Cienfuegos

Hey Anna fans! It has been over a month, which means one down and three to go! As exciting and thrilling as that sounds, it’s also really scary because it won’t be too long before I’m back in the states. This past month has been terrific, full of good, bad, and sometimes humorous memories.

            Along with my “studies” at the PUCMM, another part of my study abroad experience is community service. I have to tell you, at DePauw I am not nearly as community service-oriented as I should be. I mean, there are people who go to visit the elderly, people who pick up trash, people who work with kids, people who do all sorts of good. And I ain’t one of them! But I think after this semester, I’m going to have to start. For my community service portion here in the DR, I am teaching English to 8-13 year olds in an area of Santiago called Cienfuegos. Now, the area where I live is really nice and calm (of course because it’s next to an esteemed private university…) The only part of my neighborhood that isn’t nice is the weird hole-in-the-wall patio thing where men (young and old) come to get drunk and play dominoes. I think this little area across from the colmado was built for good purposes, like a place for people in the community to gather and visit on a Sunday afternoon after going to church. Well, it has fulfilled its purpose to some extent because people definitely gather. They come from different parts of the city to sit in this area, listen to music, and drink. Sometimes they’re there, and sometimes they’re not. If I’m walking home and I hear music coming from the area, I am damn sure to cross the street to the other side because even though I can’t avoid the whistling and cat calls, I can avoid them trying to touch me! This almost always results in me walking on the side of the street of the colmado, where Angel Eyes works, thus resulting in a conversation that I can never remember because I am distracted by the dark eyes that look into my soul. I think I wrote about Angel Eyes last time in my blog. Still there…still has angel eyes…and still has a 4-year-old child, as I found out the other day. Interesting…

            Anyway, as I was saying, my neighborhood is definitely one of the nicer ones. The neighborhood I teach in is a bit of a different story. In order to get there, I take two different conchos (remember…the cars that have a fixed route that fit seven people?) and then walk a bit. I have to admit, before I started going, I was a little scared because everyone told me to be careful when I was in that area. “Oh Anna…you’re teaching there? Be careful!” “Anna you better not bring a purse…” “Anna I don’t know if that’s such a good idea!” So I was literally expecting to be like a soft and tender lamb walking into a savannah full of flesh-eating lions. Turns out, Cienfuegos is not as bad as I expected. Yes, it is much poorer than the area I live in, and yes, I have to be a lot more careful, but as long as I’m not stupid (which I would like to think that I’m not), I’m just fine. Honestly, the part that freaks me out the most is the place in which I have to switch conchos. This part is conveniently located on a corner right outside of a mechanic garage. You can imagine the kinds of comments I get when I get out of the M concho and wait on the corner for the F. “Gringaaa, ven aqui!” “Que rubia mas lindaaa” “Que Dios te bendiga, mi rubia!” Yes, you’re gonna have to use Google Translate for that. One time one of those garage dudes actually approached me and tried to touch my shoulder and talk to me. All you have to do is ignore, because if you give these guys a look in the eye or a smile, they will assume that you are interested, and let me tell you, this girl is not interested! So I go on my way to the Escuela Nuestra Senora de la Luz. The place where I teach English is a kind of community center which was founded by the Catholic Church. It is important to have places like this in communities like Cienfuegos because it gives people opportunities to advance in their own neighborhood and on their own time. They offer classes in technology, English, basic skills, and other things which are useful in applying for jobs. I, of course, teach in the English department. I have had a little experience teaching English, but not much. So here I am, in the ghetto, teaching four hours a week of English class to 8-13 year old kids. Am I up for that challenge? Hell yes I am! My students really are fantastic. I have around 15 of them, and they are all really special. I know that sounds cheesy but I don’t care. I love em! The first day of class I had them play a name game, which turned out to be a bigger challenge than I thought. Not because they didn’t understand the game or because of the language barrier, but because of their names! Dominicans have a tendency to have really strange names, as I believed I’ve mentioned before. I swear that every day is a new adventure just learning new names. Not to mention that there are two sets of twins in the class, one set of girls who are named Aida Nelly and Aida Yeli. I have no idea what kind of weird mix of celebrity names gave birth to these ones, but man do I struggle with them. Saying students’ names in class is a consistent ride on the struggle bus. I mean, there is a Ramselys, a Darleirys, and every other strange one you could think of. What’s interesting is that I’m the foreigner and yet I feel like my name is the easiest. I like my name Anna, mainly because it exists in a lot of different languages, it’s simple, and everyone can pronounce it. (Thanks, Mom and Dad).  My housemate Katie has become “Catty” here in the DR. Knowing that my name will remain the same wherever I go gives me a nice peace of mind.

