Sunday, October 31, 2010

And then there was rain..

Last week it rained gatos (cats) here, which is the equivalent of raining cats and dogs. The south of Costa Rica literally saw nothing but rain from Tuesday until Saturday. Flooding, landslides, roads closed, the works. Due to the condition of the roads, buses werent running, meaning no school. I guess you could compare that with a snow day in the states.. although not quite as fun because you dont really go out and play in the rain. Oh, and Comte reached a record low of 75 degrees last week. I guess thats what happens after 4 days of rain and no sun. It was quite exciting.

Things have been moving along here in Comte. 2 weeks ago I had my first class of basic english class for adults. In the class there are 17, 15 adults and 2 students from the high school. The first 4 classes were a lot of fun. The group gets along well and everyone is eager to learn english. We started with the alphabet, numbers and basic classroom directions and items. We are currently working on the verb "to be" and basic conversations. I think that the hardest part for my students will be the pronunciation. I never really thought about how difficult it is for people learning english as a foreign language, because the sound of a word can often be different from the way it is written. But so far everything has gone smoothly. I was actually really nervous about starting classes, mainly because Id never taught a formal class before and I am teaching adults. I was feeling this way up until the very start of the first class, but the minute I started speaking in front of the group, I felt right at home. About a month back we had a t-shirt design contest for Peace Corps Costa Rica shirts for the volunteers. A t-shirt design that one of the volunteers created that I liked read, "Peace Corps Costa Rica: Creating Unofficial English Teachers Since 1963." I think that sounds about right.

Along with english classes, work has been good. I am still teaching computer classes in the grade school and enjoying my time spent with the kids. Something that I enjoy about the classes is seeing their progress between week 1 and week 10. We are currently at the point where I can give them small projects using Microsoft Encarta, Word and Paint. Last week we discussed endangered species, which we researched in Microsoft Encarta.

Other work-related things I have been doing involve english coversation classes with the english teachers at the grade school and high school, helping the cooperative at the high school create a website and working with the recycling committee of the grade school to plan and implement a recycling project in the schools and community. I am still hoping to find a group of community members interested in working on a microentreprenuial project or a community credit union. I have presented in 2 community meetings, but nothing has yet to come of that. Even though it is not in my project goals, I think an important project I work on will end up being the recycling project.

So on another note, time flies. I have currently been in Costa Rica for 8 months, but it certainly doesnt feel like it. It makes me realize that I need to take advantage of my time here and the opportunities that this experience presents. Up to this point, I havent had much of an opportunity to travel. Since being in site, almost every month there has been a Peace Corps related activity in San Jose. I am hoping to travel more next year.

I think that sums up things for now. Heading back to Ohio in December for Christmas and looking forward to seeing everyone. Love and miss you all. Pura vida.

1 comment:

  1. I'm impressed that, having no teaching degree, you're having success and fun with your teaching duties. You go, girl!

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