Thursday and Friday

     Thursday dawned as a dusty, beautiful day in Cabo Corrientes. We spent the night at a hotel on the beach, where we ate fresh caught shrimp and (for the first time in my life) raw oysters. They had a dollop of chipotle sauce on them and gthey were fabulous. We had watched them come off the boat an hour before dinner. Talk about fresh!
     We visited three schools, but I'll always be touched by the visit to Villa del Mar. Bob had suggested we not go to that school because in his visits there, the school had been disorganized, the students unruly and the teacher blase. I decided that the kids shouldn't be punished for a bad teacher, so we went anyway.
     As it turns out, the previous teacher had left and two young women have taken over the school. There were 37 kids in two rooms. Well, not exactly two room. There was one room for the fourth to sixth grades. The  first, second and third grades were outside under a roof but no walls. A true outdoor classroom! When we arrived, the kids all came into the room inside and I presented the books (no Alicia, so I had to do all the Spanish speaking this time). The kids grabbed their choices, checked them out and started reading.
     As I walked around checking to make sure they signed their cards, one of the older kids gave me his card. I asked him to sign his name. He shook his head and asked me to do it, pointing to the back of his soccer jersey where his name was printed. I didn't know what was up, but I didn't argue and I signed his card "Eduardo" and sent him off to give the card to his teacher.
     As always, I grabbed some of the fist and second graders and started a read aloud with them. Soon I had the usual crowd of 10 - 12 scrunched around me, laughing at the book and laughing at my Spanish. I asked a fifth grader to take over a read a page for me. She couldn't. It was Dr. Seuss' Un Pescado, Dos Pescado (One Fish Two Fish)
     Later, I talked to the teacher and found out that when they inherited the school, almost none of the kids could read. They had simply lost whatever years they had been in the school, because the teacher had totally failed. They were starting from the beginning with all of them, treating the 11 year olds like the six year olds.
     Those kids. They were so sweet, so helpful, so good to each other and to their teachers. They deserved to read, but the system had let them down. They hadn't failed, their school had failed. We talked for a long time about how we could help. A second room would be nice, but not the most important. More important were the books. The teachers had been very smart. Every student was required to read each night at home and write a few sentences about what they read.
     Not only that, but the teachers were staying at school two evening a week to teach the parents! Because of course, they couldn't read either. Those two ladies, Elsa and Olivier were giving everything they had and all their time to educate this community. The good news is that it will work. Kids love to learn, parents love for their kids to learn. If they stick with it, the community will succeed. I promised to return next year with more books. And I will.
     I'll show some pictures of Villa del Mar on the website.