            What I like most about my students is that they really want to learn. I can’t imagine teaching a class full of students who are apathetic and don’t care about the material. Now I got mad teacher respect! I was surprised at how easily teaching English came to me. I formulate lesson plans, but I’m also flexible so that if there is something else the students want to learn, I work with that. Sometimes you really just have to go with the flow, because there is no consistency when it comes to the group and how they are feeling on a day-to-day basis. I teach them for two hours at a time, which is a bit lengthy for young preteen minds, so I give them a small recess in between. Sometimes we will go over certain vocabulary words and then all of a sudden we start to have really thought-provoking discussions. The students are eager to learn about me and where I come from and what I do, where I’ve been. I try to tell them about me as accurately as possible without making it seem like I am more important or that my culture is more important than theirs. It’s a hard topic because although I truly believe that learning English is an important key to success in the world we live in, I don’t believe in devaluing other cultures or their language.

Some of these discussions are pretty funny, though. For example, when we were learning about numbers, I asked each of the students how old they were in English. And then I made the mistake of asking them how old they thought I was. Now, I’ve been told plenty of times that I look seventeen years old. Trust me, my ID gets asked for in all realms of life. I hate that now, but maybe I won’t in ten years or so. “Class, how old do you think I am?” First, I got eighteen. Not too bad, sometimes I still feel like I’m eighteen years old. I smiled and said, older. Then I got 25. That ridiculous smile I had on my face began to dwindle. I could feel my eyebrows raising and my heart pounding…twenty-five? Damn…who knows what I’ll be doing when I’m twenty-five. Then, and I don’t know dunnit, but someone said, “Profe, are you thirty?” At that point, I lost all hope. Thirty? THIRTY? This was a prime coming-to-Jesus moment. I may or may not have had to sit down in my seat. I can’t quite remember what I said next, but I think it was along the lines of, “I’m 21, damnit!” and we continued our classwork. Never again…

Besides the classroom, I’ve had many interesting adventures this month. For example, Katie and I have learned that we must never go in conchos together, because every time we do, something goes terribly wrong. We either get lost, or find ourselves in extremely awkward situations, or who knows what. My favorite time was (on a Sunday afternoon…we should known better!) we decided to go to the supermarket to buy some toiletries. Ha! A likely tale… we first took a concho to the center of Santiago to the chain supermarket called La Sirena. Was it open? Nope. Was any other shop open? Nope. So we trudged back to take a concho, and it was the exact same car we had taken to get there with the exact same driver and the exact same creepy dude sitting in the back repeating: “beautiful…beautiful…beautiful…” I’m thinking, all right Casanova, you’re really winning me over with that one. So there was a bit of awkwardness going on there, and we decided to go to a place that was SURE to be open, even on a Sunday. And was it? Nope. So after reflecting on our life and its mysteries for about five minutes, I finally called one of my friends to ask him what on earth would be open, and he led us to the right spot. WINNING. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way that in Latin America, Sunday isn’t the day to go to the store. Thought I would have learned that by now, but life is sure full of surprises.

All in all though, I am just loving my time here. I've made some beautiful friends, seen some absolutely beautiful beaches, learned some interesting things in class, and improved my Spanish little by little. I can honestly say I'm doing my best to take advantage of the opportunities and make my time here really worth it (if you know me you know I'm all about opportunity!) And I promise, not all the men are creepy! Just some of them. Katie and I have decided that we are going to make a Youtube video of all the things that Dominican guys say to gringas. Keep your eyes peeled for it on Youtube! 

Well I have midterms next week (yes…for those of you who have seen my Facebook pictures I do do things besides go to the beach!), so I had better get studying. Hope you enjoyed my post and sorry about the scatterbrained-ness. See you next time!