Recent photos/fotos recientes

Decorating the tree in Jalpa / Adornando el arbol en Jalpa

Perla and Lolita, the presents, make their costumes for our play / perla y Lolita, los regalos, hacen sus disfrazes para la obra de teatro.

Oscar's extremely well-decorated cookies / Las galletas bien adornadas de Oscar

Me and the lovely Naomy at her 15th birthday party / Yo y la bonita Naomy en su quinceaños  

Camping at the presa in Santa Rosa / Acampando en la presa de Santa Rosa

Leaving the campsite, Dan poses for the camera / Saliendo de Santa Rosa, Dan posa por la cámara

Christmas in San Miguel

     So it looks very much like I've survived not only the first semester of teaching at the Rural Education Institute of Mexico, but also the prophesied End of the World As We Know It. Guess the Mayans screwed up. Or, you know, something written a thousand years ago was - gasp! - misinterpreted.

     The semester finished up pretty well, with the Christmas concert coming off as smoothly as could be expected. The middle-schoolers sang quietly but well, and the primary class plays were hilarious. Arturo, the world's biggest space cadet, played the part of the sad Christmas tree whose ornaments are fighting over their respective places on his branches. He was covered in tinsel, painted green, wrapped in lights and actually plugged in. Although we told him many times, "Arturo, once you're plugged in, you CANNOT MOVE", he insisted on shuffling forward to the microphone cautiously and painfully slowly every time he had to recite a line. He was a big hit. The middle-school media projects also went over well. One of the girls in the pollution group even recited her speech in English, which I think impressed both the guests and the parents a fair amount. Another highlight of the evening was the gift I received from Fernanda, a quirky and outgoing little girl. It was nicely wrapped up in pink tissue paper - and it was a marshmallow.

     Finally, after having been at the school for almost twelve hours - teaching three classes, mopping floors, filling home-made piñatas, scraping paper-mache from the tables, organizing sixty kids, greeting guests, and setting up and taking down decorations, someone made us a stiff drink and fed us and drove us home. It was around ten o'clock but it felt like three in the morning. And although I think it was a pretty decent success, I am very, very glad to be on vacation! Already I've spent a couple nights camping and attended one of my students' quinceanera party. Now it's time to relax and get into the Christmas spirit. Though I'll miss my amazing, un-frazzle-able co-teacher Erin and our "fearless leader" Catherine this Christmas, I hope they're having a wonderful time in California/Oregon and Toronto. If you guys are reading this, please enjoy the colder weather for me and Catherine for the love of god eat some sushi!

     Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, Feliz Navidad, Happy New Year, or whatever floats your boat to everyone. Que la pasen muy bien!

Recent photos

Erin, at the Botanical Garden's "natural art" exposition

Juana Dolores, one of my primary students

The piglets in Jalpa! So distracting.

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Where in the World is Bob Marley?

Hey guys,

Here at the Rural Education Institute, Erin, Catherine, and I have been all hands on deck putting the Christmas concert together. We've got students writing plays, making luminaries and piñatas, and putting together some interesting media projects. The show is less than two weeks away and I personally am feeling the pressure to get everything done; posters and tickets are made, songs have been chosen, and skits have been written, but we're still working on logistics like sound system, program, rehearsals, costumes, and our putting together our own teacher song and dance for the students.

My morning primary class was, as usual, a dream this week. They've written an exceptionally cute play about a Christmas tree whose ornaments fight over their spots on his branches until they learn that the true meaning of Christmas is sharing with your friends. So as you can imagine, we've got a lot of cardboard to paint this week - some kids are playing the roles of presents, while others are Christmas bells, balls, or stars. And of course, there is the role of the tree himself - brilliantly portrayed by Arturo, my class' biggest space cadet. We're even hoping to dress him up in some Christmas lights.

We played a pretty rousing game of music geography in the middle-school class this week - I played songs from all over the world and they worked in teams to guess the genre, country, and locate it on the world map. They guessed Vicente Fernandez in about 0.0005 seconds, and Daddy Yankee was also popular. They struggled with Bob Marley ("Japan??? France???") and looked appalled and confused when I played "La Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. They were, however, familiar with Wagner from movie soundtracks. The game got pretty heated, actually - when I tried to leave it as a tie there was general outrage. Middle-schoolers are so competitive.

