Ze Project

This week, I began work at my project, which is called La Esperanza and is an elementary school for disadvantaged children. The school provides free education that is financed by sponsors, with each child receiving education, books, a free lunch and school supplies that are paid for by their sponsor. The average cost of sponsoring an Esperanza child is 3000 Quetzales a year, the equivalent of 400$CAN.
Claudia and I teach Monday to Thursday, from 7:45am to 11:45am, and we teach three classes a day. Mondays and Wednesdays we see the 6th, 5th and 4th graders, and Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach the two 3rd grade classes and the adult students, in a class called Nufed. These 3 students are between 18 and 22 years old and are completing their elementary education over one or two years. In the past, the only English teachers they have had at the school have been volunteers who came for two weeks or so and played games with the children. Therefore, it is exciting that we get to structure some intensive, regular classes with the kids so they can really progress in their language learning! We plan our classes around their language level and the consistant nature of our teaching is really making a difference. Plus, the kids are just great!! They laugh until they fall off their chairs and smile all the time. They participate with gusto in all the activities, and they sing when we walk into the class!! It's really really cute... One of the teachers learned a bit of French in the past and has taught his students to yell "Comment ca va?" at us as we walk in!!
This week, we got to visit a coffee farm just outside of Antigua, and since I certainly love a great cup'a joe it was cool to follow the steps of coffee production. And Chantale and my Fair Trade peeps will be happy to hear that they are Fair Trade certified!!!! I took lots of pictures of the sign displaying the Transfair logo and I was so encouraged to see that trade practices are slowly changing, even in this little central american country!
I also got to travel to Semuc-Champe and Coban this weekend, where I swam in turquoise pools next to caves and listened to horrible Guatemalan polka music (don't ask) and go tubing down a river with a Cuba Libre (rum and Coke) in one hand and frantically paddling away from the rapids with the other. Good times!! Oh, and I found a giant tarantula in my clothes on Sunday morning. Never will a wimpy Canadian Daddylonglegs make me wimper, ever again. Pictures on my Facebook page!!
That's all for now, more to follow!!