involved in stuff like this. If you want to know more about her previous piñata-ing, ask her Uncle Ted.
All the OBS kids enjoying their special lunch together!
We love all of the kids! Each of them has a place in our hearts and we will miss them all!
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Week Two Wrap: We had a high schooler who had to drop the regular class for personal reasons but we were able to find time to hold classes with him one-on-one twice a week. We finished Yasir's class and wished him luck. Hell, it was a bonus for him - he was one of the more advanced high school students so having one-on-one sessions gave him the opportunity to learn more than he would have in the regular class. After we finished his last class, I preached to him about staying in school, even though he was close to earning his certification as a guide. He is at the age where the need to help the family or simply the lure of money can take precedence over education. Yasir is much too smart and driven, and has a brighter future ahead if he gets his butt to university after finishing high school.
He resisted Dave's attempts to make him smile.
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And we also closed up the rancho on our evening youth class. This group has been amazing! In the beginning of the year, figuring out how to teach these kids was a struggle. Abilities and ages were all over the map and it was tough to plan. The roster settled in to an energetic group who attended regularly and were willing to try. And we figured out how best to teach them. Once these two things happened, this class was a pleasure to teach each week! I think in the beginning, we aimed a little too high, then a little too low. Once we hit our stride, it all clicked.
We had parting gifts for everyone and did an awesome Christmas vocabulary review via Hangman and Pictionary. As teachers, it's a huge win when students get their notebooks out to help them figure out puzzles and games. I know it sounds weird but we saw it all year: students will take notes but never flip back a few pages to refer to them. Odd. So we drilled them over the year, repeatedly, to 'use your notebooks' - and in the end they did!
We were playing Hangman using Christmas words and phrases, and once I put the blanks up, they would count the blanks and then look in their notebooks to find the word(s) that fit the spaces!! After a few rounds, I knew they knew it was all holiday stuff. So I threw them a curveball and put up 'Happy Halloween'. I almost had them, too, but rockstar Edwin figured it out and solved the puzzle! Argh! Foiled again!
(l-r) Edwin, Donaldo, Fanor, Bex!, Edgar, Keylin, Yasir (from HS class; he was hanging out because we taught this class at his family's house), Maria, Ashley
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Week Three Wrap: The third and final week of ramp down was for our two adult beginner groups. One class we've held all year, since we started waaaay back in February; the other class we started in August, when we realized there was enough demand to crank up another session.
We love both of these classes! They have come so far this year! The newer group received sort of a high level pass at basic grammar and verb tenses, a whole bunch of vocabulary and plenty of opportunity to use the language in dialogues, role plays and games. Plus a regular dose of homework on top!
The full year students, though, are our pride and joy. These adults came into class way back on 6 February and stuck with it all year long. They are all-stars, each and every one of them. They are able to have basic (or better) conversations in English and have worked hard all year to improve. It's hard to learn a new language as an adult. Trust me - I know! It's embarrassing to mess up, it's harder to find the time to attend classes. But this group was incredible. We are so proud of them!!
To cap off the year, we had both classes over to our house for a party. We taught them how to play Cornhole, enjoyed snacks and drinks, and just hung out together. We talked in English and Spanish, and had a great time together. We will miss these people very much.
Wilfredo and Luis David
Juriel and Alcides
(left side of board) Jairo and Wilfredo as Team Mystics; (right side) Berman and Alcides as Team Smaller
"See, it's an odd numbered Thursday, so Fizzbin rules apply and that's 7 points."
Berman, contemplating his Cornhole technique; Alcides and Profe.
A great time was had by all!
We had prizes for the winners along with pencils for everyone. We also strongly encouraged them to continue holding classes after we leave. We presented them with all of our resource books, full of plans, worksheets and instructions for continuing to work on Beginning English. And between them all, they are knowledgable enough to figure it out and keep moving forward.
We wish all of them, and all our students from the entire year, good luck!! +++++ +++++ +++++
And so the metaphorical sun sets on this chapter of our adventures.
It's time for even more randomness, as we approach the end of our stay in the wonderful community of Mérida!
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You've read many posts that talked about the drought here. Yes, we had consistent rain in November, finally. But when families are counting on rain to grow their food, timing is everything. We know people who were able to harvest some rice - one of the primary staples here. Beans have been in short supply, though. We buy them when we can but asking around the village netted few results. People just didn't have them to spare, which is understandable.
