Week 1

The verse that has kept me going through the last week was

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

First Impressions

I arrived in San Salvador at 11:30am on April 24th, and made it through the airport in one piece even though the light went red which meant I had to get a secondary check. I met up with Cecilia and off we went. We headed to Tutultepeque which is a very small suburb or community in San Salvador about 1 hour and 45 minutes away from the airport. El Salvador is different than I expected. It is very crowded and busy. The streets are dirties than I thought they would be and driving is scary as there are not as many rules of the road. As we drove through the main city of San Salvador I was shocked by the poverty. I thought that being in the heart of the city there would be more nice areas, but even the nice areas are run down. Cecilia told me that the city is made up of mostly middle class families and middle class is very different here than in Canada. I soon realized that the middle class families were way better off than the families I would be working with in Tutultepeque. As we came up to Tutultepeque, the paved roads turned to dirt. It looks like a road that you would need a 4X4 vehicle but I was soon proven wrong when I saw three wheeled cars driving down the road. It looks like driving through a jungle. The greenery is beautiful, and it can truly tell you are no longer in the city.

All the people here are so nice and welcoming, they laugh at me all the time because I am unable to speak the language, but that’s ok. It is kind of silly of me to come down here and not know the language all that well, but I am slowly picking up words to help me get by. There is a big sense of community here which I think is amazing and is something we in Canada could take away from here. I played baseball  on Tuesday and Wednesday with a bunch of ladies from the community and a lot of their families and others from the community came out to watch and hang it. It was so nice to see.

Teaching

So far I have been doing a lot of observing but have had a few opportunities to teach. I have been working with a kindergarten class everyday that is full of energy, and because I don’t speak the language very well it has been hard for me to communicate and get their attention. I have been assisting a lot with the arts and crafts, as well as games. I also have been working with the nutrition program that runs every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday after school. I feel I have built a good relationship with these kids even in just the first week. Even though I cannot speak very well, I have played lots of games with them. We played baseball and jump, which are two very popular activities for kids down here. It has also been very hot and these programs run outside or in an un-air conditioned room, so it has been hard for me to keep up with the kids during the games. I also had the opportunity to work with an adult literacy progam where they are working on basic subtraction and addition. This was the first time I felt useful. I was able to assist the lasdies in their questions even with just very basic Spanish. I taught myself all the numbers in Spanish and so I used that to communicate. I really enjoyed this teaching because I could help. Math is the same wherever you are and I love that. Finally on Saturday I got to assist with all the youth groups they run. Since mothers day is next week I prepared a craft to teach each of the youth groups to make for their moms. It was a small pot with a paper flower bouquet. I had to cut 700 flowers and glue the yellow middles on each of them and then cut and outline 70 pieces of paper for the stems. I prepared this over two days, and it is not an activity I would do again for a large group, but while in El Salvador I had the time and the patience to work on a fun activity like this. I think that the teaching went well, even though I couldn’t tell them what to do. I had to teach them with only hand gestures and modeling the steps which worked great. This activity made me think about teaching in a different way, and that you can teach in ways that do use words. So far teaching has been a challenge but one that I have been able to learn from.

Inquiry Reflection

My inquiry question is on financial literacy, and how we as teachers can help our students to be financially responsible in the future. Where I am teaching right now, there isn’t much financial literacy teaching because most of the people here struggle with making enough money to live. Here they are focusing on how they can assist the community in ways that can help the people get jobs. In addition to the adult literacy program they also provide a textiles class where men and women from the community come and learn all about textiles and how to sew. Here in El Salvador there are a lot of textile factories, so the people will be able to apply for jobs at the manufacturers. Once some of the people can get jobs, teaching financial literacy would be more relevant.

Overall the first week has been a little tough, because of the language barrier. I try to communicate in Spanish but since my Spanish is so weak I am not able to talk to a lot of people. This is also the first time I have been away from home completely by myself, so I also find that difficult being away from my family. But I think that it is good for me, and I have been able to learn more about myself. I love the community that is here and the way everyone comes together and helps each other out, and that has been one thing I look forward to every day. In the next two weeks I still have a lot to learn and I look forward to what it is I will learn.