Microphone

Luis and Ana now have a microphone, enabling them to be even louder. At 7 this morning they were up singing and playing guitar and watching videos on Youtube. It was very loud. So, I didn´t sleep in today either. Although 7 is better than 6.

My Reg.1 class now has 27 students. It is beyond ridiculous and very nearly insane. In my opinion, there should never be an ESL class of more than 20, but ICPNA is a business and I suppose they want to make money. The levels of proficiency are extremely varied and it is difficult for me to give individual attention, which I feel is important when you are trying to learn a language. I like to catch mistakes before they become habits. I can see more advanced students becoming frustrated when I have to slow down because of the perplexed faces of the less advanced, and I can see the perplexed faces of beginners when I try to cater to the needs of the more advanced students. Supposedly they are all at the same level, but this is simply not true. It´s hard also because I have young people 12 years of age with whom I could play games to help them learn, but then I have 40-50 year olds who are very conservative and serious and want straight lessons, assignments, and attention. Well, I am just doing the best I can for them. I haven´t actually had all 27 students show up on the same day yet, thank goodness
Yesterday morning at 8 I went to the hairdresses with Rosa because she wanted company. While I was there I planned my lesson for yesterday afternoon. 4 1-2 hour lessons really aren´t that much fun. This class spoke no English and the way the text book starts was very confusing for them. So, I did it my way instead and it seemed to work better. Really, they were trying the pronounce words and they didn´t have a clue how the letters sounded in English. I started with the alphabet instead of conversations.
It was mother´s day here yesterday and Davy College, where Luis and Ana go to school, held a Mother´s Day carnival type of thing. It was very nice. There were younger students dancing to songs in English, because the school is bilingual. There was a concert band and couple of rock bands who also sang in English. They were really good! There were also some Spanish songs and the Mariachis, as pictured above, from the University. There was volleyball and inflatable things for the kids and egg and spoon races etc.. It was a really nice time. The food was great too! The only negative... I got major sunburn. I was itching all through class in the afternoon. Luis and Ana were fascinated by my burn. People here get sunburn and you can hardly even tell. Me? I´m a whole different colour. My skin is all tight and I think the gym tomorrow will be painful.

Happy Mother´s Day in Canada for all the Mother´s reading this!!

Ciao!

My clumsiness

Last night I walked home part way with 3 of my collegues, all of whom are gorgeous and one of whom is expecting. I wouldn´t mind some tan any day now... Anyway, I walked straight into a sign and went into hyena laughter so now they think I am crazy. Hahaha. I like walking home with my collegues, I don´t receive catcalls when I´m not alone.

At the end of the month I have to travel to Chiclayo for a mandatory teacher training. I´m pretty excited that I get to go there free of charge and stay in a nice hotel, and it will be fun to get to know my collegues. I will see Miranda and Colleen there too. I´m not excited about the bus ride though. I hope I don´t get sick!!!

My 8:00 class on Saturday is cancelled because there are no students. So yay, I can sleep in!! Simon said that this is normal. They give you 7 classes and you´ll maybe have 4. I´m actually annoyed though because I had 3 hours of that lesson planned already. Oh well.

Yesterday we had a staff meeting about the trip to Chiclayo. It was weird because we all had classes, so the students had to wait on us for 15 minutes. It was embarrassing for me because one of the other teachers had to translate what was going on. I understood the gist of it but not all the details. I was actually proud of myself when I managed to understand that there was a staff meeting, where and when it was when the caretaker came and told me. The secretary told me that Simon spoke really good Spanish. So that´s nice. Two of my advanced students were able to pick out my English accent today. This is pretty clever I think. I can´t tell when people speak in different accents in Spanish. My English accent isn´t even that strong!

The classes I am teaching for Delicia had a lot of complaining to do when I told them I wouldn´t be their teacher next week. It was quite sweet actually. It´s funny how everyone calls me teacher or miss. Okay, I know it´s not that funny, but it actually is.

My pre-1 class now has 16 students. It is not so bad. Yesterday when class was over they all stayed for like 10 minutes even though I opened the door and said they could go. It´s nice to see their interest in English.