We do quite a bit of shopping at the store located at Rancho Merida - it's the store we refer to as Wal-Mart. They have a little bit of everything, if you look hard enough. Except beans. We would ask each time we went in: 'Tiene frijoles crudo?' 'No, lo siento.' was getting to be the standard answer. One day, we wrapped up our shopping and were heading out the door when Mercedes, the owner, stopped us and asked us to wait a few minutes. Imagine our excitement when she went to her house and returned with beans for us!! She had beans!
She set them on the counter, we got out our wallets and asked how much we owed her. We were giddy at the prospect of having beans again! Can you say gallopinto?! And then - Mercedes refused payment, saying these were a gift to us. Have we mentioned how generous this community is? We got home and weighed them - 4 pounds!!!
Once again - humbled beyond words.
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After their second stellar week of volunteering, we said goodbye to our Aussie friends, Tim and Tania. This dynamic duo was creative, fun and energetic and the children loved them so much. Heck, we did, too. We really hit it off with them. They foolishly invited us to visit them in Brisbane. Haha! Be careful what you wish for!!
On the last day, they presented the kids with gifts of crayons, stickers and coloring sheets. It was a play day, mostly!
Esneider and Tim compared their curly locks.
Many hugs were given!
The teachers gathered both classes together to have a farewell party for TnT. While we were waiting for the cake to be brought over from the kitchen, we entertained the kids. We had been working on emotions with them, primarily happy, sad, and mad. So I stood in front of the kids and Bex! would say an emotion and an animal, then I would act it out. "Happy frog!" "Sad cow!" "Mad chicken!" The kids - and the teachers - found it hilarious and I had a blast, too! I was running out of energy and Bex! was running out of animals, calling things like "Sad platypus!" so it was good the cake showed up!
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TnT did a little kayaking with our friend, Juriel, right before they left town. They stopped in to ask directions.
"Australia? Yeah, I know it. Let's see… if you head due west and veer slightly south, it's about 15,700 kilometers thataway."
On one of their last nights in town, we had them over for dinner and to play some Cornhole. Actually, it was originally to be 'beers and Cornhole', that is, until Jasmina (one of our OBS 1st graders) came by the house with her mother - who was selling nacatamales!!! We bought 4 and had a lovely dinner and took in the sunset! Great timing and we got hugs from one of our fave students.
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Before they left, Tim and Tania pitched in not just in the school. Tim and I helped these guys get their truck push started. I was keeping my head down so I didn't step in a hole and break an ankle. The truck lurched, blew black smoke, and we were exhausted. (Get it?)
There is no "i" in team… But there is an "i" in equipo.
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A while back we reported that our friend and the founder of Ometepe Bilingual School, Alvaro, had been in a bad car accident while on his way to Managua. We are happy to share that he is making a great recovery, getting around the hotel on crutches. Plus he's very proud of the weight he's lost!!
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The local fauna continues to be a regular part of our life in the village and at home.
A variety of owl moth, so named for it's owl's eye pattern. It has a 4"+ wing span.
All-you-can-eat straw buffet!
And, um, yeah - this bastard had to show up.
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Rain, rain, rain. Fortunately, it seems to let up when we're heading to/from classes. Lucky us! The paths and the road are a muddy, gooey mess but at least we're not getting soaked at the same time.
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While we drooled over Facebook pictures of Thanksgiving menu preparations back home, we had a fun crafts project with the kids! We made the ever-popular handprint turkeys! [Darrin 'Cuddlebuns' T. - I'm looking at you!]
Moises, the picture of calm and cool. And a turkey.
An extremely excited Osman! He exploded shortly after this picture.
Class mom, Dulce
Keneth did a great job!
A very proud Daren! You can see we had the 1st graders write 'gobble gobble!'
Dayana, hiding her dimples behind her artwork.
Gobble gobble!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ After the handprint art work classes were done we hit 'Wal-Mart' for some supplies. Mercedes and her crew were all there. She commented that they could hear the children making 'gobble gobble' sounds and asked what activity we were doing. So we pulled out the art supplies and made handprint turkeys with them!! Haha! I think it had been a few (!) years since they'd held a crayon. It was very fun and they could NOT stop giggling, laughing the entire time! (Googly eyes have that effect on people.)
Mercedes is not too sure what to make of this.
This is one reason the community tolerates loves us!
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And since it's such a good craft and being efficient teachers we like to recycle ideas, we taught Thanksgiving vocab and made handprint turkeys in our youth class, too. We'd shown them a picture of a real live turkey (taken in Mérida 1 year ago), so many students opted for realistic grays and blacks in their coloring. And there were googly eyes for all!
