First week of school

Today is the 6th day of the school year. Class has already been canceled twice- once for a regional meeting and today because the national teacher's union has organized strike.

The students in Chimurria are on strike, too. Over half of the students haven't been coming to school because their parents have issues with the principal. Half of the teachers want to switch schools. The whole feeling at school this past week has been tense. Everyone is on edge and nervous, anxious to see how this whole thing will end. I've been trying hard to be as uninvolved in the drama as possible. The organizers of the parent/student strike are some of my closest community friends. I work alongside the principal and she is one of my biggest supporters as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I think both parties are being too extreme, but there is no way that I'm going to speak my mind and get mixed up in this mess. I understand where both sides are coming from, and where both of their faults lie. I've decided that the best road for me to take is to duck and cover and wait for this whole thing to blow over. I don't want to mess up my professional relationship at the school with my principal and with the other teachers. I don't want to cause any tension with my friends in my community. So, I'm doing my best to keep my mouth shut- which is hard- and remain a neutral party. I think in another week everything will be resolved, my fingers are crossed.

Needless to say, teaching at Chimurria has been a challenge. With only half of the students coming we don't want to go over too much material because we know the other kids will eventually come and need to catch up. The kids who do come to school are perceptive of the anxious tension in the air and are being more timid than usual. But, silver lining, I have a whole goodie bag of new teaching supplies that the students at Evergreen sent down! So I have a lot of ideas and new activities to use with the kids who are coming to school. We are mostly doing review stuff (greetings, goodbyes, basic introductions). So far the most successful tool I've used has been a cd of children's songs by David Grover. I've used 2 of his songs to review greetings in 1st-3rd grade, and they've both been a hit. I've also been using the cd as background music for games like "hot potato." The songs are incredibly helpful in lightening up the classroom and taking the kids out of their shells. Thank you Evergreen Community!!!

Teaching at La Maravilla has been entertaining. La Maravilla is tiny- less than 40 students in grades 1-6. The vibe there is much more relaxed. Last Thursday the kindergarten teacher bought a full grown chicken from another teacher and the transaction took place at school. During school said chicken was tied to a tree so that she wouldn't run away. At one point the chicken hid herself under a bush and the kindergarten teacher got worried that she had escaped. In order to keep a better eye on her, she put her in a rice bag and decided that the best place to hang her would be in the classroom where we were teaching English. So all during English class there was a chicken hanging from the wall in a rice bag. The chicken was too traumatized to make any noise and I think the students weren't really phased by it. I was the only one who was distracted. I kept worrying about the chicken, thinking that if she got scared and started moving around too much that the bag could fall to the floor. Thankfully, she never fell, and now she's out of the rice bag at her new home at the kindergarten teacher's house.

It's been a weird week.