International

Time flies when you are busy… that is for sure! My second week of work was busy and fun!! I am now “officially” working with the children. During the morning, I usually prepare material in English… whether it is translating already existing material in Spanish or creating new material. I also provide help in any other tasks that my supervisor requires. In the afternoon (after lunch, which is at 2pm!), I work with the children. There are 5 different classrooms. The plan is that I go to 1 classroom each day of the week. Thus, when the children are in the class of arts for example, I show them some words in English that ties with what they are doing. For example, a child was making a sun out of papier mache, so we talked about what it was, the colours, etc.

Some of the children have a good knowledge of English, while others a bit less. It will take a bit of time to build their self-confidence in speaking English with me, but I know we will get there!! The children are so great and definitely full of energy and curiosity!!

On Friday, February 13th, we celebrated “El día del amor y de la amistad” (St-Valentine’s day). The children all brought one item to eat or to drink to share amongst themselves. So, after having accomplished their homework, we were able to set up a table outside and have a picnic. It was really fun and I had the opportunity to try quite a range of Mexican food!!! Not everything is super spicy, thankfully for me! I am, however, trying to eat spicy food! But there are times I was not able to finish as it was wayyyyyy too spicy for my own good!! So far, my favourite has to be “Tlacoyos”. Here’s an explanation for those of you who can read Spanish only (sorry!)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlacoyo

And a picture… the ones I’ve had looked way yummier than these!!

http://www.toomanychefs.com/images/Baylessmeal/blackbeanmasa.jpg

I definitely have a lot more of food to try though! But so far, everything is really good! I also get to eat lunch at work, so I get Mexican food there! Usually it’s not spicy, because some of the children are too young yet for spicy chile.

So, to get back to Feb. 13 (thankfully it was not unlucky!  ), during the evening, the teachers were having a reunion with the parents. So, after having played outside and answered tons of questions of “how do you say this in English… and in French?”, the children asked me to read them a story in English! So we headed to the library, and they picked out a Spanish book, that I had to read and translate into English… That was rather interesting!! We ended up, reading a Spanish story of Peter Pan (a group of us was each reading a page. They get a kick out of me reading Spanish with my French accent.). In my mind, there was no other perfect way to spend the day of the friendship than with these children! We also gave each other cut out hearts in paper!

I also got to meet some parents and they seem happy with the idea of having someone able to help the children in English (usually the resources in English are a bit limited, although some of the maestras know some).

My day of St-Valentine’s day began with a breakfast with one of the maestras (the lady with whom I stay was gone to Mexico City for the weekend) and her children. At 9h30am, I ate rice and a chicken soup! A type of breakfast that I am not usually used to! It was really good!! I spent the rest of the day with the maestras with whom I work closer. It was a great day and they showed me an amazing view of the valley close to the city!

So far, I am really enjoying everything about this internship. The people are so welcoming and warm! I hope to be able to help significantly the children and the maestras with their English! Time will tell!!

Cheers,
Melissa

Hola a todos!

I arrived in the town where I will be for the next 3 months two days ago (Tuesday, February 3, 2009). I am in a town called Zacatlan de las Manzanas (Zacatlan of the apples) which has a population of about 20,000 people. It is in fact called a city (ciudad). To arrive here, I had to take a bus for about 3 hours from México D.F. (bus station of the north). An employee of where I work came to get me at the bus station. The city is very pretty but I have not been able to see a lot of it as of yet as it has been raining every day since I arrived. And, in addition to the rain, it is cold. Well not as much as it is in Canada right now, but the temperature is about 10 celsius. But don’t worry, I am not complaining because we do not have snow!! On Saturday I will be going in town with la senora de la casa (we live a bit outside of the city) and I’ll take pictures so that I can share them with you.

I love my house. It is painted bright yellow inside and with the royal blue couches, so nice! There is no internet at home, so I get a few minutes at work to check my emails. There is also no heating, so at night, I sleep with 7 blankets!! I am still trying to get used to the hours that they eat (in the morning, then a small snack at around noon, and then lunch at around 2pm and then supper at 7pm). They eat a lot!! So, sometimes I do not eat or eat considerably less.