Deymar, Ricardo, Edwin
The artists' muses
Donaldo, Fanor, Ashly (who seemed embarrassed to be in the same picture with the two goofball boys)
A class full of turkeys
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A while back Juriel brought us some plantains. Not like a 'few in a bag' but an entire stalk of them. It would be like someone bringing you corn on the cob and handing you the entire cornstalk, ears of corn still attached. We love platanos and it worked out perfectly, with a few coming ripe every couple of days. After about 4 weeks, we just cooked up the last of them. Dee-lish!
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Kool kindergarteners.
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ We welcomed our last short-term volunteer of the year - Abena! From Germany, she had been traveling in Central America and was gracious enough to help out at OBS. She had scheduled two weeks with us but had to leave after one because she lost her glasses and was having issues with her contacts. Trust me when I say you don't want to be around 13 kindergartners or first graders and not be able to see. They will OWN you.
Roll call!
First graders giving goodbye hugs!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ There is a spot in our village where construction crews have been excavating, digging out an entire hillside to load dump trucks with dirt. This dirt is being dumped on the road, then graded and rolled. They are improving the road!! Remember, this is why we returned to Mérida, to teach English before the road improvements brought increased tourism!! While we haven't seen any paving yet (and probably won't) - at least the road will be smoother and more navigable which will bring more tourists! Hooray!
For now, it's just big piles making the road narrower and more dangerous!
When the road project first started, we hopped on the steel steeds to bike down the road toward Santa Cruz and took the right turn to take us to Balgüe. Our goal was to see where exactly the pavement ended and the dirt road began. We knew the road was paved to Balgüe, but just how much more past this expat haven did it run?
Ah, of course. The pavement ran all the way through Balgüe and ended just past the biggest, swankiest, fanciest, nicest compound/estate on the island. Methinks this is not what the World Bank had in mind when they provided the money to pave the road to the evacuation point, which isn't anywhere near Balgüe and is in fact on the opposite side of Volcán Maderas in San Ramon. But money is power so the good road followed the $$$$.
We biked back toward Balgüe to have lunch at Cafe Campestre - but they weren't opening for another hour. Our early start backfired, at least as far as having lunch was concerned. We then tried to buy tortillas, but the tortilleria didn't have any. Shucks. Lunch at home was just fine, of course!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ Teaching. It's what we do.
Our youth students used monsters to review body parts and numbers.
Our new adult students conducted a class survey to practice past tense yes-no questions.
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ And here are some of Dave's other jobs besides 'Teacher'...
Porch surfer
Model
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One measure of success in our teaching endeavor is when we see students playing with the English language, recognizing the patterns and experimenting with the vocabulary. We taught rhymes to our youth class, working on pronunciation and minimal pairs. One of our rock star youth students, Donaldo turned in his homework, which was matching up words that rhymed from a provided list and writing the sentence (for example) 'House rhymes with mouse.' On the bottom of his paper, he wrote in 'Donaldo rhymes with Ronaldo'. Haha!
Another example: Bex! taught past tense, having students ask 'What did you watch yesterday?'. The kids would answer with the verb in the past tense 'I watched Ojo por Ojo yesterday.' For the verb 'buy', Bex! provided some clothing vocabulary for the kids to use in their answers - a shirt, pants, shoes, a hat, etc. So, it went like this: 'What did you buy yesterday?' 'I bought a shirt yesterday.' But... these kids!! They started substituting other vocab we've taught them! 'I bought a motorcycle yesterday.' 'I bought a boat yesterday.' Then the ultimate answer from ace student Edwin - 'I bought two cars and a house yesterday. I am rich!'
This same class has also figured out how to replace verbs when asking future tense questions. We taught 'What are you going to do tomorrow?' with students responding with an activity in a sentence like 'I am going to fish tomorrow' or 'I am going to swim in the lake tomorrow'. Well, a few of these kids figured out - all on their own - that they could replace 'do' with any verb! Bex! was walking home after class with a few of them and they asked her 'What are you going to do tomorrow?' (They like to practice the new lessons on our walks home!) Then Donaldo surprised his teacher by asking her 'What are you going to eat tomorrow?' Wonderful! If you've ever taught, you'll realize what a huge achievement this is!!!
These are the cool kids - complete with English nicknames!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ How do we know the Christmas season is upon us? Festive Toña labels, of course!
Oh, and Tia Margarita hung up a string of colored lights around her order window.
