Yes, I am illegally stealing internet from the 5 star hotel across the street from my house. Cocles is absolutely amazing though. Besides for the extreme heat and humidity every day... and the 3405843837 mosquito bites, the strange lizards that I have found in my bed on more than one occasion, the fact that I eat ants with every meal, and that we only have running water 6 hours of the day... but really, I LOVE IT HERE! (this is not sarcasm). If someone told me I was going to be living in these conditions, I probably would have refused to come. It is amazing, though, how quickly I could adjust to these little things. On the up side, from my backyard, I literally take 10 steps to reach the sand of the beautiful beach. Since it is the off-season for tourists, there is rarely anyone there. I have been going for long walks along the beach every morning and have not been disturbed by a single person. Also, I have been swimming every afternoon with maybe 5-10 other people on the entire beach strip. How amazing.
A sort of funny story, my host mother here forgot that I was coming on Saturday because they just don't bother to keep track of the days here... I guess there is no need. My host mom runs a laundry business for the hotel across the street, my host dad works there, and my host sister is a 15 year old who is so obsessed with the fact that I have my own computer. The house is really small. We do not have any furniture in the living room besides some lawn chairs. There is no dining room table in the house, I thought this was weird... but then I found out that you just don't go into the house during the day because it is so hot. We eat all our meals and do pretty much everything outside. Another interesting fact is that we have had someone new sleep over at our house each night. Apparently they have all been "uncled, aunts, or cousins" but everyone has been super nice. I am still not really sure who all actually lives in the house... but there is one bedroom with like 12 mattresses.
Apparently since she forgot that I was coming, my mom forgot to talk to the school and tell them that I was coming to help out. So, she decided we should just walk down there and introduce me on Monday morning. Sure enough, we walked down there on Monday morning, I told them I wanted to help out. They asked me if I knew English, then told me I would be teaching English. In fact, they had me start that very morning. I just did some introduction get-to-know eachother games because I had nothing prepared. I could not believe I could just walk in there and they would let me teach for 3 hours! They way the school is set up is that there is levels 1-6, but it is basically equivalent to our kindergarten to 8th grade. The upper 3 levels have classes from 7-11:30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then afternoon classes on Tuesday and Thursday. The lower 3 levels have the opposite schedule. Because of this, I only have to teach in the mornings from 7-11:30... with the older kids on Mon-Wed-Fri and the younger kids on Tues-Thurs. So far I have done the alphabet and basic English introductions. I am really enjoying it. I asked the kids what other themes they are interested in and will be teaching about jobs, locations, physical descriptions, and animals in the upcoming classes.
Because I only teach in the mornings, I have all afternoon to do whatever I want. I have been going to the beach for a couple of hours everyday! Not only because it is relaxing... but also because it is so unbearably hot that I need to just be in the water most of the day. Beyond that, I have basically just been preparing lesson plans, reading a lot, and getting to know my family. I think this weekend I have found some worthy opponents to play basketball with! All in all, I am really enjoying this trip, but it is a big change from the life I am accustomed to. This is the first time I have really had internet or used my computer. I have only used a phone once. I am able to live without running water and have already had 2 days without power. All of these things seemed impossible to me before, but now I am kind of proud that I can handle this lifestyle. Hopefully I'll be tan when I'm done with this!
Until next time! =)
No comments:
Post a Comment