Today (Thursday February 5, 2009) was my second day of work. And I can already tell you that not only I will enjoy very much the work but I will also learn a lot. I work in a center that can be compared to a small school. It’s a center of development for the community, and more precisely for the children. It is called “Proyecto Roberto Alonso Espinosa – Fundacion Amparo”. The main office is in México D.F. The center basically welcomes the children for a part of the day or for certain most of the day. There is one specific room where two maestras take care of the babies (they play with them, they change them, they take care of them, they feed them,etc) for the day. Let me tell you, they are so precious!!! There are also about 2 other rooms that are for children from 1 year old to about 3 years old. Again, in that room, one or two women take care of the children and play with them. And it continues like this until the age of about 18 years old. Of course, as the children become older, the more complex the activities that they have to accomplish are. Usually, the youngsters come to the center in the morning. The older ones come in the afternoon because in the morning they are at school. Here, school finishes at around 1h00pm. So, the parents have the choice to either send their children to the center or the children stay at home. For some parents it is easier to send the children at the center as they are working throughout the day. It costs about 25 pesos mexicanos on a monthly basis to be able to send one child to the center. This includes a teacher who cares for the children, teach them, play with them, in addition of the lunch/food. The majority of the teachers are women but there are a few men who take care of the older children. By talking with them and by seeing them work, I can definitely tell that they are passionate about their work and the children.

Yesterday, which was my first day, I began the day by attending a meeting of the maestras to see how they work together. At a certain moment, we had to share with each other 3 goals that we wanted to achieve. I was very touched and emotional at that point as for me; it is so incredible that I have the opportunity to be here and to experience what the real mexican life is (Have I mentioned that it has been my dream for years to come to Mexico? Finally, I am here!). I then was able to help out with the library that the center has. They received 40 new books yesterday, so I was able to help out with registering them. Today (Thursday) was a bit busier day as in the morning and part of the afternoon I went to every different classroom to observe how the teachers care for and teach the students. I was not allowed to speak with the students. It is important not to disrupt or interact with the children when you are not supposed to! It was difficult at some point because two children were trying to figure out the countries of Europe, and I wanted to help them so bad!!! But they did well!

Today, I also helped a lot with the library again. We are in the process of classifying the books. I think that we will do a lot of this on next Tuesday. At the end of the afternoon, a teacher asked me to help a student with some math calculations (la table de 7!). He was having a hard time counting so I was able to help him out. This was my first time helping a child and I really enjoyed it. I could tell that he was able to count and to do the exercise, he just had trouble concentrating. But, by the time that we finished the exercise, it was great to see that he was able to do it, and a lot on his own! I don’t think that mathematics is a very popular subject! My understanding is that I will be able to have my group of students to teach them a little bit of English. In fact, every day, I write two new sentences in English on the white board to teach the maestras. I will also help the other maestras with their lessons. I am hoping to help out in geography and arts! But I will see where they need me the most!

During the evening, my “mama” took me to the center of the city to show me how the buses work and where are certain stores. I say “bus” but they are more like small vans. You have to tell the driver where you want to take off as they do not have set stops. The center of the city is small but it is very nice! Saturday we will be going to the market!

Since I have arrived here, I cannot stop thinking of the conversations that I have had in my classes in my master’s degree (I am doing a master’s in international development and globalization). It is so interesting to be on the field, after having taken courses. I wish that everyone could experience this. The people who work in the center are so passionate about what they are doing for the children. In fact, their slogan is : “porque todos merecen las mismas oportunidades” (because everyone deserves the same opportunities). They do not have as many resources, but they do very well their tasks with what they have. They are very creative. The center even encourages the parents on Fridays to bring bottles, paper so that they can be recycled. This is a great action to show the children, as we all know that recycling is so important!

So, here were my first two days in Zacatlan. It’s a pleasure to be reading about the experiences of everyone else. I will write again soon to share more!!

Cuidense! Hasta luego.

Mélissa Dubé

Hi everyone!!

So, here I am, writing to you from México City. I arrived in this grand city on Friday January 30th at about midnight. Someone from AFS came to get me at the airport and I have been staying at her (Carlota) place since then. Carlota and her mother have been able to take me around the city of México for some sightseeing the past 3 days. We went to the university UNAM (there’s a campus in Gatineau) to visit. Imagine, the university has approximately 500,000 students!!! It’s huge and beautiful!

I have been very fortunate to be welcomed in her family, as her and her mother, know a lot about the history of México and any other details you may have questions about. Thus, it has been quite the experience sightseeing the city with them.

Of course, I won’t be sightseeing all of my time. This weekend was a long weekend so many people were not working on Monday. I’ll be doing my internship in Puebla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puebla,_Puebla). I should be leaving tomorrow morning for Puebla with someone from AFS México. Things still need to be confirmed though. I am looking forward to starting my internship to work!

This is my first time in México and so far I cannot be more pleased and it is exactly how I had imagined it. Everyone is very nice and welcoming, the city is amazing and well, the air is polluted!! I have yet seen “el Popo” the volcan outside of the city, because of all the pollution in the air. México D.F. is surrounded by mountains, and I haven’t seen them clearly as of yet. This country is no doubt very rich in history and culture. I am looking forward to discovering more of it!!