Today I will share some more positive news.  My English classes are incredible.  Not to toot my own horn, but they are legit.  My first class was last Tuesday.  I have 25 students attending each of two sections – Beginner and Intermediate.  My beginner class meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Intermediate on Thursday.  My flyer specifically said age 10 and up, but about half the intro class is under 10.  I let them stay and we have a good group.  There are also many kids around the 10-14 age range and a few adults.  It’s a fun class, but it is very exhausting.  The kids are so cute, but they all talk at the same time and they can’t seem to just sit in their seats to ask questions, but they have to come up to the front to tap me on the arm to ask their questions.  They need so much attention and I’m glad Christina is back from her hospital visit for a knee injury so we can start teaching as a team and work with people on a more individual basis.  The intermediate class is a pretty impressive group.  There are some teenagers (6 boys from my school in Nimapá attended), but the majority are adults who are pretty serious about wanting to learn English.  I tested them the first day with an exam I created to test basic vocabulary, numbers, and present tense, and all of them seem to be at just the right level.

As much fun as the classes are, they are a lot of work.  Much more work than my classes in the institutos are.  I probably spend more time planning each class than we actually are in class (2 hours).  Partially this is because while I have guides and resources for teaching intro English, I have nothing for intermediate and am pretty much coming up with activities and lessons on my own.  I am also teaching myself to teach English.  I’m learning rules on conjugation that I never even realized were rules since I never had to learn English like this.  Much of it is also creating visual aids, card games, etc. so it’s mix of lecture, talking, playing, getting up and moving around.

My cooking club met for the first time on Monday.  I had 13 kids – 5 boys and 8 girls – mostly Segundo level – attend.  They brought flour and sugar and I supplied the rest.  The boys made a batch and so did the girls.  The boys’ cookies turned out much better than the girls because the girls placed their cookies way too close together (despite my warning) and they all melted together.  The boys learned from their mistake and baked their cookies in several batches.  I used a snickerdoodle recipe that I altered by omitting cream of tartar and baking soda (ingredients I didn’t have the first time I made them) and adding vanilla, oats, and chocolate chips.  They were quite delicious.

Our only obstacle now is finding a place to cook.  I asked Rosemeri permission a while ago to use the kitchen and she said yes.  Then Monday morning I told her the jóvenes were coming over in the afternoon and she said it was fine for that day, but that she preferred not to have all the kids in her house again.  I don’t blame her at all, but we are little hard-pressed to find a location. 1. Most kids/families/people here do not have ovens so it’s good we did the baking first.  2. Several kids said they did have a stove, but no gas.  One girl offered the use of her kitchen, but said they only have a plancha – metal stove top heated by fire underneath (most common cooking method here).  I said I’d never cooked on one before, but that it would be fine if they helped teach me how to cook on it.  I’ve been sort of puzzled as to how one controls the heat on a stove like this, but I talked to cooking expert Paul Qualben and he explained it to me (he found a way to audio skype from his phone which is less expensive than phone calls).  Apparently it’s about the placement of your food directly above the flame, or further from it.  He said it takes a little getting used to.  It makes perfect sense, but I think could be a little challenging at first.