Random Summer Musing #1– Community English Classes

Oh my, I’m sorry it’s been such a long time. Almost a month! Things have been a little crazy busy here (which is a very good thing), but it hasn’t allowed much time for a well-kept blog.

Anyway, here’s one of the random musings that I’ve been wanting to share with you all. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

1. So, when I signed up for Peace Corps, I guess I kind of imagined that everything would just be

all the time– or at least with great frequency. Well, thank god, that’s not really the case, at least not yet. I’ve been surprised by how infrequently I have little WTF moments. Chalk it up to a pretty good Spanish level, an urban site placement in Latin America, relatively good cultural training, or a good deal of past work and personal experience with Latino cultures? I’m not sure, but as a result, when something new comes up, it really comes up. My inner-thought process starts doing that annoying thing where everything ends with a question mark?

Example:

I’ve been trying to get some community English classes started for quite some time (since late April) with a local community organization for teens and adults in Riobamba that would run twice a week (mondays and wednesdays) . Classes were set to start July 1st. They didn’t. The start date got pushed back again and again every week– of course without any notice. Tipico. So I just wait in their offices for like an hour twice a week like:

(side note– always always always bring a book or a magazine with you.)

and the question starts to become not when are classes going to start, but rather, are classes going to start??

Finally, on July 24th I was quite sure that we were starting. For real this time. So I show up at the community org, and no one is there. The classroom isn’t set up.

I stand there for a while and the secretary finally comes down. Today she actually has news for me. We’re not starting the classes, but we’re having an inauguration today. All right, cool cool. I hadn’t thought of that but it sounds like a good, important thing to do.

Oh, and the class won’t be for adults and teens. It will be for children.

Oh, and it won’t be in Riobamaba. It will be a rural neighborhood  about 30 minutes away, but don’t worry, we’re going to get someone to pick you up and drop you off.

So, uh come back at 7pm, BE PUNCTUAL, and we’ll leave post-haste for the inauguration to arrive at 7:30!

All right, whatever. Let’s do this. So I go home, take a nap and go back to the community organization at like 7:15. We leave at 7:30 for this little party and get there a little before 8. Almost no one is there, except for a military band, hanging out in the street. At this point, I realize this shin-dig will be going on outside, and I start to wish I had worn a warmer scarf, and a hat, and gloves, and about 4 more layers.

The band starts playing, and some guy starts making the call for people of the town to come out and join this beautiful prestigious, glorious, (etc…. insert like 25 more excessive adjectives) event. At this point, the director of my organization is not there. In fact, only about 20% of the key players are there.

The band and the guy make like 10 more calls and we’re starting to develop quite a crowd. Eventually everyone gets there. (“There” being the main intersection of this pueblo that has not been blocked off officially so that cars keep driving directly to where we’re all hanging out and making a sharp turn to avoid hitting the podium– also, children are playing recklessly in this street; people are carrying dining room chairs out of their homes to set up on the street, and I see the most stray dogs I’ve seen since Tumbaco.)

so I think it’s safe to say, things are almost as weird as this GIF:

Eventually we start this presentation, and it’s not an inaguaration for the English classes!! It’s for local zumba classes!

The director of my community org, Maria, turns to me early on and asks me what my name is.

To be fair, she was only unsure of my last name– which she decided was too hard and gave up on pronouncing it. Whatever, I can’t really say here’s either, but this story gets weirder so stay with me.

When Maria (an excellent orator) gets up to make her speech about how imperative and beautiful these zumba classes are going to be, she throws in a part about the English classes (btw, in the series of speeches 3 different times were mentioned for the zumba classes, and no times were mentioned for the English classes). Gist of the English Classes announcement: “Meaghan, this Meaghan, her last name is very difficult. I can’t say it, but this Meaghan, is here to help us. She is from a DEVELOPED country, but she’s really nice, and she’s here to help us, which she can do, [simply] because she is from a DEVELOPED country. Meaghan! Stand up! [as if it wasn’t clear who the gringita was].” There is no more mention of the English classes.

So, things are a little awkward, but hey. Things finally wrap up, and I have no idea where to go from here…. Well, the military band starts to break it down with some folk Andean music. The town starts busting a move while a warm oatmeal drink and crackers are passed around. I decide to dance with everyone because people tend to think it’s pretty cute with the gringitos dance. This goes over well. By the end of the night, the town is now pretty excited about the English classes and asking all sorts of fun little questions like “can my 6 yr old come? what about my 15 yr old? Both are ideal candidates because they speak none point none English. What about my 4 yr old? No, I swear, it’s cool, she can walk so it’s fine.” “Can you come everyday?” “What’s the class limit? 50? 60?”– but I must stress things really did go well. At one point everyone was all “Viva Ecuador! Viva! Viva Riobamba! Viva! Viva Yaruquies! VIVVVVVVA! Viva Los Estados Unidos! Viva!”– #PeaceCorpsSecondGoaling.  I got a Viva! — Can I put that on my Volunteer Reporting Form?

Then I got invited to someone’s house to eat sliced bread and soft cheese and discuss a recent H1N1 outbreak in Ecuador (because everyone knows that H1N1 comes from the United States, duh).

And that was my Monday. The classes started the following week, but there was no one to take me there on Monday as promised, so classes started on Wednesday,  and the class days got changed (without asking me) to Wednesdays and Fridays. There is also no official end date to these classes, but I did get asked to judge a beauty pageant in this town in the end of September, so idk, who knows?