lunes, 19 de abril del 2010
Today Marilyn taught her first English class at Huaycopungo. When we drove into the courtyard, it was packed with children from the community who were playing. Marilyn parked about as far from the church as possible, trying not to disturb the play nor to drive through it. We were quickly directed to park next to the church by some of the children – we had parked too close to one of their soccer goals! Fútbol is a national pastime in Ecuador, as it is in many countries around the world, and both children and adults play it every chance they get.
The church FEDICE works with in Huaycopungo feeds many children each day. It also provides a safe place for children of the community to play each afternoon (assuming Marilyn does not hurt any of them on her drive across the area three times a week). This church has really become a community center.
First, the car attracted mucho attention, especially from the younger children. The crowd grew substantially when Marilyn got my wheelchair out of the back. It swelled even more when Marilyn helped me get into my chair. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 50 pairs of curious eyes on us by the time I was comfortable.
In the classroom, the children who had registered for the class were pretty excited, and therefore pretty chaotic. It was a good thing that Blanca, José Manuel, and the pastor of the church were there to introduce Marilyn and the class. This helped to settle them down.
It was still pretty noisy. The classroom was at the end of a hall and children were playing in the hall, fairly lustily. You could close the door, but it didn’t help much because there was a large opening for an absent pane of glass above the door.
Still, the students were remarkably attentive once they settled down, despite the outside noise. Marilyn taught some greetings first, such as, “hello”, “good morning”, and “good afternoon”, and things went pretty much as expected. Pronunciations had to be repeated often.
Then Marilyn started to teach the numbers 1-15, and we got quite a shock. The students fairly ripped through these without any hesitation. Had they all had experience with inglés numbers in the Mercado (market)? Had they learned these in some English class in school? We don’t know the answers yet.
Next came a song. Marilyn explained that this was a song for niños (very small children), while the class was made up of jovens (youths probably 11-13). However, it would help them remember their numbers. They all seemed to enjoy learning it and singing it, including the hand movements. In fact, some were still singing it after the activity ended.
Simple addition and subtraction problems followed. Most students also answered these easily (after Marilyn explained that “plus” meant más and “minus” meant menos.)
To end the class, Marilyn taught them how to say, “goodbye”. She had them leave the room one by one, each stopping to shake her hand and say goodbye.
The first class was over, and we started preparing to leave. However, José Manuel, a community leader in Huaycopungo, had other ideas. He asked Blanca and Marilyn if Marilyn could teach a second class to youths who were a little older, say high school age. Unlike the first class, this class would be composed of students with widely varying degrees of English language ability. Marilyn said she could try.
José Manuel then left for ten or fifteen minutes and came back with a crowd of young people. The classes were explained to them and they were given an opportunity to sign up. As with the first class, if they completed the 30 hours of instruction, they would be given a certificate from FEDICE acknowledging the achievement. The certificate, in turn, would be helpful in colegio (high school).
At the same time, Marilyn and Blanca were evaluating the English-speaking abilities of the potential students. Three or four had very good skills, while some didn’t have many skills at all. This class would clearly be a challenge for Marilyn.
When we woke up this morning, we thought Marilyn would be teaching one class three times a week until May, when she would add another class at the nearby community of Tocagón. Before we even went to cena (evening meal), Marilyn was teaching two classes (with 21 students in each) three times a week and we were not certain where Tocagón’s students would fit in. The weather is not the only thing that can change quickly in the Andes.
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