In my intro class, we were asking the question "why are you studying English" with the given answers "for business / travel / college or university / to meet English speaking people" and one girl says "I am wanting to learn English because it is beautiful. It is so beautiful language" How sweet is that!! She came up with that herself. We were all uplifted for that class. Ahahaha.

I am hoping that my Reg.1 class doesn´t grow anymore today. 23 is enough for me!!

Ciao for now!

ps. The pic is of me in Lima drinking Inka Cola. Yummy!!!!!!!!!

Wow!

Yesterday I had 23 students in my reg. 1 class. We had to move to a bigger classroom!! It´s difficult with so many students though because I can´t judge how they are picking up the material very well individually, and it is also very loud! I think I will lose my voice soon. I don´t yell but I have to speak fairly loud.

I´m off to visit Davy College again. The pic is of San Marcos.

Ciao!

I have a 6th sense

So, in this morning´s class I was trying to demonstrate the following:
Is he ______?
No, he isn´t. He´s _____.
So I pointed to one man and said randomly, is he Carlos? The class replied, yes, he is! I thought I would share that with you because I can´t believe I actually guessed his name by mistake. Hahahaha. I almost broke out into hysterical hyena laughing. Thankfully I didn´t because my class may have walked out.
In my opinion, the book we use for my Pre-1 class has lots lessons in the wrong order and presumes the students know more than they do. There were a lot of challenges today. Last night my Pre-1v class also had lots of difficulties.
Last night I went to bed at 8:50 as soon as I came home from class because I was absolutely exhausted. My class that goes later is only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so I got to sleep early yesterday. Rosa thinks I´m starving myself because I haven´t been eating supper, just an apple or something. Honestly, after the 3 course meal lunches I am full enough for a week! We always start with soup and then have salad or corn or some Peruvian thing and then we have a huge main meal with meat and rice etc. If it´s a toss up between food and sleep, I choose sleep. I love sleeping now!
Our trainer at the gym knows my team is Arsenal so he was having a good laugh yesterday when I was watching the Man U vs. Arsenal game. They were down 3-0 when I left and ended up losing 3-1, which isn´t a surprise because they can´t seem to actually shoot at the net.
I haven´t even started planning for my 8 and a half hours of classes on Saturday yet. I´m so tired when I come home in the morning and in the afternoon I go to the gym because health is important too, and then I go to classes right away. At least next week I´ll have more time as Delicia is back so I don´t have many classes. However, two students have asked me for private lessons as they need to pass their entrance exams in English for University in America. It will be possible for me to help out when I only have 2-3 hours a day and 8 and a half on Saturday.
My class sizes increased again yesterday. Most of my classes are between 10-20 now, which is a lot because the classroom isn´t that big. Especially with adults the room seems full.
It´s so nice to sit down!
I am really enjoying teaching at ICPNA, even though there are lots of challenges.
Thanks for all your interest!!

Ps. The parrot is from the mini zoo in Sucre. He was brought in from the jungle.

My lack of Spanish skills

Wow, I am exhausted. ICPNA doesn´t believe in giving the teacher a stool or a chair, we have to stand up the whole time. So I spent 5 and a half hours on my feet without a break last night. I got back home at about 10 and then I had to help Ana with her English homework, so I didn´t get to bed until late and then I had to get up at 6 for work this morning. My feet hurt hahaha.

