Que chavalas más inteligentes

So recently, a volunteer friend of mine received a package from the states that was full of at least 5 huge bags of Skittles (excellent gift idea btw ;), and she was nice enough to give me some! I shared them with my host family when I got home, but used the opportunity to teach my host sisters, Nina and Mia, the colors in English as well as the words "please," and "thank you."

Nina - "Green, please."
Zach - "Here you go."
Nina - "Thank you."
Zach - "You're welcome."

Mia - "Pink, please."
Zach - "Here you go."
Mia - "Thank you."
Zach "You're welcome."

After about 5 rounds of this, Nina told me it was her turn to give them out, and that I had to ask her. I gave her the bag and said "Purple, please." She handed me a purple Skittle and when I said "thank you," she replied, "you're welcome." I never taught her that - never practiced the pronunciation nor told her what it meant. She just picked it up after hearing me say it a bunch. When I asked her what she thought it meant she said "de nada, sí?" Got it. She's six-years-old.

I love kids. I'm struggling in the high school, and can't help but think that if we were teaching English in the pre-schools and/or elementary schools that we would make a much bigger difference. Thus, I'm working on getting a youth group started. That, and much more are the reasons for a new post coming soon! Be on the lookout!

Miss you guys,

Z

First Semester Antics

Hey everyone! I saw monkeys! In trees! We all know that rice and beans have been a major part of my life for a while now, but the "monkeys in trees" part of my blog name did not become a reality until about eight months into my service. This and much more are the reasons for a wayyyy overdue blog post!

I haven't written in a while and I'd like to think that's because I've been busy, but part of it is just getting stuck in the moment and not taking time to reflect on my experience, much less share it with all of you. It's good to be back writing again -- I have plenty to catch you up on.

I figure I'll start with the daily routine work stuff before I go back and take you through some of the traveling I did earlier in the semester.

The school year here follows the calendar year, so the semester started in early February and will be ending the second week of July. Throughout the semester I have been teaching with my three counterparts: McDonald, Henry and Alejandro. The high school is called INMAOG and is about a 3 minute walk from my house on the north end of the city of Chinandega.

This is undoubtedly the most challenging part of my work here. The environment in the high schools is radically different from the United States, and most of that is due to the difference in the teacher-student relationship, which of course depends on the teacher and depends on the student. Some teachers here are very strict, others lenient; some are tired, others are more like friends to the students than teachers; some are there every day, others rarely show up to class. The inconsistency of teaching and enforcement of discipline and rules at INMAOG gives the students an inaccurate perception of the reality of what school really is or should be, and thus at times yields complete and utter chaos. You can tell students to do something and they will look at you with a look like "who are you and why do you think I should even consider doing what you're telling me to do?" This is more common especially when the person telling the students what to do is a 24 year-old gringo with a baby face who has lost over 20 pounds since coming here and is somewhat of a stranger to their way of doing things. Why do I deserve their respect? Most of them don't know me (the school has almost 5,000 students - second-largest in the country), and I'm so much closer to them in age than any teacher they've ever had. It's a fair question, and one I have to keep reminding myself of. The more I try to demand respect, the worse off I am. So instead, I push forward, planning with my counterparts, trying to incorporate as many dynamic, interactive and fun activities as possible, and take it one day at a time.

Bam! There it is! My vent. That was what? about 10 sentences or so, summarizing my greatest struggle of Peace Corps all in one breathless, sorry attempt at being politically correct, paragraph. Thanks for sticking it through, though. We all remember, this blog is neither an official publication of the Peace Corps or the US government, right?

Still, I promise I'm not

... but instead more like

And at times due to stress, bacteria, and viruses, I'm also like

(Some of the many materials I've made for English class. They're fun to make and also a great stress reliever. Try teaching without textbooks, copy machines or overheads and you'll see how creative you get!)

... but then I eat some oranges and pineapple, take a trip to the beach, lay in a hammock for a while, and get a big

... from my host family, friends, and students, and I feel better. It's one hell of a roller coaster, Peace Corps, but that's why they call it the "toughest job you'll ever love."

