Monday, Nov 21

We arrived in the government offices in El Tuito around noon. It was a federal holiday since Revolution Day fell on Sunday, but Ignacio Palomera had been willing to meet with us anyway. Ignacio was the only one in his office, but gave us almost three hours of his time! He is a jack-of-all –trades in government. His title is Director of Culture but his previous, longer experience is in public service, especially in the welfare department. He told stories of gathering information about the needs of underprivileged families by personally going door to door and interviewing them.

We talked about some new successes with the schools, especially improved communication among the teachers and more frequent seminars and classes.  All newly employed teachers are college graduates, with two years of teacher training in college. This is a big improvement from a decade ago.

A middle school English teacher, Magda Ortega, joined us later. She had sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes and was frustrated with classroom management problems. The students had very little background in English and were reluctant to put in the work.  Like any middle school teacher, she was coping with their emotions – embarrassment over looking dumb and the need to look cool. Even more, they don’t see the value in learning English. We talked a lot about games and about selling the kids on the value of learning English. It reminded me of a truism of education – teaching is first and foremost a sales position. Learning is a behavior that students must do willingly. The more they buy in, the more they learn.  The same challenge exists for teachers planet-wide. We promised to come back Friday with games, charts and materials that might help her do her job better.

In the afternoon, we drove the 50 kilometers to the ocean. The drive was entirely on dirt roads, in many areas one lane. The common native vehicle is the pickup truck, usually with a few or a dozen men standing up in the truck bed. We also shared the road with grazing cows and horses. Pasture fences seemed to be largely ignored by the livestock. Men on horseback were engaged in various ranch jobs, some carried ropes for gathering animals, others had tools – post hole diggers, shovels, even chainsaws, strapped to their saddles. Miles of the drive are entirely isolated, with no sign of humans. Patrick noticed, “I think this is the farthest I’ve ever been from civilization.”

At the end of the road, though, are two gems – the town of Tehuamixtle and the Mayto Hotel. Tehua is a fishing village of 50 families or so. Set in a gorgeous bay, their boats are tied to anchors away from the shore. There is a café at the edge of the bay managed by a family that we knew well from several previous visits. We celebrated a new baby in the family and got a chance to see 14 year old Daniel. Daniel is the boy reading Beauty and the Beast in the photo that is on the first page of the Libros for Learning website (http://www.librosforlearning.com/) .  He still reads every day and wants to become a teacher one day.

Hotel Mayto is a surprise to anyone who stays there – gorgeous manicured lawn and flowers, a beautiful swimming pool and a view of a treacherous bay that will lock your eyes and hold them.  The Milky Way shone in the dark sky before we went to bed.