Day 13 - Viaje de Clase

Today Sr. Anni and I joined the 5th graders on a class trip to the Central Cultural Palacio La Moneda. This is apparently where the president of Chile works. I guess she didn't get the message I was coming to visit, because she didn't come out to see me.














The museum had an exhibit on the impact of Colonization of Chile by the Spaniards and how the Indians (Mestizos) interpreted Catholicism and added their own flavor to the religious icons. The young ladies were well behaved and worked on the assignments they were given as they viewed the exhibits and waited for the bus.

Later in the evening, I joined Sr. John Marie’s monthly meeting with the teachers. Tonight she discussed a new long-term project that the teachers would be working on. The goal is to help the community of teachers in the three schools (Ovalle, Santiago and Macul) to organize and revitalize as educators in the spirit of the Baptistine mission and community. After Sr. John Marie explained the project (in Spanish), the teachers broke into groups and asked to identify some of the challenges they face today as educators. Sr. John Marie plans to take the feedback the teachers provided and synthesize it with the feedback from the teachers of the other schools to form the next parts of the project.

I was simply a fly on the wall, but it was another chance for me to listen and learn. I also got to meet some of the other teachers, who are very nice. Some speak English, but Fernando, the director of the school, tells them that they can only speak to me in Spanish. That’s fine…but my response is always the problem. I either can’t come up with the right word, or I struggle with the correct tense. The Rosetta Stone program does not help you with that, nor do my books. Anyway…I have 20 more days to improve.

One of the English teachers (Francesca) offered to show me around the city on Sat night. I’m looking forward to seeing how the other half lives.

In other news, El Gripe H1N1(the BIG flu) just hit here this week. There are 10 known cases. They are starting to close the schools in the area. There were two cases from people traveling from the Dominican Republic and then the rest seem to be coming from students.

Tomorrow, I am sitting in on a 7th Grade language class, followed by a HS Math class, and a 4th Grade Language class. I get done at 1:30pm. Then Solange and I are going for a walk and maybe a bike ride in the park.