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.