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Written by Andrew Pelikan
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Tuesday, 03 March 2009 |
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Andrew is a parishioner at St. Peter Parish in Kirkwood and a 2008 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is currently volunteering in Quito, Ecuador with a Catholic community center called El Centro para el Muchacho Trabajador, or “The Center for Working Boys.”
 Hello again from Ecuador! I apologize for the long absence in my entries. I have now been back for 7 weeks since my visit to the US to visit my new nephew. Part of the reason I have not written has been due to illness. Never have I appreciated being in good health as much as I do now. I passed most of January and the beginning of February viewing every class as a challenge to get through while waiting for the weekend where I could sleep until Monday and start all over again. My view towards what I am doing was considerably pessimistic during that time. When the students here have more energy than I do, it feels like an impossible task to manage a class, much less teach them and make progress. I was angry with myself for not being able to do a better job, angry at my immune system for taking such a long time to recover from an illness, and just frustrated in general with life here and the cultural differences.
Fortunately, I finally kicked whatever I had about 2 weeks ago and was able to enjoy a 4-day weekend on the coast. As much as I love Quito, we are in the rainy season here and it is depressing getting up at 6 every morning to catch the bus and it is dark and raining. Being able to go to the coast was a very nice break and probably much cheaper than any beach vacation in the states. We camped for $2 a night, and bus tickets for the 14-hour ride run between $12-15. Being able to come back and teach healthy and well rested was a great experience.
The time here is going faster and faster, and I feel like the habits developed by the volunteers have become very ingrained. Obviously this can be a positive or negative development, and I hope that with constant self-evaluation I will be able to maintain good habits and make progress in bettering my bad ones. Specifically, I teach two English classes at the same level but one is all boys and the other all girls. I have always used the same lesson plan for both classes and have had more success with the boys. The boys have always paid attention better, performed better on exams, and understood concepts faster than the girls. I have always finished teaching the girls class exhausted. As soon as I explain something, three girls are passing notes, three more are playing with their hair, and various others seem to have just zoned out. I am constantly reprimanding them, giving them incentives to do better, but nothing seems to work with them. They laugh and giggle when I have to repeat something for the third time, and cry and whine when I take something they are playing with away from them or scold them for cheating. I want to put all the blame on the girls for my frustrations but I know it is also my fault for not trying more teaching strategies. Anyone who has teaching strategies specifically for 10-11 year old girls, it would be much appreciated.
It is interesting to be on the other end of the grading system, the giving end that is. Everything here is graded out of 20 here, and students are often used to receiving 17-20 for grades. I had to talk to a lot of angry parents whose children failed English (meaning less than 10). It is accepted that if you attend the majority of classes you will get a good grade, never mind if they spend their time in class goofing off and fail every test. I apply American grading system logic of averaging all their test and homework grades along with a behavior evaluation. When I tried to explain this system of grading to their parents, many of whom have less education then their children, I got more blank stares and cold shoulders in the days to come. Many would ask me why their children needed to learn English if they were going to eventually become auto mechanics, carpenters, or bakers. I think I have a valid point. I also think any class in any subject is worthwhile if only for the sake of learning to be more disciplined and responsible. Again, this view is not often shared by many of the people. I am motivated when I do meet some of the few people in the center who do share my sentiments.
I am hoping to keep these entries coming more frequently. I equally hope to stay in good health until the end of this year, which has not been going as well, as I have had another stomach bug for the last few days. If karma has anything to do with health, hopefully I have many healthy years to look forward to after this.
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