I was almost late to work because it took ages to catch a taxi from the gym so I ran to work with my 9 really heavy books looking a right state I´m sure. My first class were Juniors, age 12, and I had about 12 students. It was hard because they were all tired from school and only wanted to gossip and hang out. Also, the computer didn´t work for that class so I had to do lots of thinking on my feet and lots of reading. It´s really sweet how they all gave me a kiss goodbye as they left. That kind of relatinship between teachers and students just doesn´t exist in Canada. Although, I think I would find it odd to kiss my teacher everyday. My next class was about ten 6 yr olds and they were incredibly intelligent. We got through way more than we needed to and they already knew more than was necessary for the unit. However, some of them were actually crazy and I had to think of activities involving movement because they wanted to run around and scream. The challenge with this class was the parents asking me questions in incredibly fast Spanish. I have no idea what they were talking about so I hope everything is okay. The next class was also 6-7 year olds, but they were a little more advanced. I only had 6 which was nice because it was much calmer. They were learning about the body and adjectives so I sang head, shoulder´s knees and toes with them, which they loved. One boy picked it up after I had sung it only once. It was amazing! Both groups of kids were very good about speaking English. My next class was Pre-1V with kids my age and in their 20s. At first I only had one student, which was really funny and we kept laughing. Then, suddenly I had an influx of students and ended up with 8. Do you know those really annoying men who think they are all hott and and cool, and try to be all smart and mouthy? Well I had one of those in that class. I didn´t really enjoy that class and I wish it was only for a week but I have them for the month. My last class started off with only 2 students, and then Antonio (the smart guy who´s going to America) walked in. He signed up for my class, which is so funny. About 25 minutes late, I had a huge influx of students and ended up with 17. The classroom was packed because it´s not very big. I played the wool tossing ice-breaker and got through lots of material. I think the class went okay. I had a lot of fun with them. One woman was so lost she was almost crying though. I felt bad because she was about 40 and she dídn´t have a book yet. I went over to try and help but she didn´t want me to help her. Everyone else seemed to pick things up pretty quickly. It was really funny when this man who was like 35 asked me if he could go to the bathroom. I was like, of course, you don´t have to ask! The ages in that class ranged from 12 to abou 50. I´m glad I have that class for a month.
I just got back from visiting Davy College with Rosa, which is where Luis and Ana go to school. We went to pick up the money for the food for the poor schools in Cajamarca. Davy College is another world. It´s like a resort, totally gorgeous. The gym is twice the size of the gym at B.U. and they have a tennis court and a football pitch and a games field. There are 900 students and it´s massive. It´s really out of place though because it´s surrounded by poverty, if you look over the walls that is. There are teachers there from Canada and the USA and England apparently. I did see a white english speaking teacher but I didn´t get a chance to chat to her. Apparently the teachers there make about 2000 dollars a month. That is insane!
Have to go and prepare lessons now. Ciao!

P.s. The pic doesn´t really go with this post, but it is the market in Celendin, which occurs every Monday.

Pics

A mototaxi

Beside a river near JoseGalvez.

In the Andes, lots of family.
Two mountain people I met.

I have an unnaturally large head...

My room in Celendin.

The hat is just resting there.

The housekeeper in Celedin mushes up the food.