We had a really nice class in Jalpa this week - Erin helped most of the kids make bracelets and earrings, while I took the ones who wanted to out to play soccer. Even most of the boys wanted to make jewellery  and some of our "tough guys" looked pretty cute as they proudly displayed the sparkly butterfly necklaces or shiny earrings they had made. It was such a hit that we'll do it again on Monday; the class finally earned their party for filling up the good behaviour bottle with beans!

Thanks for reading, as always.

Recent photos

Paloma and Angela, eating chetos

Chris, studiously drawing a flamingo

The charming Jesus Alberto on puppet-making day

Erin in Jalpa, playing "Palabra Escondida" ("Hidden Word")...
little do they know it's just a quiz with a fun name

Cafe Tacuba!

Waiting for the bus from La Palma during a beautiful sunset

Penpals and Prizes and Pogs, OH MY!

We got a lot accomplished this week. We filmed a very cute video in the La Palma morning class, which you can view here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp3ukqFEI6o. 

The kids were really excited to see themselves on camera and are looking forward to starting work on our Christmas play. We also sent letters to our penpals, my mom's kindergarten class! We wrote exclusively in English, and I'm really proud of the students for taking such care with their letters. They had to give their name and age, describe themselves, talk about what they like to do, and say what they want to be when they grow up. My favourite is the devilishly cute Arturo: "Hello. I am Arturo. I am in grade four. I am handsome. Goodbye." 

The secundaria projects are really coming along, although our group of little environmentalists needs to learn to focus their energy a bit better. They've got a lot of ideas - some of which are coherent and some of which are, well, less coherent. I'm looking forward to working more with them on Tuesday; there are a lot of bright students working on the project and I think if they develop a clearer sense of direction they could produce something pretty powerful. It was also a good week for music - we practiced our songs without background vocals for the first time and I think it really boosted their confidence.

The afternoon class has made some really great collages in the style of Eric Carle (of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" fame) with Erin. She's been teaching colours and animals in English, so the kids got some computer time this week to type up a little nametag for their collage. I was working the computer lab yesterday and I have to admit that I might rather listen to Justin Beiber all day than work the computer lab. Especially on a full moon. The kids were a little wild yesterday, and our dinosaur-like computers are frustrating enough as it is. Erin must be a goddess for what she manages to get done in there - by the end of class, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and spacing had gone out the window, along with my sanity.

That being said, there were some great moments. I showed tough-guy Pablo how to use the arrow buttons and he excitedly showed the kid next to him, nodded sagely, and said, "Pretty cool, hey?" Little Miguel Angel made his collage of a deer. I asked him to give it a name, and he just looked at me the way my cat does when I try to get her to play. Like, "Seriously?" Then he wrote, "My name is Deer. I am a brown deer." Creativity is soooo beneath Miguel Angel. I also feel like I've made some ins with the boys, due mainly to my impressive hat trick in Tuesday's street soccer match and my accidental but effective tackle of the other team's star midfielder, Rodrigo. 

In Jalpa, the first of our students earned their prizes for attending the last five out of five classes. It was just TOO MUCH FREAKING EXCITEMENT to handle - the knowledge that there was a basket of pogs, stickers, glittery pens, and headbands just out of reach led to some pretty energetic students. With prizes, the possibility of earning their "good behaviour party" next week, and the Christmas party coming up on top of that, things were a bit chaotic. However, in general, a lot of students have really turned it around in Jalpa. It's been especially nice to see the girls work exceptionally hard at something other than gossip, and hearing tiny Alejandro correctly pronounce "mouse" is one of the cutest things ever.

I also went to a fantastic Cafe Tacuba concert on Wednesday! And I'll be teaching another yoga class tomorrow. Next week we'll also have the talented Brendan all the way from Canada to accompany us on guitar and help out in a game of "musical genre geography". Looking forward to another productive week and gathering steam for the Christmas concert....

As always, thanks for reading. Check out the new photos. 

