I think there’s been sort of a gap in my blogging. I don’t think I mentioned the Fiesta de Yuquillay, which I attended on Saturday night. I had wanted to go earlier, to see the futbolistas from Yuquillay, a talented group of younger players, face off against Ambato, a city north of Riobamba. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a ride until after 7 PM, by which time Ambato had been defeated. But I still wanted to show up, partly to see another town in the Tolte zone, and partly to show people from other places whom I had met in Tolte that I cared enough to visit where they were form. Apart from Fernando and the other Yuquillay players, I also ran into Ivan and his crew. The usual drinking ensued, with fairly severe illness on Sunday.
I didn’t feel anything like normal until Tuesday, so it was a good thing that I didn’t have to teach English Monday. The other teachers decided to show a movie, which spared me having to accomplish anything. I did make some helpful visual aids to teach professions and careers, but I didn’t have to whip them out until Tuesday.
Of course, Wednesday was another day without classes, as the student government had a local installation ceremony. I’m not sure whether the student government merits this much school disruption, but that’s the way things are. The ceremony lasted an hour, and substituted for five hours of school, which isn’t a bad trade from a personal effort point of view.
More interesting, in many ways, was the PTA meeting held after the ceremony. The first surprise was that I am among the “invitados” to the school Christmas fiesta. Being invited means that you are expected to make some kind of financial contribution to the event, and I think it shows increasing comfort with my presence that I could be invited. I’m to provide a “banda” or sash, for the “Princesita de La Navidad” or one of her entourage. Details will emerge. Obtaining the sash involves a couple of trips to Chunchi and about $14, from what I understand. $14 may not seem like much, but I earn about $12 a day. Of course, other people were hit a lot harder during the Fiesta de Tolte, so I’m certainly not complaining. Heaven help the family of the child who is chosen “Princesita de La Navidad.”
Also interesting were the comments of the other teachers in reference to the computer room, for which I am partially responsible, and my desire to mount a pro-reading campaign. The teachers of grades 4-7 have been offering extra help to their students, who are all somewhat to greatly below grade level in all subject areas. As with my English classes for adults, no one has been attending. Instead, the kids have been going to the computer room or playing in the plaza. This made me a little uncomfortable. On the other hand, they did mention my desire to encourage reading, and that this was very important. I got the chance to say that from now on, children would need teacher permission to use the computer room, and that children should read at least half an hour every day. I offered to lend library books for this purpose, and the teachers seemed very happy with all of that. Later, I cooked up the idea of opening the library on Mondays and Tuesdays and clocking the kids reading time. For every minute they read, they can have an equal amount of computer time on the other three days of the week. My guess is that no one will read, and no one will use the computer room, but we’ll have to see. Again, the teachers liked the idea. Of course, now I really need to get more books.
But, outside of the world of school, I now live in an entirely different environment. The rainy season seemed to arrive a couple of days ahead of schedule on Sunday, and the Tolte I have been living in no longer exists. The days of bright, hot sunshine piercing the mountain air are over. I now live in a place that resembles the Scottish Highlands, a land of heavy mist and fog, punctuated by periods of rain. Visibility this morning was less than 100 feet. In some ways, the town seems even more enchanted than before, a place existing in a tiny bubble of light surrounded by cloud. On the other hand, drying my laundry has become extremely complicated. Nothing dries outdoors on the line anymore, and I haven’t figured out a functional indoor system yet. I imagine the bathrooms will have an important role to play, or perhaps the upstairs balcony. But at 100% humidity, it’s going to be a slow process.
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