Aside from teaching in the high school, I have kept myself busy this semester with plenty of side-projects and activities. Every Sunday I coordinated the Fundación Uno program, which I've written plenty about in previous posts (and is still ongoing and will be for at least another year).

On Monday afternoons I did a type of reinforcement activity with a group of 11-grade students. I realized when I first started teaching 11th grade that they had forgotten a lot of the information they learned in previous years. In language learning, so much of what we do relies on a good command of the basics, and so with the 11th graders I was worried. I told them we needed to move on to bigger and badder topics, and if they needed reinforcement to come see me. Turns out almost all of them approached me and asked me what we could do.

My issue was that I didn't want to dive into another structured course with a formal curriculum (we already do that 5 days a week in school), so I talked to some of the better students who could be my "monitors." We split the class up into three small groups: pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and I assigned two or three monitors to be in charge of leading each group. I was there to provide materials and activities, but the monitors were essentially the teachers. That allowed me to oversee everything, instead of having to micro-manage and teach a formal class. The monitors were amazing.

It was working out great for a while, until slowly but surely, the size went down significantly. We started with around 30 students, like the video above, then dropped to 10-12, until we eventually faded out completely about a week ago. It was a good test-run, and I enjoyed it a lot.

On Thursday afternoons I taught a 10-week, English community class of around 20 adult students with my sitemate, Patrick. Patrick is a health volunteer and was a huge part of organizing the class, getting the location and students on board, as well as co-teaching. We tried our best to make it a cross-sectoral project by incorporating themes from the Health sector like HIV prevention, access to health resources, open communication, etc all while teaching in English.

We covered an array of grammar topics raging from the present, past, future and conditional tenses, to describing people, giving advice, talking about their dream vacations, giving directions and drawing maps:

We have one week left of class and then their "graduation" ceremony where they'll get certificates and we'll celebrate their hard work and progress throughout the course!

The last major project I help with is APICH, la Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Chinandega (Association of English Teachers in Chinandega). Apparently this was an association that tried and failed back around 2007-8, and was inspired again by my arrival to Chinandega. I kept hearing about it from different English teachers in the city and they all seemed to believe that with a TEFL Peace Corps Volunteer finally back in the city, it could get going again.

The overall idea is to be a community of practice, which is a group of people who share a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.

We meet once a month to do workshops based on teaching methodology and developing new and communicative strategies for teaching English, entirely in English. The best part: I am not always the one presenting. I don't mean for that to sound like I'm lazy, haha, it's the sustainability factor that's so great about it. If I were doing all of the presentations, sure we would get a lot done, but what would happen if I were to leave? The fact that Nicaraguan English teachers are helping capacitate other Nicaraguan English teachers in better teaching methodology is fantastic because it's sustainable. We choose the topics and the date of the workshop each month as a group, and then we leave it open to volunteers to prepare the presentation and lead the workshop. We have had four presentations so far, and six different Nicaraguan English teachers have presented. It's an excellent way to get everyone involved, share ideas, and do it all in ENGLISH!

Mi familia: Nina, Mamá Alma, Don Mario y Mia - on my birthday

My living situation is fantastic. My family is incredibly loving and generous. I wouldn't move unless Peace Corps forced me to, and even then I wouldn't go willingly. My little sisters, Nina and Mia, are a riot and ensure that there's never a dull moment in the house. Don Mario works a lot, but when he's around I enjoy hanging out with him. He's quite the goofball himself - it's clear where the girls get their energy from. 

My host mom, mi Mamá Alma, is amazing. She's awesome not just because she went out of her way to throw me a birthday party (with a chocolate cake made from scratch), but it's the "good mornings," "good nights," asking me how my day was, always genuinely interested in my work, her incredible memory (she knows all of my immediate family member names), how she has taken care of me when I've been sick (more often than I'd like to admit), and so much more. One day she saw me watching "Game of Thrones" on my computer and asked me what it was about. I gave her the synopsis, and next thing I knew she was half-way through the first episode after finding it in Spanish online. She's completely caught up by now and we've had plenty of in-depth discussions about the storyline and characters. You guys can imagine how cool that feels to have that kind of literary conversation in another language with someone from another country. That's what it's all about, baby.

