mbo`ehao ha mbo`ehara

(school and teacher)

School has finally started in Paraguay!

Summer vacation finally has come to an end and so have the days of searching for something to do to fill my day. I no longer have to roam the streets looking for people to drink terere with. I now have a place to go. Something to sort of do...

The starting of school has brought about a lot of work opportunities for me. Since I am a second time volunteer in my site, I have found it to be pretty easy to enter the schools and find at least one or two teachers at each school that are interested in working with me. Before the school year began, I headed to all the schools in my area to pass out a short survey to the teachers presenting some possible topics I could work with them to incorporate into their curriculum this year. While I only got a few surveys back, the actual act of handing them out gave me the opportunity to present myself to the schools and meet lots of different teachers. (Now my problem is remembering about 200 different teacher´s names.) As of today, I think that I will have a pretty full schedule of work for the school year. Both of the local primary schools are interested in having a school garden program this year, while the high school teachers are interested in working with me on large community projects within the environmental technical student classes. Even the special education school has plans for incorporating my work into their weekly schedule starting in April (I am most excited to work with them).

While I am excited to work on all the projects/topics that have been presented to me thus far, the challenge is making sure that there is a balance to all my work. While I am here to share my skills and motive teachers and students with my passion for these subjects, I am not here to work alone. This might be one of the hardest things for Paraguayan teachers to understand. When I am in their classroom, it should not be an opportunity for them to leave. I am not their substitute teacher for the hour. The more that I work alongside teachers, the more they will learn and incorporate different strategies into their teaching as well. So my next steps for the following few weeks is to hold some informal meetings with the interested teachers I have met and begin lesson planning together. This is much harder than it sounds due to busy schedules, my still struggling Spanish, holidays, and/or the laziness of the teachers. Vamos a ver entonces. (We will see then)

However, I have found all the students around Ayolas to be very welcoming. The 1st-3rd grades love to stare at me, 4th-6th graders love to ask me random questions about the USA and then run away laughing, 7th-9th graders are a combination of the staring and question asking, while the high school students love asking the personal life questions (how old are you, do you have a boy friend, where do you live, etc.). I have already had the chance to teach in two different high school classrooms about the very important topic of trash decomposition. These two charlas (talks/lessons) gave me a lot more confidence in my language skills and excitement for my work in the schools in the future.

Aaprendese guarni ikatu haguàicha añe`e la gentekuèra ndive.
I want to learn Guaranì to be able to speak with people.


School has not only started for the Paraguayan children, but for me as well. For the past few weeks I have been going to Guaraní school (or my private Guaraní tutoring at a former neighbors house). And I love it! While my Guaraní is still almost none existent, I adore my Guaraní teacher and her family. Profesora Irma is a retired Guaraní teacher that lives two houses down from my third host family´s house (Señor Susana and the granddaughter Camila) here in Ayolas. Her husband is a jokester that enjoys making me say obnoxiously hard words in Guarní and her two kids (Jose 12 and Belen 13) are very mature kids that still love getting into a little bit of mischief.

Irma grew up about 30 minutes north of Ayolas in a small town that has seen about 5 different Peace Corps volunteers in the past 30 years. So she understands a little more about my work here, and about the wacky lifestyles us Americans like to live than the average Paraguayan. I go to their house about three times a week for my tutoring for anywhere from an hour to three (my lesson is usual 45 minutes and the rest of the time I sit around talking with the family). Then after my lesson I usually sit with my old host family and the other neighbors to drink some terere and hear the town gossip. These have been some of my favorite afternoons in Paraguay. And I am looking forward for many more to come.




Those who sow wheat, they prepare for the year;
those who plant trees, they prepare for various years.
Those who teach the youth, they prepare for various future generations.