So my class have been learning how to write haikus
- Japanese poems with syllable pattern 5-7-5.
After they finished their rainbow one
I said "make one up about something else"...
Miss Page, Oh TP!
We'll miss you so much that
Our hearts will turn lonely.
...
Miss Page you are so cool
I will miss you when you leave
You are so much fun!
...
I love your songs
Your singing makes us happy
You really sing well.
...
Great and wonderful.
Ms Page is lovely and bright.
I love my teacher.
...
My teacher is great.
She always smiles in class.
She is called Miss Page!
...
Teaching naughty kids
Giving us tests all day long
She's sometimes grumpy.
Making us happy,
She plays games with us all day.
You're the best teacher.
...
Princess of learning.
The brain of all the whole world.
She is my teacher.
Thursday 12 June 2008
Tuesday 3 June 2008
Dogs and Walls
Possibly two of the most striking things about El Salvador.
Dead dogs everywhere. Hit by cars.
I try not to look and always hope Chayo won't notice.
'It's probably just sleeping' I sometimes say...
But then it's there the next day, and the next, and the next...
...
So what's different about El Salvador? I asked my five year old niece.
She thought for a moment and then said 'The walls'.
High walls. Often covered with rolls of razor wire or broken glass bottles.
You can't see the houses from the outside and when you're inside you can't see out.
Security.
Dead dogs everywhere. Hit by cars.
I try not to look and always hope Chayo won't notice.
'It's probably just sleeping' I sometimes say...
But then it's there the next day, and the next, and the next...
...
So what's different about El Salvador? I asked my five year old niece.
She thought for a moment and then said 'The walls'.
High walls. Often covered with rolls of razor wire or broken glass bottles.
You can't see the houses from the outside and when you're inside you can't see out.
Security.
Friday 30 May 2008
SATs in the City
The marking's not that bad really...
you just need to look for the
subordinating connectives,
prepositional phrases,
simple adverbials,
and the rest.
Hmmm...
The teacher's test.
you just need to look for the
subordinating connectives,
prepositional phrases,
simple adverbials,
and the rest.
Hmmm...
The teacher's test.
Friday 23 May 2008
Fever
Chayo and I have been struck down by a blight of sickness, just as I was thinking we'd got through the year.
His fever seems to have come down now and he's ok, but was pretty miserable yesterday. I am with an annoying headache still but just glad the migraines, vomiting and other nasty things have finished... fingers crossed.
His fever seems to have come down now and he's ok, but was pretty miserable yesterday. I am with an annoying headache still but just glad the migraines, vomiting and other nasty things have finished... fingers crossed.
Friday 25 April 2008
Update
Sorry I've been a bit off the radar recently...
So, Osiris is much better - starting to walk again and catch up with her university work.
Chayo is fine; obsessed with Pokemon, swimming, and all superheroes. He's growing fast and learning to read: mum, dad, dog, cat...
School is good generally. When I'm on top of things my class are great.
As for me... I'm
* trying to be patient with all the kids in my life (24 + 1)
* reading lots
* spending time with my friends in the countryside
* thinking about what I'll miss when I leave here
* wondering how it will feel to be back in England in a couple of months
Wednesday 12 March 2008
Hit and Run
Yesterday crossing the busy road by my house, on her way to university Osiris got hit by a car.
She was thrown into the air, lost her shoes, bag and homework strewn across the road. The people driving the car sped off.
She's now in hospital with broken leg, broken ribs and a pretty bashed up face, under observation... fingers crossed no internal injuries.
She was thrown into the air, lost her shoes, bag and homework strewn across the road. The people driving the car sped off.
She's now in hospital with broken leg, broken ribs and a pretty bashed up face, under observation... fingers crossed no internal injuries.
Tuesday 12 February 2008
Living Dangerously
In such a small country - only 6 million people - it seems wrong...
I've only actually ever seen 5 dead bodies in my life.
All of them in El Salvador.
Two different ones this week.