-Natalia

Fotos recientes

Camping in the Sierra Santa Rosa

El llano? Los llanos? We'll never know.

Iglesia in Leon

International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Leon

The lovely Estefania

Teeny-tiny revolutionaries

Dancers at the school in Rancho Viejo

Fifth-grader Cielo de la Paz, una mujer de la revolucion

Viva la Revolución! Tiny Pancho Villas and other wonders of patriotism in Mexico

    Today, November 20th, celebrates the 102nd anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. Celebrations are big - there are parades and every schoolchild is involved. Upon the request of our students (and out of curiosity as well), Erin and I headed out to La Palma early today to check out the festivities and see our kids in the parade. We arrived to deserted streets only to be informed that the kids had already gone past! We rushed down the road to Rancho Viejo, following the many little footprints in the dust. I felt like Mantracker. Finally we located the school just before the parade returned, and saw lots of our students dressed up as little revolutionaries. There were traditional dances (SO CUTE) and some sort of re-enactment which involved a lot of giggling girls picking up would-be wounded soldiers and carrying them off the field of battle. The boys were dropped none too gently and each one looked more terrified than the last at the gaggle of long skirts and braids rushing towards them. The program was really sweet, and it was cool to see our students performing.

     It's been a busy couple of weeks as usual in La Palma and in Jalpa. We've been working on our Adobe projects with the secundaria students, and despite their perpetual embarrassment and incredible eye-rolling stamina, they are coming along. We had one group editing their photos today, and another taking theirs with costumes and props. It's great how different the two projects are - I won't spoil the surprise by revealing too much but I think they'll be very interesting. We also had a guest lecture from the multi-talented Dan (he can play keyboard! AND he can lecture on ethical consumption!), which I think was really useful for the group working on environmental issues. 

     In primaria, we've been working on understanding a Zapotec myth called, "How the rainbow was born". It's been a steep learning curve for me in terms of what I expected of the kids and what they've actually learned, but I think we're starting to get somewhere with it. Today I got them to writ in role as a character and I got some very cute responses. On Thursday we will be filming them speaking their parts, showing off their puppets, and sending the video to our Canadian penpals - my mom's kindergarten class. 

     I've posted some photos from the last couple weeks. Check them out, and thanks for reading, as usual.

Reggaeton and Respect

     This week we had an interesting mix of themes. In Jalpa, Erin ran some awesome role-playing activities with the kids based around the concept of respect for the class and for one another. It was fun to watch the kids channel their (extremely high levels of) energy into acting out scenarios such as what to do when your donkey eats your neighbour's plants, or how to nicely tell your friend that he shouldn't be climbing on the roof of the school. Believe it or not, that scenario has been very frequently encountered. I also brought my guitar and played a few songs for them. Jalpa has rarely been so quiet! And I've never seen anyone so thoroughly fascinated by a capo. When I showed them how it changed the key of the guitar, it was as if I'd performed magic before their eyes. Hopefully I'll be able to learn a few simple Spanish songs so we can have sing-a-longs.

     In La Palma, my morning primary class has started work on our "Latin American Myths" unit. Over the next few weeks, we'll be reading legends, learning where different stories come from, performing a puppet show based on the Zapotec legend, "How the Rainbow Was Born", and ultimately writing and illustrating our own myths. While I'm grateful that my class is so quiet and well-behaved that we can accomplish this much, I'm interested to see if acting will bring them out of their shells a little bit more or if they'll be too shy to enjoy it. As we've noticed some cliques in the class, I'll be borrowing some ideas from Erin and running role-play activities around themes of respect and inclusion next week. It should be good practice for presenting a puppet show! And if they like performing, we'll look at writing a play for the Christmas concert.

     On Tuesday and Thursday, we learned about different characters in the myth and started to make our puppets. I gave the kids lots of supplies, and the googly eyes proved to be a big hit. So far their puppets look amazing! They've all turned out very differently and I think making the set will be a lot of fun too.

