Almost time for vacation...

Now for the news!

We´re wrapping up a school year here at Nuevo Mundo. Recent weeks saw me running like a madwoman to keep up with the pace. Since I review the content and grammar for ALL English language materials, finals week kept me moving. Lately I´ve had LOTS of grading to do thanks to our new, ´´experimental´´ system. We´re still working out some kinks, which means I made and graded about 225 exams in 4 days, and other teachers neither made nor graded any. Every year is another chance to get it right...right...? Also, since we´re moving to the IB system, which means lots of critical thinking work and essay-writing, I ended up with so many hours of grading (over 30!) that I recruited Jake. The vice principal Rodolfo took advantage Jake´s English fluency as well and had him grading History, Psychology, and Business exams. It´s been a crazy few weeks.

Now I´m into the somewhat uncomfortable phase in which I give feedback to teachers and make recommendations about who stays and who goes. I have at least 3 who are heading out the door, and one other I will strongly recommended we let go. I´ve never had my word carry weight in whether someone keeps or loses their job - it´s hard to be honest when I know that honesty will complicate the life of people I like personally, but don´t think can handle the job. Any tips from people with management experience?

Jake has been busy here at Mundo between grading and now teaching another weeklong prep course for incoming students. He has his hands full this time because they are Foundation students rather than morning school students. To refresh you, the morning school is composed of wealthy students, while the foundation draws from the poorer communities in Guayaquil and Duran. Understandably, the Foundation students are much less prepared, especially in English, and Jake found yesterday that even his simplest English and best acting couldn´t communicate his point. We´re forbidden from speaking Spanish, so he´ll have quite a week.

The weather here is getting insufferable (for a Midwesterner). Now, it´s even hot and sticky at night. We´re very lucky to have an air conditioner in one room of our house and this past week we finally gave in and turned it on. What a wonderful indulgence! Bugs have been awful - we get lots of ´´grillos´´ which are enormous crickets that find their way into the house no matter how well we close it. Then they hide in our clothes and sing all night to wake us up, so we spend 10 minutes every morning killing bugs. I´m not particularly squeamish, but even I´ll say it´s pretty gross, especially when you find them in your shoes in the morning.

The rains have held off here to the point that we´re experiencing water shortages. This doesn´t effect us because we´re repeat clients who empty an entire tanker of water into our cistern every time we call, so we´re a more profitable investment than the neighbors who ask for only a barrel or two. Even when the neighbors can´t get water, we can (it makes me a little uncomfortable to think about white privilege, but I also really like the fact that I´m not as vulnerable as my neighbors. It´s confusing to feel both of those). Again, to refresh, our neighborhood does not have running water and large tanker trucks full of non-potable water continuously circle through to fill up the buckets and barrels people place outside their houses and bring in, bucket by bucket, for showering and diswashing. We´re lucky enough to have a large, underground cistern and a pump that brings water to the tap in our house. Drinking water is available at the corner store and we buy it in large, company-water-cooler-size jugs. And when I say we, I mean Jake because I can barely carry that much liquid for three blocks and he chivalrously rises to the occasion. What a gentleman.

We´re both getting back into the swing of things. Going home and seeing friends and family was wonderful, but a little disorienting. It feels like THIS is the place I should be visiting, and THERE is the place I belong. Seeing you all for a brief vacation and then returning ´´home´´ to Ecuador felt strange and left me in limbo for a while. Finally, a few weeks later, my spirit is catching up to my body.

One of the volunteers, Steve, hosted his family here this week. What a treat to have other English speakers around! Jake and I are lucky to have the volunteers, but having new people with new stories is such a novelty. It´s strange to think that it´s a luxury to have companions you can easily communicate with but in a foreign country, it absolutely is.

Take care all, and feel free to comment here of via email!