Wednesday, June 11

I feel as though I have been in San Pedro for a lifetime and at this moment I want to stay here forever. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have found this place. It is hard to believe that I only came here yesterday and have been here only one night. So many things here are magical, and the impressions and experiences are coming at me so fast I feel as though I am being flooded with richness. With my friend Steve’s help, I was able to recognize that I badly needed to get away and collect my thoughts.

This place is very noisy compared to San Marcos and, honestly, to anywhere I thought I could live. As I write, I hear directly outside my window the three little boys of the family playing stickball and yelling in the courtyard. Behind that sound is the strong beat of the music from the fiesta at the school next door.

There are 25 teachers at the school, and I have met many of them now – Selvin, Francisco, Lukas, Rafael, Lety, Lety dos, Estella, Niko, Julio, Javier, Lorenzo, Omar, Elijio and others whose names I can't remember. I told the teachers that since there is only one of me and there are 25 of them, I am going to change my name every day for 25 days. Every dayElijio calles me another name and tells me his new name for the day. There is an air of camaraderie and motivation here that I have never before experienced in a work environment. I have lost count of how many teachers have approached me to talk and ask questions in the past day and a half. I keep coming across groups of teachers meeting to talk and improve their skills and to learn more about and discuss their teaching. Today I spent over an hour teaching an impromptu class. Yesterday I sat in on part of a class about how to teach preterit vs imperfect tenses. Today I sat in on a class Ramon gave about teaching interactively.

I am having second thoughts about continuing this blog. It is disconcerting to write into what feels mostly like a vacuum, and I notice that it has become more difficult to write in the past couple of days.