Jungle Life

My last two blog posts have been all about how I have been feeling while I've been here at Yachana, but I realized that I  haven't talked much about what I'm actually doing. So this post os dedicated to just that. As we approach the end of our first "jornada" here at the school, I thought I would talk a little about what I am doing on a daily basis. 

First of all, people in Ecuador love their titles. I currently have three. I am officially the "Coordinator of Mathematics," "Assistant English Teacher," and "Tourist Liaison" between the lodge and the high school. We are currently running on a five day schedule for our classes at the high school. We rotate through this five day schedule four times to make one twenty day jornada. Then we all get a week long break and start over again. During each jornada, I teach two math classes per day on days one through four at the high school. Two of these days I also teach one English class. In addition, I also teach two math classes per week at the lodge... Trust me, we have lots of schedules posted so that we actually know where to be and when. And if that doesn't sound confusing enough, anyone who has ever spent time in Latin America can tell you that posting a schedule here just doesn't mean the same thing that it means in the United States. This schedule is very "flexible."

Believe it or not, this schedule actually leaves us with quite a bit of free time each day. For me, this free time is primarily spent hiking back and forth from the lodge, reading, lesson planning, cleaning, washing clothes (by hand), or playing games with the students. 

The lodge has been a nice little getaway for those of us living at the high school. There is a nice breeze there, Internet access (almost all of the time), and most importantly coffee. Sometimes a few hours of living in "luxury" at the lodge is just what I need to get myself through the week. 

I've also been reading a lot. Lots of people here have suggested books that really interest me plus I'm finally getting around to reading some of the books that have been stacked in my room for quite some time. I just finished "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad and "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins which I HIGHLY recommend. Now I have started "Diarios de Motocicleta," the diary of Che Guevarra on his trip through South America, and "The War of the End of the World" by Mario Vargas Llosa. 

Lesson planning has been quite an experience also. The initial challenge was preparing lessons for students that I had never met before. I had no ides if I was teaching addition or advanced calculus. There is no curriculum out here. That initial challenge has turned into a huge blessing. Lack of curriculum means I get to design my own curriculum and teach what is important and useful to the students. This past week I have been collaborating with the business teacher here to design lessons involving business math and I have been able to design problems that encompass all of the things that we have studied during this jornada. A "problem based approach" for those of you who have a background in education. 

My other chores, cleaning and washing clothes, keep me busy as well. Sweeping my room is a daily chore that I have to keep up with. The dirt and bugs pile up quickly in the jungle. Washing clothes by hand is a skill that I have most certainly not mastered yet. Clean and dry are very relative terms out here. For example, I washed clothes four days ago... They are still hanging up and they are still wet. I'm hoping for a day of sun to dry them out soon. 

The students occupy a lot of my time outside of class too. We play volleyball, we play soccer, and for the first time this week I went swimming in the Napo River with my friend Mauricio and some of the students from the lodge. We also spent a morning at small market in Los Rios, a small community up the river. Even when I'm not directly interacting with the students I really enjoy just observing their activities. They are masters at creating games and activities with very few resources and they seem to have an endless amount of energy. And like any good Latin American country there is ALWAYS music and there is ALWAYS dancing. A few nights ago we even had a small jungle bonfire which quickly turned into a large jungle dance. 

I'm sure I have left out lots of things but essentially what I am trying to say is that there is NEVER a dull moment here. In a few days we head into our first week long break after we finish our first jornada. The time is flying by already and while I enjoy the constant entertainment, I am certainly looking forward to some down time.