Speaking of my birthday and awesome people in my life - my counterpart, McDonald, told all of our classes when my birthday was. Each class threw me their own party, with decorations, refreshments, cake and...

 ... even a piñata!

Through all of the ups and downs, I can't forget how lucky I am to be here doing what I'm doing. I've never had, and may never have, such a rewarding job.

So with that, I'll leave you guys with an Instagram-like list of pictures from all of my trips and "vago-ness." Enjoy!

 Matagalpa: we climbed to the top of a barrio that overlooked the city.

 Rode the ferry to Ometepe Island.

Watched the sunset on the island at La Punta Jesus María...

Took a bus down the road to Charco Verde, a nature reserve on the island. Charco Verde is home to the Urraca (the bird pictured above) and...

HOWLER MONKEYS!

 We happened upon a whole family of them!

 I was a happy camper to finally see them.

 Hung out by the port that night.

The next day we hiked 3/4 the way up Volcano Concepción! There was a lot of seismic activity that week, so the guide said it was too dangerous to climb all the way to the top.

 Still was a heck of a climb!

 With a heck of a view

Ended the vago adventures camping with a group of other volunteers by the laguna de Apoyo

 Peace, love, Nicaragua.

Love and miss you all! I'll do my best to keep these posts coming more frequently. Enjoy the summer time back home and know if it ever gets too hot, you know I'm sweating right along with you. 

Talk to you soon!

Z

Feeling the love

Huge shout out to my family, my Grammy, my Aunt Peggy, the Thaxton family, Tara Sulzer and Danica Harvey for the letters and/or packages you sent me! 

I was in Managua this past weekend, and the letters, photos, candies, magazines, sketch book, Arnold Palmers, etc made my day. You guys rock. I can't thank you enough. 

I've started a collage in my room of some of the pictures that have been sent/given to me. Feel free to send more to add to it! 

It's hard to believe March is winding down. This month has been pretty crazy-- lots of work. I'll give you guys a proper update soon. I have a fun weekend lined up with a beach trip to León on Friday and a wedding on Saturday. Look for an update after! 

Z

Después de un gustazo, un trancazo

Queridos amigos,

What's up guys! I'm getting pretty close to completing 4 months in site, 7 months in Nicaragua. It feels weird I've been here that long - the time has flown by! I'm exactly where I want to be, and although the Peace Corps rollercoaster has me projected to hit a low part about 6 months in (which has been true to a certain extent), I'm happy with my site, family, job and everything. Life's good, friends.

December and January were jam-packed with activities, most of which I shared with you on the last post, but I have to admit I left some stuff out for the sake of time.

For example, Selva Negra! This is a hotel in the mountains of the department of Matagalpa, just outside of the capital city, Matagalpa. (Refresher that the department capitals are usually the same name as their department).

We were there for an in-service training, IST, in January, and it was the first and only time during our service that our entire Nica 62 TEFL group got together with the TEFL volunteers from Nica 60 who have been here for over a year. It was a great opportunity to reflect on our experience together, as well as get suggestions and pick the brains of the volunteers who have been here for a while.

The three-day trip included charlas (lessons), team-building exercises, games, bonfires, s'mores, and a hike around the property. 

The hotel doubles as a coffee farm, and one of the employees was happy to give us a tour. An interesting fact we learned from the tour was that all of the coffee and food they serve at the hotel comes directly from the farm, making it completely sustainable. They have cows, pigs, goats and chickens, and a boat-load of coffee. Delicious coffee, might I add. It was a welcomed change from the instant coffee that dominates our regular diet.

