From Hostel to Home...Life in Guate

flashmobtastic

i've been taking spanish lessons for quite some time now, but i NEVER use it! at school, the children are required to speak english in the classroom, and especially in my class, it's time for them to practice their english. all the teachers speak english. ben and i only speak to each other in english, so needless to say, i have little to no practice. because ben at least has a base of spanish from high-school, he calls the taxi's and communicates enough for us both to get by. i'll be the first to admit that i'm a perfectionist, and the fear of not knowing how to formulate complete sentences without mistakes, scares me a bit.

conquering all types of fears on our travels, i've decided it's time for me to venture out on my own and make mistakes. i'm going to continue to not learn if i continue to not try. so, today i called my own taxi and made it to the mall all by myself. sounds silly, but it's a big step when ben does all the communicating for both of us.

i had a super delicious lunch and sat alone reading a book. it was pretty much the best sunday in awhile. i think my cappuccino tasted better because i ordered it without any help...

to top things off...when i was coming out of zara, a FLASH MOB appeared out of nowhere. i've only seen them on youtube, so it was pretty darn exciting.

flashmobtastic!

it's been a perfect sunday. because i'm not stranded on the side of the road in fear of being robbed, i think this solo sunday needs to become a routine for my spanish skills. a large part of me already has one foot out the door knowing we're leaving for malaysia next year, but another part of me is sad knowing how long we've been here and i still don't speak the language. today was a big step in gaining back my independence, and it feels good.

 

fotos de el salvador

feliz fin de semana, los presidentes días

THIS is where we'll be spending the weekend! a three day weekend in el salvador is just what we need to get rejuvenated until spring break in panama. ben and are all some lucky ducks these days.

i think i'm most excited for a lobster dinner on the beach. life is good, and lobster makes it even better. i'll take pictures and write a bit of our adventures when we get back.

i hope the lack of comments to the post below is going to result in a massive amounts of letters coming my way:)

much love...

Dear Barnabus,

I recently found out that my group of kids from Lummi have been checking up on me and they are going to write me letters! I miss that group of students so much, and I'm really looking forward to getting their messages. It got me thinking...maybe others who read my blog would be willing to write me a letter too! It would be awesome to get a hand written letter telling me about daily life and what's been happening back home. Emails are fun, but letters are better. If you do write me, I promise to write you back and send a small trinket from Guate.

Here is an example of daily life for me in Guate...

god awful time a.m.- My alarm went off at 5:00 am, and I rolled out of bed just to turn on the water heater, and then crawled back for warmth and more sleep.

5:30 a.m.-Round two of my alarm happens, and this time I have to get out of bed and sleepwalk through my routine. coffee, shower, get dressed, check email and catch the teacher bus. My world would be so different if I was given just one more hour of sleep, just one.

6:15 a.m.- Ben and I are the first stop for the bus, so we drive around the city collecting the rest of the teachers before heading up the hill to school. It's been chilly and winter-like lately.

7:30 a.m.- I start waking up and ready to talk at about 7:30, right when the kids are arriving to school. Making copies, responding to emails, checking plan book and drinking coffee are pretty much the morning school routine.

8:00-9:15 a.m.- Let the teaching begin...2nd grade ESOL! I love this group of kids and they have made so much progress this year. We're currently working on a Jan Brett study and they are writing stories using her; wonderful words, dialogue, illustrations, animals as characters, and of course they'll throw in a hedgehog somewhere in their illustrations.

9:30-10:30 a.m.- Kindergarten intervention time! I pull a small group of kids from class and we work on sight words, sounds and letters. Today was the letter "B" and they drew as many things they could find in the room that start with "B" and then sounded them out.

10:35-11:20 a.m.- (B days) Middle school LRC (learning resource center) 7th and 8th grade boys who are all working on different things. (A days) 5th grade LRC

11:20-12:00- Planning

12:00-12:40- Lunch

12:40-1:20- Planning

1:25-2:50 p.m.- 1st grade ESOL. Yet another awesome group of kids that are super smart and fun to teach. They're working on rain forest and non-fiction writing. Yesterday they did a writing project "who am I?" and had to describe a plant or animal from the rain forest.

3:00-4:00 p.m.- At school doing work, wishing I was at home.

4:00-4:45 p.m.- Teacher bus driving down the hill, and we're the last to get off the bus. First ones on, last ones off, hate it!

5:00-6:00 p.m.- Chat with Ben about day and read blogs/facebook/news

6:00- 7:00 p.m.- make dinner and get ready for work the next day

7:00-9:00 p.m.- watch t.v.

9:00 p.m.- go to sleep and get ready to repeat

This is what daily life is like for me in Guatemala. If you've read this, write me and tell me what's going on in your world, and I would love to read it! I may not get comments on my blog, but I know people out there read it, so please consider writing me a letter, even if I don't know you...if you could add in a photo for us to hang on our fridge, that would also make me smile and remind us that our friends and family are close.

 

Sherri LoCurto

Colegio Maya Section 0280
PO Box 02-5289
Miami, FL 33102-5289

P.S. I hope to hear from you soon:)

Sincerly,

Sherri

 

decisions

one of the struggles of living abroad and having massive amounts of time off from work is deciding where to travel to next. i know, it's a real bummer. should we go to belize, honduras, costa rica and the latest talk is panama! panama? really? it's one of the countries we can go to reset our passports because our working visas are on hold due to both our paperwork being lost in the mail. flying from guatemala city to panama city is $230 round trip and sounds perfect.

chairs just waiting for ben and i to make our decision, and add one for our friend who is joining us.
snorkeling, reading a good book, adventures, food, shopping, boat rides, plane rides, bus rides, white sand and so much more is just the way i want to spend spring break!

small moment

it was the 100th day of school on thursday, and if you teach kindergarten through second grade, you know this day compares to halloween, christmas, birthdays, etc.

randomly enough, this book Emily's first 100 days of school references my small hometown in california. for day "29" there is an animal who is from 29 palms california. i was helping out in kindergarten when i heard the teacher read the page and my jaw dropped. i announced that i actually grew up in 29 palms california and the kids now think that i'm some kind of movie star or something.

this small moment made me overwhemled with excitement to be a general education teacher again. i'm not sure why this random connection made me want to speed up time and start setting up my own classroom community coming this fall.

i've learned a lot as an esol teacher, and my students couldn't be more amazing, but i'm ready to be a teacher again.