first week thoughts

Thought Number 1- PE classes taught in English

One day last week when my class was outside with Weston during P.E., he was teaching them how to play "Red light, green light." One way that we are implementing English into the school is teaching classes in English, as opposed to having classes that teach English. Physical Education is one class that we decided would be appropriate to teach in English.

After using colored construction paper to show the colors red and green and what each color signified, he had them line up and yelled out in English if they were ready. Most at the kids starred back at him not having a clue what he was saying. However, one of my students, Sili, who knew a little English, and coincidentally the phrase "I am ready," stood in a position ready to run with a big smile on his face and yelled out the English phrase, "I am ready!"

Weston had to explain to the rest of the class that "ready" meant "listos." All the kids yelled out "Si!!" and he corrected them by saying "Yes!" While the class yelled this out, which sounded more like "jes," Sili yelled out the phrase, "I am ready!" again with a big smile plastered on his face.

As the game continued and each new round started, when Weston yelled out, "Ready? Are you guys ready?," Sili responded "I am ready" as he stood in the ready position with a huge smile on his face. Each time Weston asked, Sili replied the same three words over and over again. Are you picturing this?

It became a sort of constant (and humorous) beat:

Weston: Ready?
Sili: I am ready!
Class: Jes.

Weston: Ready?
Sili: I am ready!
Class: Jes.

Weston: Ready?
Sili: I am ready!
Class: Jes.

We should write a song.

Thought Number 2- Why the Dominican Republic still reminds me of "Little House on the Prairie"

Each day for each class, we walk from the school to Pancho Mateo to pick up the kids. We have not gotten enough sponsorship for each child, nor funds in our budget to pick up and drop off the kids for class. A river separates Pancho Mateo from our school house, so six times a day we hike up our pants and skirts and cross the river round up the kids, then walk them to the river. Once we get to the river, one of two things happens. One, we form an assembly line across the river and pass off each child one after the other until reaching the other side. Two, we put one or two kids on our backs and cross the river carrying them, drop them off, then return to carry more. If only we had a wagon to ford so we could all cross in one trip!

Speaking of wagons, the transportation of Chichigua kids is just as humorous. Chichigua is not walking distance to the school, and therefore we were concerned about how to get the students there. Chichigua sits about a mile off the main road down a small rocky road that puts a lot of wear and tear on our guagua (van). This also costs a lot of valuable time and money (on gas) to make three round trips. For a little while we did not think that we would be able to bring the Chichigua kids because of this financial reason. My heart was sad because I knew how excited all the kids were to start class. We collectively decided to bring the Chichigua kids and trust that finances would come. Here comes the funny part. Since the guagua is not in the best condition and since gas is expensive, we jokingly talked about having a horse drawn buggy of some sort cart the kids to the main road so picking them up would be a lot more convenient! This joke soon began to sound not so silly and we mentioned the idea to the parents. It is a project in the works!