     Yesterday's music class with the secundaria group was great. They've started to participate a lot more (although we still need to work on integrating the two boys, who sit separately at the back and seem to think their female classmates have cooties). Our class theme yesterday was reggaeton, a popular musical genre in Latin America, and music's influence more generally on its listeners/viewers. Although I made them read a pretty dry academic article, they did a really good job of summarizing and critiquing it. We discussed the difference between "liking" something and "identifying with" something, and they criticized the author's bias against reggaeton. We then watched some music videos (and ate some chips, as I'd promised), listening to the lyrics and talking about what message the videos were sending to their viewers. It was funny to see these teenagers so scandalized by scantily clad women dancing sexily, and I was predictably stoked when one student even referred to the women in the videos as "objects". Go feminism! I also enjoyed watching Pablo, the painfully quiet boy in the class, get pretty damn into it when we listened to Calle 13. Behind his fingerless gloves and heavy metal T-shirts, that boy's got taste.

     We also started to learn a new song for the Christmas concert, John Lennon's "Imagine". We're going to be singing in English this time, and they practiced the pronunciation very diligently. I'm already looking forward to the Christmas event, although I know I'll be even more giddily exhausted than after Day of the Dead. 

     Overall, it was a pretty successful week. I can't believe we're almost halfway through the semester already - I'm going to be incredibly sad to leave my amazing co-workers and my brilliant, hilarious students.

Fotos del evento/Event photos

Erin helping my morning class with their paper mache calaveras.

Ale and Hector, more interested in painting each other than their projects...

The always-calm Erin

Some of the primary students in La Palma

The kids' altar, organized by the dynamic fifth-grader Remedios. In her words, "Not bad for just kids!"

Perla and Carolina, two middle-school students

Reveling in the success of their song...

Best-dressed goes to Alma Luz la Catrina!

At the end of a very long week...

    Hey guys,

  This week was a little bit wild. In addition to teaching our regular classes, we also hosted two Day of the Dead events, one in Jalpa on Wednesday night and the other in La Palma on Thursday. We spent Monday and Tuesday making paper mache skulls with three of our classes, and Wednesday and Thursday painting them. I have never had to do so much laundry. The calaveras turned out pretty well and the kids seemed to enjoy the project, although I would personally be very happy if I never, ever had to mix paste again in my life. Ever. Painting was also a bit of an adventure - while we had lots of generously donated paints from, I assume, some of the many artists in San Miguel, the colours weren't exactly child-friendly. What 8-year-old wants to paint in "Victorian Grey" or "Winter Light"? I had a brief moment of panic over the lack of primary colours, but the kids didn't seem to care at all.

     Our little party in Jalpa turned out really well, with students bringing snacks and some of their parents supplying food. It was great to meet some of the families as we don't know the community in Jalpa very well and in the past, communicating with parents has been challenging. At six fifteen we cleaned up and locked up the classroom, and then realized that our ride hadn't shown up! Jalpa is 15 km from the highway and at least a half-hour drive from San Miguel. There is also no phone service in town, and the last bus leaves at six, so we were stranded until we had the luck of hitching a ride back to the city in the back of a Sapasma pick-up.

     Thursday was an incredibly long day - we taught three classes in La Palma from eleven until five and then organized and cleaned for the Day of the Dead event, which went from six to nine. Despite how hectic everything was, the event was a success (I'd say, at least). Almost all of our students came and many brought their families; some families set up their altars outside the community center, and about twenty or thirty guests from San Miguel also celebrated with us, including tourists, ex-pats, volunteers, and board members. The students in Erin's afternoon primary class organized and built their own group altar, which was incredibly sweet. It was nice to see them taking initiative and working together so well. My middle-schoolers were wonderful, reading brief speeches they had written about the event and performing as a choir for the first time. A lot of effort went into this event - staff, volunteers, students, and parents worked hard to pull it off. I've got to give an extra thank-you to Salomon and Dan for accompanying us and to Cinthia for painting so many faces!

     It was amazing to see how my class celebrated after finishing their speeches and their song - I am so proud of them and I'm already looking forward to the Christmas Concert. Although I'm still exhausted, and last night's party for my boss' birthday was a much-needed break from work! Check out the photos I've posted of the event here, and thanks as always for reading.

Fotos recientes/Recent photos

Calaveras de azucar

View from La Bufa in Guanajuato

Selling tickets in Plaza Civica

Ginger, with a very unfortunate lizard.

