Its almost the end of May and we are currently in the middle oft the THIRD head wave this spring...incredible...ungodly. Its been close to 100 F. most days for the past three weeks., some days over 100. They use Centigrade here so high 30s seemed doable at first but....NOT> I don't have AC and really hardly anyone does....it wasn't needed before last year and this. CLIMATE CHANGE big time.
I bought an evaporative cooler, aka swamp cooler, portable so I can roll it between my two rooms and it has helped soooo much. The first week, I hardly slept even tho the nights were a lot cooler. This house, and apparently most of them here except for the really old structures, absorb the heat during the day and then hold on to it all night. The walls actually feel warm all night long. UGH !!!
I want to record here the progress with Pickleball. One student has stepped up to show a huge interest in PB and taking responsibility for getting more players. He has suggested a Whats App group to remind players, he wants to get PB on the website as a sport offered at UTEQ and he wants to do a lot of things to get it going which is exactly what PC wants, sustainability. Last Friday, I had asked him to take over since I was going to be on a visit to another site. Even tho my visit got cancelled, and I could have gone, I did not as he was so excited about being in charge. It seems all went well and his parents came to help him out and to play. When they went on a trip during the last school break, he apparently took them to play PB and they loved it and were anxious to come and play at UTEQ. Of course, I encouraged them to come and I hope they return when I am there. I also ordered another net system us so that we don't have to jerry rig the soccer net, although that has been helpful.
The new quarter started so I have been having conversation groups rather than going in to other teacher's classses and I believe it has been successful. I also have started a seminar with some admin staff and teachers to practice English but we've only met once and I hope it is successful too
I have a big problem with ants and a small problem with roaches so I'm having my place fumigated next Friday. A co-worker does it as a side job so he's doing it for me. I'll put Gringo in the vet for one night even tho they say you can return after 40 minutes..
This is election season so PC has required us to standfast in our communities until the election is over and for a few days afterwards. I have gotten permission to travel out to Juraquilla to look at the pb place out there There is a competition out there next weekend and apparently they are desperate for female players so I might.....might....play but I'll have to watch today to see how the play looks.
Things are really hopping around here in the PC office.....Our country director left about a month ago, our Asst. Country Director went home for a month and also has recently had a cancer removed from her face, a new Country Director has arrived and the Program Manager for TEFL either quit or resigned. Of Course we don't know. There's lots of action n What's App but I don't know what actually went down.
The new country director seems to be a good person but he has never served in the Peace Corps so his experience, or lack thereof, is limited and I fear it might affect his ability to really understand many of the situations the volunteers are encountering in their sites. We'll see. We don't get together again until next January for our Mid-service conference.
Pickleball stalled a while during a break at school and then we had some really hot weather and I had to cancel one Friday due to problems in my apt that I had to be present for but yesterday it got back on track .
. In fact we had some students from UTEQ come to play and there were 4 folks I had not seen before and come to find out, they are high school kids who live around the Uteq area. I don't know why they were on campus but they fit right in and were really nice kids. I hope they come back...we added them to the Whats' App Pickle ball list to remind them to come to play.
Another thing happened today that I wanted to make sure I didn't forget. I did an activity with the higher English groups called "Please, interrupt me." It turned into a huge success. Each student had to tell a little story, just describe a day or anything similar, and the other students had the obligation of interrupting to get more details from the story teller. One group was well behaved and did a fine job, all in English, of course. But , as the day went on, the stories seemed to get a little crazier until finally our last group was crazy. The first two kids told their story of working as waiters at a private event where everyone in the room was white and some were rude. The two kids told some hilarious stories and had us all in stitches. It was a huge success. Then the next kid, Roman, told how he went to a "off limits" club just for the experience and ended up getting "pepper sprayed." It too was hilarious. Finally, I spent the last hour with a kid named Oscar who told of how he was selected for a scholarship at the age of 12 and has been receiving it through high school and thru college. Its from a local bank. He is the kid who said the most interesting thing about the Mexican culture is how good Mexicans are to each other...long story but that is the jist of it.
I'm going to stop this and publish since its been quite a while since I updated. I'll start a new post.