Lying there on the road.
They don't seem to cover them up here. Don't know why.
Maybe lack of white sheets.
Traffic accidents mainly...
I've only actually ever seen 5 dead bodies in my life.
All of them in El Salvador.
Two different ones this week.
Lying there on the road.
They don't seem to cover them up here. Don't know why.
Maybe lack of white sheets.
Traffic accidents mainly...
Maids
Women in El Salvador can virtually be divided into two groups. Those who have maids and those who are maids.
It’s a word that I don’t think I’d ever said until living here. In Spanish it’s muchacha meaning young girl, but the translation used at my school is ‘maid’.
It doesn’t sit easily.
A recent Healthy Eating letter from Chayo’s teacher said “Please inform maids so we can work together to give your children the healthy start they need”. !!!
Maids earn about £4-6 a day, or £70-120 a month, for working incredibly long hours cooking, cleaning and looking after children, often only visiting their families in the countryside twice a month. Many of them are young girls or young women with babies or children of their own who they have left in the care of relatives. It’s common for middle class families to have more than one maid. I think all the children in my class live in homes with maids.
It’s another world.
It’s a word that I don’t think I’d ever said until living here. In Spanish it’s muchacha meaning young girl, but the translation used at my school is ‘maid’.
It doesn’t sit easily.
A recent Healthy Eating letter from Chayo’s teacher said “Please inform maids so we can work together to give your children the healthy start they need”. !!!
Maids earn about £4-6 a day, or £70-120 a month, for working incredibly long hours cooking, cleaning and looking after children, often only visiting their families in the countryside twice a month. Many of them are young girls or young women with babies or children of their own who they have left in the care of relatives. It’s common for middle class families to have more than one maid. I think all the children in my class live in homes with maids.
It’s another world.
You are my sunshine
All week they’d been acting a little weird but on the morning of 14th February there was complete hysteria in the classroom. “You have to go to Mr Santamaria’s room at lunchtime” they said giggling and whispering. “And please leave our classroom door open”.
So I did as I was told, and when given the instruction went back to my room.
24 nine year olds jumped out hooting “SURPRISE”, hugged me madly, then broke into song: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy…”.
I looked around the room: the cut out hearts decorating the walls, chairs and tables all carefully moved into position, the fizzy drinks, the cake that read “Thanks for being a great teacher”, the music teacher who’d been commandeered to play the guitar…
I wiped a tear from my eye.
Dia de l’Amistad, Friendship Day, El Salvador.
So I did as I was told, and when given the instruction went back to my room.
24 nine year olds jumped out hooting “SURPRISE”, hugged me madly, then broke into song: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy…”.
I looked around the room: the cut out hearts decorating the walls, chairs and tables all carefully moved into position, the fizzy drinks, the cake that read “Thanks for being a great teacher”, the music teacher who’d been commandeered to play the guitar…
I wiped a tear from my eye.
Dia de l’Amistad, Friendship Day, El Salvador.
My happy 20 minutes
The morning sunshine feels great on my skin.
I chat to my friend.
The sound of children playing happily nearby.
No kidding.
This is Playground Duty!
(yeah yeah... I know it won't be like that back in England...)
I chat to my friend.
The sound of children playing happily nearby.
No kidding.
This is Playground Duty!
(yeah yeah... I know it won't be like that back in England...)
12 nil to El Salvador
My first live World Cup football experience and El Salvador completely thrashed Anguila! Wow... what with jumping up for 12 goals and the Mexican waves it was pretty good exercise.
Not that used to winning, the fans went crazy. Alot of beer (and other stuff) was thrown around.
Yes... I have to admit I'd never heard of Anguila before. Tiny Caribbean island.
Hungry for more? See my mate Dave's blog: http://dtelsalvador.blogspot.com/
Not that used to winning, the fans went crazy. Alot of beer (and other stuff) was thrown around.
Yes... I have to admit I'd never heard of Anguila before. Tiny Caribbean island.
