Well I got to Apulo a little later than I had intended and just like El Gigante when I got there I felt pretty good and awake is but when I laid down on my bed I just couldn't help but dozing off for the mi morning. I woke up and had lunch. Here is the first place where I've met a stay at home dad. I guess its because Mirta is the president of ADECOI which is an awesome organization. The need some with ideas and things but I'll get to that in another post. Right now I'm just going to talk about my experience. Well the first few days at Mirtas were really nice and I really got to know the family. I'm not sure if its because my spanish is better or just that they are really warm and friendly here but I've really gotten to know them here and I feel really at home. I decided to stay an extra week here before I go back to Apulo so a total of a little over two weeks which is pretty good for a community visit and I'm sure I'll come back to visit a weekend or so maybe. I still want to go back to El Bario because its where I felt extremely at home and I didn't even know much Spanish but here I really love as well. While I was living at Mirtas I did a lot of traveling and that's one of the hard things about living here in Apulo because its a huge spread out city along the lake. Its also killer hot here which doesn't help the walking everywhere. Its not cheap either to use the pickups if you are the only person on them its like 2 dollars to get a ride thats like a 10 min walk but when its this hot in the middle of the day or you have lots of stuff its sometimes worth it.
On the First day I went out with Javier and others hiking up the river bed to a place where there is like a big bird population like a bird sanctuary although its not really a sanctuary because people catch some birds and sell them as pets. It was a really great experience to see all houses and the destruction the erosion has caused in Apulo. We then went to see Javiers old house where he and his relatives lived before his borther (who lives in the states) gave money to their family to build a new house. After this crazy amount of walking we continued walking and went down to the lake where we saw the touristy shops and food places along the coast. It reminded me a lot of Lakeport because of the lake and lots of shops and places for tourists. We met up with Mirta and Fran and walked along the lakeside where we stopped at one of the lakeside booths and they bought me fried mini fish things which I probly shouldn't have eaten (as you will find out later in this post) but I did anyways. We then continued our walking journey as we went down to buy more fish for other meals (again probly shouldn't have eaten the fish) later on in the week. By the time we finished it was extremely hot and I remembered what it was like to want to wake up early to beat the heat. Oddly enough it was only 10am haha.
One of the most interesting things about the first few days was that they told me I was going to do a mountain of things here but in the first few days with the schools the principles weren't there so I couldn't help at the school and I hadn't gotten my individual classes worked up quite yet so I actually spent a lot of time just getting my plans canceled because they said that there would be school the next day when it got canceled but the first week it never worked out. Then we started talking with another school and ironically enough everyone showed up and wanted me to work on Tuesday so I worked at two different schools and had my classes after school which in total made 9 English classes in one day which was a crazy amount. At first it turned out to be disorganized organization which was really weird for me but I ended up getting busy enough eventually so I'm satisfied.
On one of the first days I was here Obama was visiting and like politics in the US it turned out to be overhyped and quite boring on the TV but I did watch a good amount of it. I think they showed Obama arriving on the airplane about 8 times in an hour while I was watching and he arrived earlier that morning. He then sat down to talk with Mauricio our FMLN president and they had a good conversation I think. From what I heard Obama is giving 200 million dollars to El Salvador to help work on the crime problem they have here. I think the biggest suprise was how big of a deal it was when the president of the US visited. Everyone got two days off of school and some of the rumors were that they did that to have less traffic in the cities so that the kids and poverty wouldn't be seen as much. I kinda got complained at a bit that Obama never visits the poorest areas but I really didn't know what else to say but I really don't fallow politics that much and I agree he should come visit here.
Apulo sadly enough was the first place that I got legitimately sick. I started feeling bad like the third day and then the 4th I felt kinda better and the 5th and 6th (that weekend) is when I really got sick and couldn't really do a whole lot. On the 6th day I somehow gave a lot of classes of English and then only got sick in the night before I went to sleep but it was not a very fun series of days. The cool part about it was that I've really been starting to make progress with english teaching I think. They have the tools to practice which is what my goal was so now all they need to do is make more sentences and practice more and more. I'm finding it frustrating because I wanted them to do more conversation but they really don't like to try to talk much so I kinda fell back on the writing in your notebook method that most people do here. I think I'm gonna try and work on speaking more soon but I just need to figure out how to get pronunciation through to them.
Speaking of pronunciation I've been doing many games and been making pronunciation much more fun. I introduced the I want to eat ate apples and bananas song which was quite fun the only problem is that I'm never in a place long enough to really start to teach and have grades. I also don't feel like I should give grades because I'm just a volunteer and I don't actually work with the school. Thats where the problem starts because its so hard to get people to participate here and many of them have just given up on school and are just here because their parents want them to be or they like one subject or they want to finish 9th grade. To give you a perspective I out of a class of about 30 ninth grades two people did their homework from the last time I taught... If you have ideas of how I could have discipline and accountability when I'm not actually their official long term teacher please post or send me an email or facebook (deboodude@gmail.com) .
After the sick days the storm of work started. While I was sick and on the mend I had been talking with a school to see if I could go give classes but they principle wasn't there to give me the Okay and he didn't show up for 3 days or so. My family got in contact with another school farther away that had classes in the mornings and so we went to visit the 7th day when I was feeling better. They said I could start tomorrow. That same day all the kids I'd been teaching who live close to me started really stepping up their involvement and I got organized to teach in different groups because if I teach grammer and sentences to kids its just way over their head and they really don't understand whats the you or he or she or we form. I formed about 4 groups so that increased my time I needed to teach if I wanted to have my students with any kind of frequency. That same night the other principle showed up and met with me and asked if I could come visit the school tomorrow which I said yes to because it was in the afternoon... This was the beginning of the crazy day...
On Crazy day I got up and went to the doctor to drop off my poo test I took to see if I had a parasite... (I don't! ) Then I went straight to the other school and taught the I want to eat eight apples and bananas song to 3 different classes which was a ton of singing and I'm surprised I didn't loose my voice but I did drink about 1.5 liters of water during that strech that morning. Then we walked back in the heat of the day and took the bus the rest of the way once we got to where the bus stops. We got back around 12:40 and I ate a quick lunch and continued on to the other school where I taught another 3 classes until 5pm (some classes are 45 mins and some are 1hr 30 mins) After this I came home for about 30 mins and then went off to teach my classes with my students where I had on small lesson and then we made papusas and danced and watched step up 3 in Spanish. Overall I really was never that tired during the day and I can't quite figure out why but I think I taught pretty well also.
I've been continuing with my classes the other days this week and its really turned out to be a productive week although I haven't had much time to rest or write my blog. I've witnessed some really crazy things while I've been here and this community has been especially eye opening to me because of the people I've met and the stories I've heard of the issues they are having here.
Secrest Afuera!
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