Update

It has been frantic and exhausting this week working at the school, visiting various historical locations, and talleres (workshops). Tomorrow is our last day working at the school, and we've been practicing a traditional folk dance for the closing ceremony. Generally, the students have been very receptive and eager to learn English. In the English classes, we have been teaching the students how to say "hello, my name is...", body parts by singing "head, shoulders knees and toes," designing family trees, learning the English alphabet, colors and numbers. For the first and second grade classes we have been playing four square, red light green light, hop skotch, duck, duck goose and we've incorporated English into all of the games. In the art classes, with English instruction, they have been creating portraits, making hemp bracelets/necklaces, and paper cranes. It is gratifying to see that the students are taking full advantage of the resources at hand. We've also gotten a taste of stardom; any free time at the school is consumed with signing autographs and posing for pictures.
We have visited several local artisans. On Monday, there was a ceramic workshop at the school where a blind ceramacist taught us how to sculpt. On Tuesday, after our dance class we travelled by bus to a wood carving workshop. We got to watch animals being carved out of logs and we also got the opportunity to paint the crafts. Wednesday, we went to a knife maker's hut. We got to take home our own mini knives with our names engraved on them. Thursday, we went to a backstrap weaver's house, where she taught us how to weave and we were able to buy some of her handmade works. It has felt good to support the local artisans.
Despite Mary's absence, the group has remained close and talkative. We have learned that we need to be more cautious with what we eat and drink. Our home is nice and our host family is very hospitable. We will be sad to leave in two days.
Adios, buenos noches!
Rebecca y Patrick

Home.

hey guys I hope you all have a great rest of the trip. Don't worry Sandy I made it home fine, thanks for seeing me off in Oaxaca.

Airport Limbo

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Patrick and I made it to JFK with no problem and were dropped off with our 4 enormous bags at the Delta International Terminal. We waited in a long snaky line for 20 minutes just to get into the doors of the terminal. I was a little worried about the length of the lines to check in, but Patrick, intrepid as always, consented to try the self-check-in kiosks, and we sped in after that. Now we are waiting to board our plane for Mexico City.
Later that day 5:15 pm, our flight was awesome, because we had exit row seats with unlimited legroom. When we arrived in Mexico City with everyone else who decided to travel this week, we waited at the enormous line to get through immigration. Due to the time it took to get through immigration we missed our connecting flight to Oaxaca. We scurried around trying to find where our bags were located and interestingly enough, each person “knew” that they were all in different places. Our biggest adventure to date was attempting to call Enid Dollard and Ms, Garcia to let them know we missed our connection. The phones required a specific “Ladatel” card that we purchased from the pharmacy, then needed instructions form the international operator to try to call Oaxaca.
We finally connected with Mrs. Garcia as she realized that we had not connected, and we hope to take a later flight. We can't wait to reunite with the group and experience our new adventure.
MHPowell

Oaxaca Day two

First off im going to say that learning how to use this key board is really hard. there are so many keys and leters that we are not used to it makes it a little complicated but is not that bad. The compuer we have been using is located in the loby right now i hear all the empolyes yelling to eachother..it is about time to start cleaning the rooms, we just had a wonderfull breakfast made by the staff hear at the hotel. Yesterday after we hadbreakfastour tour guide whom was a good friend of Inid showed up with his son. He told us about the history and culutre here in Oaxaca, it was fasinating. After he lead us around the ctity to the Zocolo wich is like a center square or downtown we may have in America. On our way we stoped at the market it was buzzing. It was a place for the senses the diffrent smells of the foods, drinks, spices, and even the leather we passed were all very strong. The colors of the clothes and other goods were vibrant and amazing all over. All around us was the sound of spanish, everyone was speaking it besides us. I think it amazes all of us how much we have really learned already on this trip, i hve become much better with my spanish in just two days and already have carried on basic conversations around the town. Although yesterday before we left on our venture we all decided that we were going to go across the street to the interent place, while we were there we had two interesting exsperiences with our native language. A older ma walked up to us and asked me to look over his english workook, he showed us his ID an told us he was trying to learn english, it was a really amzing exsperience. Also it was the first time that we noticed American music, the song Apologise by One Republic came on, the more we walked aroud the more english music we heard.

Yesterday was also the end of the teachers protest here, so when we were at lunch we saw the protest in action and we also saw it end. Later that night we went back to the Zocolo to have dinner ata diffrent resutrant and we saw the clean up process of the protest , huge water trucks with large hoses attached power washing the sidewalkstha ver the past few weeks have become caked with tash and dirt. Although as we were at lunch a group o students came up and asked us if they could interveiw s about our opinions on the protest, we had Sandy translate our opinions and tel the children, it was really interesting.

That pretty much sums up yesterday today we are going to go esplorea little more and then we are off the the air port to pick up Mary Hills and Patrick. Once we do we are off to Otoclan where the school is.

So far the trip has been amazing-Mary

Arival

We arrived safely in Oaxaca yesterday afternoon. While driving to Sta Helena Plaza , (where we´ll be staying until we move into our host families on Sunday afternoon) we began to notice the sights of the city. The stores are all set up in sections. For example, there is a block that sells mostly music electronics and another block where mostly mechanics work. The streets are narrow and the town small, but there is a lot of automobile traffic. Locals flood the streets, making their living any way they can. I was reminded of a modern Latin American version of the market place scene from the musical Oliver as I saw a man weaving between the cars selling limes and a woman a little ways away selling chocolate. Like any city back home, graffiti adorned buildings and shops. I don´t know what it says since it´s in Spanish, but Mrs. Garcia explained to us that when there was political unrest in the city three years ago, many people used graffiti as a form of protest.
Today we are going to visit the Zocalo where the teachers are currently holding their annual strike. Today is supposed to be their final day of protest for greater local union control and better pay.
We all tried a typical breakfast with Oaxacan coffee (with cinnaomon), hot chocolate, tortillas, black beans, eggs with chile, tomatoes and onion, fresh squeezed orange juice - not a bad start at all!
So far we are still getting our bearings, but we´re happy and looking forward to meeting the kids we´ll be teaching on Monday. (this morning´s writer in residence - gracias a Gaby)

Education in Mexico

Here is a link to an article I found about a proposal to overhaul the school system in Mexico. It contains many comparison's to education in the US. Despite all the differences, how is education in the US and Mexico the same?

Article Link

I found the exhibit we visited today very interesting. I loved the different types of art that was on display. I found the large yawn and bees wax "painting" to be very fascinating, i can tell that it took much time to make. I found the masks to be the most fascinating pieces of art. The way they interpreted what they were making and mixing the animal with humans. This was very interesting because in ceramics class now I am making a Totem pole, so i have to carve like the masks. Overall it was a cool exhibit and taught a bit about the history of Mexico through artwork.