The best/funniest part of the trip was the weather. I think the high was a whopping 62 degrees Fahrenheit. COLD! I know most of you (the Ohioans at least) are braving one of the coldest winters in a long time, and 62 degrees would feel like summer. I'm usually in the same boat, but honestly coming from Chinandega, the hottest city in all of Nicaragua where you're lucky if it drops below 90 degrees, my body was not prepared. I wore long sleeves and jeans the entire time haha. 

The week before we started school in February, my counterpart, Henry, and his family took me to Granada, one of the oldest and most popular cities in the country. It is an extremely popular tourist destination. I saw gringos everywhere. I ate a huge, american breakfast with scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and sausage at a restaurant owned by a guy from Colorado with NFL memorabilia hanging on the walls, while watching Fox News in English. It was a nice little taste of home (literally). 

We walked to the coast of lake Nicaragua, visited a historical museum with indigenous artifacts and an entire exhibit dedicated to the construction of the cathedral, and took a horse and buggy tour of the city! It was fun to play tourist for a change. 

A couple of teachers from the Fundación Uno course here in Chinandega, Raul and Jenny, organized a three-week English course for 20 primary school students in the area. They asked me if I was interested in helping, and I co-taught four classes with them. 

Nicaraguan public school students don't receive formal English classes until they reach high school, which is 7th grade here. To me it's a shame, because you aren't able to take advantage of the energy and enthusiasm kids have for learning another language when they're in elementary school. By the time they reach high school, they're "too cool for school" in a way, and either don't want to learn English, or feel embarrassed to practice speaking it because of how different the pronunciation is. 

There is a pretty interesting parallel for me between Nicaragua and the US. I remember taking Spanish for the first time in 7th grade, and being taught how to roll our "R's" and speak with the spicy Spanish accent.  We all sounded goofy trying to pronounce words in Spanish, and many of my classmates didn't even try, instead butchering the pronunciation with an American accent: Gracias = Grassy-is. However, I always loved Spanish, and wanted to pronounce the words correctly. But for a 12 year-old in 7th grade, it was not cool to look like the teacher's pet and correctly speak with a Spanish accent. I would get teased for trying. 

The SAME thing goes on here in Nicaragua. The "cool" students don't care about speaking English, and they make fun of the other students who try. Thus, it kills their confidence and they end up saying "screw it, it's too hard." Which, to give them credit, it is hard. There are only five different vowel sounds in Spanish. There are over 20 different vowel sounds in American English. Words like "black," "olive," "ugly," and "eye" all use vowel sounds that don't exist in Spanish.

So why the digression? Because I believe it is vital to reach the students in the primary schools and begin teaching them English before they develop the "pena" (directly translated to "shame," but it's more like "embarrassment"), or become "too cool" to learn the language when they get to high school. 

The class was geared towards 6th grade students, all of which were about to start freshman year of high school at the instituto I teach at, called INMAOG. The course was very successful, and the students learned introductory material such as the alphabet, colors, numbers, greetings, and basic sentence structure. 

We had a graduation ceremony on the last day of class, and afterward I talked to the representative from the Ministry of Education (pictured above) about possibly continuing the course during the school year. She agreed and has been working on getting the next wave of students signed up. We will teach the class for two hours once a week, every Wednesday for 10 weeks. After the course finishes, we plan on evaluating how it went before deciding to continue or not. I'm really excited; the course starts next Wednesday. 

In the meantime I've been teaching 16 hours a week at INMAOG with my three awesome counterparts,  keeping up with Fundación Uno, and organizing a couple community classes. It's good that I'm keeping myself busy, but I have to make sure I don't overwhelm myself. Everyone and their mom wants to learn English here, and it's tough to have to keep telling people I'm too busy to give them private English lessons (you would not believe how many people ask me that on a regular basis).

With my counterpart, McDonald. 

I've been getting settled into my routine, and I think after about another month of the same schedule, I'll have a better handle on things. It was tough at first, coming off of a two-month vacation and going straight into teaching full time. A common Nicaraguan saying in Spanish is: "Después de un gustazo, un trancazo" which means after you've had your fun, it's time to get back to work. That's never been more appropriate than right now. Back to work!

Love and miss you guys,

Z