Hungry for more? See my mate Dave's blog: http://dtelsalvador.blogspot.com/
Friday 18 January 2008
Saturday morning in San Salvador
8am
On our way for breakfast at Pollo Campero.
We stop at the lights. A few metres in front of our car a huge truck overloaded with large tanks of gas lurches forward. Two tanks fall narrowly missing a small boy selling newspapers.
9.30am
Road closed at lights by our house, lots of police. Hard to tell what had happened. All sorts of possibilities come to mind. Kidnap, carjack… I try to stop the others talking about it too openly infront of Chayo.
Later on the news I see it was a drive by gang shooting – 2 windscreen cleaner boys dead.
9.35am
We are by the shops infront of our house. I suddenly see a young woman struggling and a man grabbing her bag. People walking past. I beep in a vain attempt to help, and as I do so notice that the man has a huge shotgun hanging over his shoulder. He must be a security guard. The woman hangs on to her bag and eventually gets away. The lights change and off we go, all of us a bit shaken up. Kinda freaky seeing an armed person in a conflict.
On our way for breakfast at Pollo Campero.
We stop at the lights. A few metres in front of our car a huge truck overloaded with large tanks of gas lurches forward. Two tanks fall narrowly missing a small boy selling newspapers.
9.30am
Road closed at lights by our house, lots of police. Hard to tell what had happened. All sorts of possibilities come to mind. Kidnap, carjack… I try to stop the others talking about it too openly infront of Chayo.
Later on the news I see it was a drive by gang shooting – 2 windscreen cleaner boys dead.
9.35am
We are by the shops infront of our house. I suddenly see a young woman struggling and a man grabbing her bag. People walking past. I beep in a vain attempt to help, and as I do so notice that the man has a huge shotgun hanging over his shoulder. He must be a security guard. The woman hangs on to her bag and eventually gets away. The lights change and off we go, all of us a bit shaken up. Kinda freaky seeing an armed person in a conflict.
Wednesday 2 January 2008
Only in El Salvador...
1. Could a coconut fall on my car and cause a few hundred dollars worth of damage.
2. Could there be so many huge gaping holes in the road. Manhole covers are big business on the black market it seems...
3. Could I sprain my ankle because I hear my sister calling me...
Ok, I was up the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere, with my friend Jenny from Dimas buying organic vegetables. Polly at the bottom with 3 kids in the car... it's getting dark. She starts calling my name "Topsy", then it gets louder and turns almost into a panicky scream."TOPSY...TOPSY..." Jenny and I leg it down the mountain side. Our hearts in our mouths, our heads full of images of carjack, robbery, kidnap... everyday events in El Salvador.
My foot goes in a hole, ankle twists and crunches. I fall, cut my other leg and hand... Eventually when I get down everything is fine, just a truck needed to get by and Polly didn't have the keys to move the car.
The kids who were picking the veg stare at me and my (almost) broken ankle with their huge dark brown eyes . Their mum comes down the hill holding an amazing bunch of white calla lillies which she gives to me.
2. Could there be so many huge gaping holes in the road. Manhole covers are big business on the black market it seems...
3. Could I sprain my ankle because I hear my sister calling me...
Ok, I was up the side of a hill in the middle of nowhere, with my friend Jenny from Dimas buying organic vegetables. Polly at the bottom with 3 kids in the car... it's getting dark. She starts calling my name "Topsy", then it gets louder and turns almost into a panicky scream."TOPSY...TOPSY..." Jenny and I leg it down the mountain side. Our hearts in our mouths, our heads full of images of carjack, robbery, kidnap... everyday events in El Salvador.
My foot goes in a hole, ankle twists and crunches. I fall, cut my other leg and hand... Eventually when I get down everything is fine, just a truck needed to get by and Polly didn't have the keys to move the car.
The kids who were picking the veg stare at me and my (almost) broken ankle with their huge dark brown eyes . Their mum comes down the hill holding an amazing bunch of white calla lillies which she gives to me.
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