apparently! None of the hats in the store in Celendin would fit my head. So now it´s a big joke that my head is massive. Hahahaha. Celendin was awesome. It´s so different from Cajamarca, and I think I prefer it. It´s smaller and everyone knows Luis and Rosa as Luis was a doctor there for 3 years. It´s not that small though. I had a lot of typically Peruvian food there, but not Ceviche. I´m not a fan of uncooked meat, and it´s probably not a good idea for my health to eat it. The drive to Celendin was about 4 hours, but it seemed really fast. There was so much gorgeous mountain scenery to look at, it´s not even remotely comparable to the very dull drive to Winnipeg in Manitoba. Peru has little surprises everywhere, and if you pay attention you will see waterfalls and streams that otherwise you would miss. I love how unspoiled the beauty of Peru is. It isn´t crawling with tourists, in fact I didn´t see any people who didn´t look Peruvian the whole time I was away. Today I saw one white person but he was old and didn´t seem to be 100% all there. I really like that the Peruvian cultures are so dominant here and things generally aren´t in English and Chinese as well as Spanish. It seems much more genuine. It also means I have to always be practicing Spanish which is great, but I´ve been here almost two weeks and it seems like my Spanish is still dreadful. Oh well. It gets really tiring having to concentrate so hard on what people are saying all the time. I called my family last night and it felt so weird to speak English so fast!!
My first impression of Celendin, honestly, was one of anxiety because everything seemed so poor. However, over the next few days I saw that it really wasn´t so poor. Granted, there were poor parts but people just don´t seem to care about the exterior of their homes. The paint can be peeling and they can look dreadful, and then inside can be totally gorgeous. I´m so used to people being so concerned with how things look on the outside that it surprised me that people here only care what things are like on the inside. Honestly, I think the Peruvians have it right. My bedroom in Celendin was actually a cell phone store. I had been wondering why there were posters advertising Movistar all over the walls, and then yesterday Luis´s brother came to move all his cell phone stuff back in. I didn´t mean to cause such trouble!! But apparently it was nothing.
Luis, Ana and I went for a walk the first night in Celendin, and Luis asked me, all full of innocence, what is f*** Gemma? I was so shocked I almost walked into a lamppole. I said Luis, I am not explaining that to you, but it´s not a good word in English. He thought that was hilarious.
There are dogs everywhere in Celendin. The first night I thought I was being bitten by mosquitoes, but apparently it was a flea. So that´s really nice. I actually really love Celendin and I hope to go back sometime.
Every place here, no matter how small or big, has a Plaza de Armas, which is essentially the central meeting place. It´s really awesome because everyone goes there to socialize and just hang out. All the Plazas I have seen have had a Church right across the road too. There are always one way streets in a square around it. In Cajamarca, mototaxis and Combis aren´t allowed in the Plaza de Armas because they are too loud.
In Celendin I got to ride in a Mototaxi! Twice! It was AWESOME! Canada needs to have some, I could start a Mototaxi business. Although it would only work for the summer. The driver thought I was crazy because I was so excited about it. Rosa, Ana and I went around the plaza in one and then yesterday we went to the bakery in one. I found out that Rosa´s daugther`s name is actually Ana (for short) and they call her Anita because they add ita to people they love. So now they call me ¨hey-ma-ita¨ which is nice but sometimes I dont respond because I am not used to being called that, so they have to say it two or three times. Hahaha.
Apparently I look like Rosa´s daughter, and also similar Anita. A lot of people asked if I was Rosa´s daughter when we were in Celendin, even though I am so white. I am not even a little bit tanned, naturally.
Rosa and I went to JoseGalvez, which is the town she grew up in. She showed me her school and I met 4 of her sisters and 3 of her nephews. One of her nephews is crazy. He is 8 and was so enthusiastic to see his aunt and I. I really love how affectionate people are here. Boys aren´t ashamed to hug and kiss their mothers and sisters on the cheek openly and frequently. Little Luis always comes to me in the morning for a kiss and is always hugging and kissing Rosa. It is sweet. Anyway, Rosa´s nephew Rodollo came and gave us big hugs and wet kisses on the cheek hahahaha. I enjoyed meeting Juan because he is 16 and therefore closer to my age. He is very serious though. We went to JoseGalvez twice and the second time we travelled around to a place called Sucre and to a mini zoo and a graveyard. At one point we climbed through a barbed wire fence into a greenhouse area and they stole flowers to take to the graveyard. I don´t know, maybe they know the owner of the greenhouse and it was okay but I thought it was a bit odd. There was this massive plain of land in the valley we looked down on, and Juan asked me what I would do with the land. When I said take pictures and dance he thought I was very silly. He wants to build an airport there because he wants to be a pilot or an engineer. Honestly though, I think it would be a shame to industralize such gorgeous scenery. Also, I don´t know that a whole lot of people would travel to JoseGalvez, which is comparable to Rivers in size. However, what do I know about it, perhaps it´s a great idea. I think I only saw him smile once. Rosa says he and his brother are extremely intelligent. His brother gave me this beautiful rock for a present. I was touched, it is so lovely, I have it in my room. At Rosa´s sister´s house we had hot chocolate, but is is very different from in Canada. It is pure chocolate grown in Peru. The first day I had it with milk, but the lady told me the custom is without milk, so the next day I had it without. It was so rich, but yummy. We also had bread made in Celendin and pineapple jam. Yummy. On Saturday when we went to the mini zoo I saw a parrot and some other animals from the rainforest. It was quite cool. We had to wait for abut half an hour to take a taxi back to Celendin. There were no cars on the road on the way back.
