Hi guys! How is everyone? Well, today is DAY 4 of the strike and there still is no end in sight. It is super frustrating that Anna is able to teach (some teachers at her school are not striking) and I´m left on my own with very little to do. I can´t go to the English Institute here in Copiapó to work because there is no exact end date to the strike...so, I could possibly get work but then have to quite when the strike ends. There is a possability that the strike could go until the end of our program which would mean I would never get to say good-bye to all the teachers and students at my school. Very lame. Yesterday I received an email from the Ministry of Education saying they may re-assign me to another school so that I have something to do and so they aren´t wasting their money. That option seems ridiculous to me because by the time I get started I would only have 2 weeks to teach! It would keep me busy, but what would happen if the strike ended after I had switched to a new school? Would I stay at that new school or go back to the one I have been teaching at for the last 7 months? All in all this is a lame situation. Anna and I have had an awesome time here in Chile, but one of our biggest complaints with working here are the constant strikes. I would love to come back someday and teach full time at a university, but since the educational system still has a few kinks in it I may choose another country. Please pray for a quick resolution to this mess.
Anyways, today I wanted to tell you guys about our day trip to El Salvador last Thursday. On Wednesday of last week Anna´s co-teacher asked her if she and I would be interested going to the town of El Salvador to help with an English Spelling Bee. We said "totally!" and that was the start to a last minute trip to that little mining town. The English Teacher from El Salvador contacted Anna and arranged a time for us to take the bus...7am! So, Thursday we woke up at 5:15 am, got ready, and went to the Pullman bus station to catch the bus. I asked one of the Pullman workers which was the right bus for El Salvador and he lead us to the one he thought was the correct one. So, Anna and I boarded the bus and waited for awhile trying to stay awake at least until we departed. All of a sudden the man I asked jumped on the bus and told us that we were on the wrong bus and that the one that had just started to leave was the one we wanted! So, we hopped off the bus and ran over to the other one, barely making it. I guess there are two buses that go to El Salvador - one goes along the coast which takes 5 hours and the other goes a more direct route that takes 3 hours!! So, thank God we made the right bus otherwise we would have taken a super long bus ride for no reason!
So, once we arrived the English Teacher, Valentina, picked us up and took us to her school. Her principle re-imbursed us for the bus tickets and then Valentina told us to meet her downtown at 1:15 since she had classes until then. So, Anna and I rolled up our sleeves and explored the giant town of El Salvador!
Ok, well El Salvador is not exactly giant. The town is pretty small, but as you can see in the photo above the streets are SUPER wide. The copper mine in El Salvador used to be owned by an American company so that is why the streets and houses have an American feel.
Since the town was pretty small Anna and I explored the majority of it rather quickly, so we found a bench in the shade and read for a bit.
Since we were tired Anna got bored with reading after awhile and decided to try out the swing set in the Plaza. I would have joined her, but there was some bird cacky on the other swing! At 1:15 we met Valentina and had a yummy traditional Chilean meal for lunch and then afterward went to her school to wait until the Spelling Bee started.
The Spelling Bee first started with the little kids putting on a demonstration to show what they´ve been learning lately. It was a cute little show where four kids had flash cards of a toy (written of course in English) and they each had to say "I have a _____". Then they hid their flash card and mixed themselves up and their classmates (to the right, outside of the photo) had to ask them "Do you have a bike, etc.?" and that student either responded "yes I do" or "no I don´t". It sounds simple, but for their age level it was pretty impressive. After that was the Spelling Bee with 5th grade to 8th grade.
After judging the Spelling Bee Valentina gave out prizes to the kids and a thank you gift to Anna, me and the other two judges.
The Principle gave me my prize which was a nice pen with "El Salvador" written on it.
Here are the famous judges plus Valentina (in the middle).
After the Spelling Bee there was a little party for the students who participated, the teachers, and the judges. Anna and I definately took the opportunity to fill up on yummy snacks. Since we live on a modest budget whenever there is free food we joke "eat as much as you can so we don´t have to eat Dinner!" :)After the Spelling Bee Anna and I toured other parts of the city with Valentina and then ate a small dinner. Valentina was very nice and spoke amazingly good English. She kept thanking us for helping her with the Spelling Bee. For Anna and I it wasn´t completely an act of charity :), we did get to visit another place in Chile for free :). Anyways, so at 9 pm we boarded our bus and 3 hours later (12 pm) arrived in Copiapó. We were exhausted, but the day was super fun and well worth the effort.
So, that was our trip to El Salvador...I hope you enjoyed it! Ok, well I am going to go explore the Library now so have a great day!
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