Dia de muertos: 1 y 2 de noviembre / Day of the Dead: November 1 and 2

    Hola! Hemos estado trabajando mucho para nuestros eventos del Día de Muertos en Jalpa y en La Palma. La semana pasada, en las escuelas, hablamos de las celebraciones tradicionales que han experimentado los nios, escribimos calaveras literarias y hicimos crucigramas de términos importantes de esos días especiales. Afuera de las escuelas, Catherine, Erin y yo hemos organizado las cosas para las fiestas del la organización en ambas comunidades. En Jalpa, porque no hay tanto apoyo de las familias, sólo vamos a hacer una pequeña fiesta para los alumnos, y esperemos que vengan algunas padres y madres de familia tambien. En preparación, ésta semana vamos a hacer y pintar calaveras de papel mache como un proyecto de arte que pueden mostrar a sus familias. Ya estoy preparándome para un gran desórden, especialmente en Jalpa...

    En La Palma, tenemos un evento más grande. Vendimos boletos los últimos dos fines de semana para que vengan gente de San Miguel y otros turistas a conocer el trabajo de la fundación, apoyar a los estudiantes y ayudar nuestro programa de becas. Los niños van a mostrar proyectos de arte, y mi coro va a cantar una versión de “La llorona” (vamos a ver como sale – son muy tímidos..). Unas familias van a presentar sus altares y las mamás traerán comida tradicional como el atole, el pozole, los tamales y los bolillos. Tenemos la ayuda del maravilloso guitarrista Salomón y su novia talentosa Cinthia, quien va a pintar las caras del coro como Catrinas y Catrines. Ojalá que vengan muchos; los estudiantes han trabajado mucho para hacer el evento y creo que va a ser muy chido. 

     Hey! We've been hard at work the last couple weeks planning our events for Day of the Dead in Jalpa and La Palma. For those of you that don't know, Day of the Dead is a traditional Mexican celebration honouring departed friends and family members. It is a Prehispanic custom which has mixed with Catholic European traditions to form a celebration not found anywhere else in the world. It is NOT Mexican Halloween. Day of the Dead actually takes place over two days, November 1st and 2nd - the first being a day for children and the second a larger, more general celebration. Families make altars for their loved ones, covering them in flor de cempasuchitl (marigolds, I think?), pan de muerto ("bread of the dead", a special kind of sweet bread), crosses made of salt, calaveras (candy skulls made of sugar and marzipan), and laying out offerings of all the things the dead ones loved in life... including cigarettes, tequila, or certain kinds of food. In some parts of Mexico, families may exhume and clean the bones of their deceased relatives every year. Judging from the looks on the faces of my primary class when I told them that, it doesn't happen in Guanajuato!

     This year, we are having two events: one in Jalpa, just for students and their families, and one in La Palma, for which we sell tickets in San Miguel to raise funds for our scholarship program.  This week we'll be making paper mache skulls with our students in both communities as an art project they can show off to their families and hopefully to some visitors from San Miguel or elsewhere. My middle schoolers are going to have their first choir performance, too - they'll sing "La llorona", a traditional Mexican folksong, with the accompaniment of the talented Salomon on guitar and, hopefully, I'll add some spooky keyboard effects. We'll see how it goes.... they're pretty shy. The moms in the community are bringing mountains of amazing traditional food for the guests, and we'll have four altars set up in the front yard by various families. I think it'll be a really special, moving event, and I hope lots of people come because our students have worked hard to prepare for this. 

The ex-hacienda, now an uber-fancy exclusive hotel for the super rich, in Jalpa

Iron and Wine

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a bag of liquor with a lime freezie attached!

