I used to be so good about writing when I first moved to Venezuela, but now I can't even write something or post a picture once a week! Things have been great here though. I didn't get to write about this, but last week we had a day off and went hiking. A local friend, Elkin, took us down to a river to swim. The countryside around here is amazing. It was a short hike, but beautiful! Unfortunately, it was pouring rain for the majority of our hike and when we got to the river to swim. Everyone got in for at least a little while, but it was pretty cold. Hopefully we'll get to go back on a sunnier day. Today we're going to take a different hike; here's hoping the weather will be better for this one!
We've also had our first week of school! I have 19 kids and they're all pretty awesome. It's definitely a very chatty class, but that comes with the culture. Second grade is the first year that our kids have a foreign teacher, so it's going to take them a while to get used to the whole day in English. They're definitely not at a second grade level, but we'll try to get them as close as possible to being on grade level by the end. I think the later kids get immersed into their second language, the more difficult it is to be fluent in. I watched my kinders last year speaking fluently by the end of the year, but they were also with me in pre-k. Starting that early definitely has huge benefits. Those kids spoke multiple languages fluently and were on grade level and many even ahead. I'm pretty excited about this class though. They're funny. I already got my first funny little kid story. I had asked the students to write what they liked/didn't like to do. I was reading one boys answers and he wrote "I like to dance ketchup." Naturally, I was pretty confused. I asked what a "ketchup" dance is and he looked at me like I was crazy and says "teacher, ketchup you know like salsa" and then does a little salsa dance to show me. Good attempt at English kid, but the dance salsa doesn't get translated into ketchup like the food salsa does.
I don't have any pictures of what the school looks like yet, but here are some from our hike last week:
We've also had our first week of school! I have 19 kids and they're all pretty awesome. It's definitely a very chatty class, but that comes with the culture. Second grade is the first year that our kids have a foreign teacher, so it's going to take them a while to get used to the whole day in English. They're definitely not at a second grade level, but we'll try to get them as close as possible to being on grade level by the end. I think the later kids get immersed into their second language, the more difficult it is to be fluent in. I watched my kinders last year speaking fluently by the end of the year, but they were also with me in pre-k. Starting that early definitely has huge benefits. Those kids spoke multiple languages fluently and were on grade level and many even ahead. I'm pretty excited about this class though. They're funny. I already got my first funny little kid story. I had asked the students to write what they liked/didn't like to do. I was reading one boys answers and he wrote "I like to dance ketchup." Naturally, I was pretty confused. I asked what a "ketchup" dance is and he looked at me like I was crazy and says "teacher, ketchup you know like salsa" and then does a little salsa dance to show me. Good attempt at English kid, but the dance salsa doesn't get translated into ketchup like the food salsa does.
I don't have any pictures of what the school looks like yet, but here are some from our hike last week:
UTP - one of the universities here in Pereira
Right before we started hiking
The trail we were walking on
We had to cross this tiny little bridge
River
Swimming
On our way back some branches had fallen over our path
Nice scenery
Super pretty view of part of Pereira
Andrew dressed in indigenous formalwear. =)