We've seen Christmas decorations here and there, even a few artificial trees. The kids are excited for Papa Noel to come! It's the holiday season, whoop-dee-doo!!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ Christmas tree, ornament, stocking, Santa Claus, reindeer, candy cane, presents. Since the Christmas season had arrived, it was also time for Xmas themed English classes. At our youth class, we made Christmas trees and got lots of practice making requests: "Can I have three yellow ornaments, please?" "Thank you." Our students were rock stars with this new vocab, too. We taught as a team for the last day of class and started by playing hangman with these new words. Notebooks were whipped out, word lists consulted, letters counted. And, on the way home after class we were bid farewell with "Merry Christmas, teachers" by Ashley and Keylin as they sped by on the back of their dad's motorbike.
Donaldo - "Yes, Santa, I've been good this year"
Ashley - "Look, Santa, give me the presents and I won't kick you in the shin."
Ricardo - "How does Santa do it all in one night?"
Luis - "Ho ho ho!"
Edwin & Ashley - "Naughty or nice?"
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Not to be outdone in the 'awesome student' category, our OBS first graders nailed their English lesson on 'How old are you?' They were to answer in the target language 'I am ___ years old.' It was fun to watch their little brains, as they would say 'I am… (then they would count under their breath in Spanish but answer in English!) … six years old' Many of them didn't hesitate at all. And then WE were asked by THEM! Bex! answer with some number in the 20's (ahem) and I answered that I was 7, just like them.
The kids called me on it and I kept adding 10 years until I got up to 80+ years old, at which point they finally relented, agreeing that that was probably pretty close.
Grrr….
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Our friend Nora invited us to her home to have dinner with her son, Franklin (one of our kindergarteners) and her brother Luis. We had a great evening, with wonderful food and conversation. We brought Franklin some dot-to-dot coloring sheets and a new pencil. He dove right in, with help from Bex!
'How am I doing, Profe?'
He was so cute, too. He would draw the line connecting the next two numbers and look at Bex! each time to make sure he had it right. Draw a line, look at teacher, draw a line, look at teacher.
This night was also, sadly, the night of our last full moon on the island. As we walked home, the sky was clear and the moon backlit Volcán Maderas and the palm trees. And there were 1,000's of stars! So beautiful.
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ Visitors! Visitors! Visitors from Portland!!
Yep, we had a friend from Portland visit us here on Isla de Ometepe. Peter, along with his brother Andy and dad Gary, spent a few days in Mérida. It was a great time, getting caught up on hometown news and, well, just hearing about familiar places. They were kind enough to visit classes for interviews with our students. And we enjoyed dinner with them a couple of times. We shouted encouragement when they paddled to the Rio Istian. We had them over to play some Cornhole and watch the incredible sunset. Peter & Co. - Thanks for letting us show off our island!
Gary and Andy vying for the win.
Peter pulling out his patented powerhouse pelota pass.
At the volcano, turn right. You can't miss it.
No caimans spotted, but the kayakers returned happy (& with all their fingers and toes).
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Baseball is huge here. In fact, baseball rivals futbol (soccer) in popularity here in Nicaragua. Mérida has a team and they play not too far from our house. In fact, it's about a 3 minute walk. We've heard them playing before but had never gone to a game, always too busy prepping classes or teaching. But now that our teaching gig was wrapping up, we had time and so ventured over to take in a game. What a scene! I think all of Mérida was out rooting for their team! Vendors were selling pop, sno-cones, beer, vigaron. Families picnicked, kids ran around - just like any hometown baseball game back in the states.
And what a setting for a game, with a volcano in deep, deep right field!
While we were enjoying the game Yasir, a friend and high school student of ours, came by to say hi. Then he said (in English, thank you very much) 'My father would like to talk with you.' It was all very Godfather-like. We followed him over to where his dad, Luis, was standing, situated right behind home plate. Luis is also one of our students and a good friend, as well. We congratulated him on his new baby daughter, too!! It was a good visit, and Luis never moved from his spot, while people walked by to say hello and congratulate the proud papa! Don Luis was holding court while people paid their respects. ///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\
And speaking of the new baby, let's wrap up Loose Ends, Part II with a couple of pics of baby Rosita! I lobbied Luis and Rosibela to name the baby Davida - they graciously declined.
Bienvenida, Rosita!
I am here! Ta-da!!!
///// \\\\\ ///// \\\\\ Loose Ends, Part III coming at ya soon!