The Black Keys

Laying down the law

     Let's have a bit of background first... I went straight from work on Thursday night to Mexico City, where I stayed for a night before going to Cuernavaca for a concert by Los amigos invisibles (check them out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_elMlX4CAtY). I returned to el D.F. early Saturday morning and spent the next two days and nights at the incredible but exhausting Corona Capital music festival -  90,000 hipsters and counting. On Sunday night, I went straight from the festival grounds to the bus station and spent the night on a bus and several hours on a bench in the Queretaro bus station, finally arriving home in San Miguel at 9 a.m., just in time to catch a couple hours of sleep before work. It was an amazing, stellar weekend but I was (and still am) definitely a little worse for wear, with a killer headache, a cold, and sleep deprivation. So imagine my delight when, at the end of a tough class in Jalpa, our newest students jam the door shut with sticks and lock us in the building! Thanks to the assistance of our mischievous but ultimately sweet student Jovani and our trusty driver Richard, we were finally able to escape with most of our dignity but very little of our patience intact. 

     Jalpa is a tough class... the kids are a little wild, and there is very little in the way of family and community support. It's unfortunate, because we have some difficult but sweet kids who really want to learn, but whose classes are constantly interrupted by more disruptive students. After a hellish class on Wednesday, Erin and I decided today to lay down the law, going over the rules the students created themselves, separating a particularly chatty group of girls with a lot of attitude, and refusing entry to students whose behaviour was violent or exceptionally disruptive. Evidently, they didn't like it. Still, there were bright spots, like the always-tough Manuel, who, after letting off some steam on the soccer field, came to apologize to us for his behaviour before class. There was also the noisy and energetic Adrian, who asked me if we could have English class again soon - it's nice to know that in between driving us crazy, some of these kids really want to be there. 

     Anyways, we're not giving up. Although Richard, a volunteer driver for five years, says that it can't be done, we're going to turn this class around in no time. And I'm going to get a free dinner out of it too when he loses our bet. 

Fotos recientes...

At the bullfight - the female matador

Classroom in La Palma

The schoolyard - I'm already in trouble with the boys for kicking the soccer ball into a cactus.

Mojigangas; one of San Miguel's endless parades

Families watching the bullfights from their roof.

Sobrevivimos! We made it!

     Well, it's the end of week one in the classrooms and we are still alive. And unlike my first week of teaching in Colombia, I wasn't even driven to tears once! Things actually went pretty well, and my classes seem like they're full of really great kids. While there are two teachers, and we both work in every class, I plan and teach the morning primary and middle-school classes in la Palma, while Erin has the (considerably more rowdy) afternoon primary class in La Palma and the primary class in Jalpa. 

     My primary class contains seven very shy students between the ages of 8 and 12, although we expect seven or eight more students from Tierra Blanca, a nearby pueblito, to trickle in next week. This week we worked on basic introductory things like rule- and goal-setting, icebreakers, and getting a sense of the kids' levels of literacy in Spanish and English. I think this is going to be a good group. They're definitely a lot calmer than their afternoon counterparts, none of whom embody even the slightest bit of shyness. Two classes and it's already easy to identify a gossipy clique of fifth-grade girls and Juan Pablo, the 9-year-old holy menace ironically named for the Pope. 

     The middle-schoolers are pretty typical middle-schoolers; they're expert eye-rollers with impressive under-the-table texting abilities. They're a nice bunch of teenagers, though, and I think that once they come out of their shells a bit more we'll have a lot of fun. Yesterday was our first music class and I would actually consider it a success! We discussed different types of music and why music education matters, and by the end of the class we even had some pretty well-developed definitions of terms like tone, rhythm, and beat. We did some singing, which was mainly a lot of giggling, and then we brainstormed song ideas for the Christmas concert. Since I let every group of students generate a list of possible songs, I have a pretty bizarre weekend of music ahead of me. I'm definitely going to be using my executive power to veto Justin Bieber and One Direction. Still, it was great to see the students get excited about music. Even the boys were singing! 

     We're all pretty exhausted right about now; we've worked a lot this week and things are only going to get busier from here, especially with the Dia de los Muertos events creeping up on us and trying to plan for the Christmas Concert. I'm looking forward to a weekend of cool stuff at the Cervantino festival with my coworker Catherine and learning to play my donated electric guitar with the lovely and talented Salomon and Cinthia tonight. They always have tequila, too. 

A few recent shots....

Spider guarding my hot water tank

Late afternoon in the city

Bowlful of tunas from the tianguis

Hopefully we'll add to REIMEX's instrument collection... donations anyone?