Small victories and cool breezes

Coming into the classroom, I had this idyllic view of what it would be like - I'd use awesome song lyrics to prompt discussion; I'd bring in Langston Hughes' poems and mix history with English; I've always wanted to teach English. Maybe I still will do these things, but in the past two weeks, one of my biggest successes has been getting my students to say, "How do you say..." before descending into their question in Spanish. It's a big step, because two weeks ago, they didn't understand why or what I was asking them to do, but it's still a far cry from Amel Larrieux-inspired conversation.

I love my students.

They're excited and attentive and willing to learn. The majority of them are scared shitless of actually speaking in Spanish, but do it when I ask them to. They're kind and interested. They're just awesome. (My host teacher is equally as awesome, by the way. I completely lucked out.) One of my students lives in Santa Fe (my new favorite place which I will write about shortly), and after I told the class about my trip there on Monday, Betzy came to school on Wednesday and let me know that her mom wants me to come over to their house in Santa Fe for a meal, because she knows how much I like the town. Today we did an activity in class where the students were moving and racing to the board to produce verbs, and calling out present continuous conjugations that I had to follow (she is dancing, she is singing, etc) and the classroom was filled wih laughter and voices and ENERGY (it was also filled with heat and sweat!) Basically, all of this to say: school is exhausting but going really well.

Santa Fe. I took the bus up to Santa Fe with a friend last Sunday, and it was quite easily one of the best decisions I've made since moving to Panama. It's about a two hour ride away from Santiago, and it's this beautiful mountain town. When we got on the bus in Santiago (these are tiny buses, by the way) there was a woman in the back with a bag that was meowing (presumably a cat was inside) and there were audible clucks from chickens on the roof. Before we arrived in Santa Fe, a young boy got on the bus with a thick rice bag. In the bag sat a large dog (think Shepard) with just his head sticking out of the top. It was quite the ride!

Pulling into town, you could feel the air was different - the breeze was actually COOL! It was incredible. We went to the house of a friend of my friend, and he showed us around Santa Fe, and where the best river spot was. The swimming in the river was amazing! The water was totally clear and fresh and COLD! It was deep enough to dive in and there was a really strong current. There was a local guy in the river and he was peeling a piece of sugar cane with a giant machete. He ended up giving us the sugar cane, which was delicious! I think the last time I ate sugar cane I was at my cousin's wedding in Hawaii in... 1996?

My English is getting worse and worse. My sentences are constructed either super basically or as if I were speaking Spanish. My Spanish still isn't where I want it to be, and I joke that I have no language. But I know everything will come with time.

Life is still good here in the tropics, just busy. I teach all morning, and then two days I week I go to the complete other side of town, and teach a free community English class at the museum. All of this in non air conditioned spaces with 97 degree averages, although we often break the 100s. Not much more energy to say more, but check out the couple pictures I snapped of Santa Fe.

Love to everyone!
Abrazos,
Kati