Out of "The Zone"

After a week and a half of lounging and getting somewhat acclimated to Port, we started work at the schools this week. I spent Monday and Tuesday at Colegio Niño Jesús and Wednesday and today at Escuela Maureen Courtney. Since we got here toward the end of their school years (which run from mid-February through November), it has been a bit of a challenge to find our niche within the school schedule, and it has caused to feel a little out of place, out of "the zone."

Colegio Niño Jesús is a Primary and Secondary school (age of Primary schools kids range from about 6-12, while Secondary school is usually between ages 10 and 16. I know there's some overlap there, but that's how it is!), and there seems to be less of a need for us at this school for the time-being. The kids in primary school have class from 7:30am until 11:45am. The secondary schools kids are in class from 12:20 to 5:20 (there's no lunch program for the schools, and I think that contributes to the schedule. That and the fact that there are a limited number of classrooms and having all the kids there at the same time wouldn't work.) I'll probably mainly end up teaching English there once or twice a day for the last couple months of the school year, and then I'm hoping to find a greater calling once we start planning the school schedule in January.

Escuela Maureen Courtney is a Primary school that also serves kids with special needs. The age range of the kids here is much greater, from between 6 years to "kids" in their 20s. The younger grades (1st through 3rd) come to school in the morning, and the older grades (4th through 6th) come to school in the afternoon. In both the morning and afternoon sessions, there are special needs classrooms and a "nivelación" classroom, specifically designed for getting certain kids up to speed, or "nivelado." As there are many kids with delays, cognitive challenges, diagnosed "handicaps", or any other challenge, there is a significant need for individual attention. It seems I'll be offering a couple of English classes, starting to work with the music teacher so I can give guitar lessons down the line (if you think that sounds crazy, that makes two of us) and then spending a large chunk of my time working one-on-one with kids who are struggling with handwriting, language skills (yes, a gringo teaching Spanish), math, reading, etc. At some point, I believe I'll be taking on a "caseload" of kids to whom I will be offering counseling.

All of this is significantly different than what I had been anticipating prior to arriving. After-school/recreational activity planning was where I was headed, but the need is greater in other areas. It has been challenging to find my place within the structure of classes, and it wasn't until we met with all the teachers (ten in the morning and a half dozen in the afternoon) at Maureen Courtney that we all got a sense of where we were needed and how we could fit in to the daily routine. I can only pray that a similar sort of schedule can be sorted out next Monday at Niño Jesús.

Additionally challenging has been the use of Miskito by a large percentage of the population. It has been difficult to deal with the language barrier. So many of the professors and kids speak Miskito on a regular basis that there are many times that we are left out of the conversation by default or on purpose. Thankfully, the staff is all bi-lingual, and a great majority of the students are as well, as all the classes are taught in Spanish (although some of the students speak Spanish as a second language and need an explanation in Miskito to fully grasp the concept). A couple people have offered to teach Miskito in exchange for English lessons, a situation I will definitely be taking advantage of. In fact, the teachers are planning to let the kids out of school early on Friday mornings for the rest of the year to give us Miskito lessons for half an hour and have us give them English lessons for half an hour. Of course, with how things operate down here, there's no way we'll actually have an hour AND have time to eat lunch before afternoon classes, so maybe 20 minutes of lessons each.

On a lighter note, how many of us hear the phrase, "And for those of you that can bring your machete to school tomorrow, please have those, as we will be doing clean-up"? As financial resources are limited at Maureen Courtney (and I'm assuming at many schools throughout the country), there is not an official maintenance person, so the kids are in charge of keeping the classrooms and common green spaces clean. Of course, if you think there are lawn mowers, you are soooorely mistaken. I know that neither my wrist nor my back would have put up with the machete chopping that the kids did today! It's just not everyday that you see a BYOM (Bring Your Own Machete, as Kathryn so aptly named it) Party, and especially not at a school.

My lifestyle is already beginning to change in simple ways like going to bed around 9:30pm in order to wake up between 5:00 and 5:30am, eating a lot of vegetables since they are the most readily available food option, and taking time to learn more Spanish instead of watching SportsCenter. I have been fortunate to have not suffered any major setbacks, and I hope I can continue adjusting to life down here and start to feel more "in the zone."