On Sunday there is a market in Celendin and the streets were packed. It was quite literally fantastic and I had a blast smelling the smells and looking at the wares. No cars are allowed down the roads, only mototaxis, so it`s safer walking than usual.
Luis had a lot of patients in Celendin so he worked a lot. He is very proud of being a doctor because he studied at the best school in Peru. There are posters advertising his clinic all over Celendin. He is very proud of his Ultrasound machine.
Gas here is so expensive! It is about $1.70 a litre! Bread is quite cheap though.
On Friday and Saturday I got to play football or soccer with Peruvian people. It was so much fun. At the start there was only Luis, Luis, Ana and I so I thought it would be a pretty dull game. However, we picked people up on the way and by the time we got to the pitch there were about 14 of us in the car and more met us there. I didn´t play that well on Friday, but on Saturday I scored a goal! (granted, the other team had pulled their goalie, but still). It rained a bit and was very hot while we played. My face was bright red by the end which they all thought was hilarious. With their gorgeous brown skin they didn´t even seem tired. One guy had a bad nosebleed. I don´t think it was my fault, I hope not anyway! His name was Alex and he laughed at my red face for ages. Hahaha.
On Friday I met a couple of mountain peasants who, if I translated right, wanted to meet me because they had never met a white person before. They were super nice.
Most of the time here I can forget about my race, but when I go out into the street and people stare and stare, or sometimes stick out their tongue, or sometimes smile in welcome, it is very hard to forget my colour. I don´t have a problem with curiousity, but living in primarily white countries I haven´t encountered rascism towards myself before. Its a really interesting experience and surprisingly even when, occasionally, people look at me like I am dirt, it doesn´t bother me. They don´t know me so when they look at me they see only white people, and their anger is directed towards us. I know it might seem odd, but I can see where they are coming from. Countries like Canada and England send money to the governments of these countries that need it, and the governments are so corrupt. The government programs are limited in their numbers and usefulness. Really it seems like countries such as Canada don´t care, it´s more of a having to seem generous type of deal. If they actually wanted to help the poor people, they would need to send money to the grassroots, to trustworthy people like Rosa who want to help and are doing what they can. I know it´s not going to happen, and obviously I am making a huge generalization, but it really helps nobody when the government is skimming off the money.
I met loads of Rosa´s friends in Celendin. The Godmother of Rosa´s children gave me a gift of handmade crafts from Celendin. The people are so generous. Rosa bought me a little box that says Celendin too. I am so overwhelmed by people´s kindness.
There was a housekeeper in Celendin too, but I was allowed to do my own cleaning there which was nice! I watched her crush up the chile stuff in the traditional way of the Incas. Very cool!
On the way back from Celendin both Ana and Luis were sick. I felt nauseous but I did the nostril breathing Miranda taught me and I felt better.
This morning I had my first 2 classes, and I have five more starting at 4. I think I did a decent job, although one of the students asked me to slow down for tomorrow. Mind you, she was 20 minutes late so it´s natural that she had some problems understanding. The classes were mixed, ranging in age from 13-40. My second class only had one boy and I was sorry for him because he seemed a little uncomfortable. He participated well though. When I told my second class I would only be teaching them for a week while their teacher was on holiday they were very upset and asked me to stay. I take that be a sign that my class went well. The students are very intelligent and I whizzed through my plans for two days in only one. Mind you, the classes were tiny. My first class only had 3 and my second only 5, which helped with the pace. I have no idea how many students there were supposed to be. Simon dropped in to say bye because he´s leaving today, and he said it´s normal for the beginning of the week to have small classes. One of his classes was only 6 the whole time so it´s okay I guess. Today I have 7 and a half hours of teaching. I have spent about 15 hours preparing for this week, so its a lot of work, but I had fun this morning. I am not so sure abut the childrens classes this afternoon though. They will be hard for me I think because they don´t speak any English and they probably won´t be as patient as the adults.
Last night we went out to eat at about 9. I was ready for bed but if you are me and want to say no, you say yes anyway not to be rude. I actually had this really good lasagna there and some Peruvian things beginning with t. The waiter was really odd. He had a weird way of creeping over the table and and eying everyone up. No one else though it was weird though.
Maybe I´ll use the rest of my time to try and load some photos. This afternoon I am off to the gym before my classes at 4. I ate so much this weekend, although apparently I ate nothing.
Thanks for checking and leaving comments, I love reading about how you are doing and knowing that you are well. I hear this Swine flu thing is in Canada so take care!
Gemma