Almost Home Alone

It is Saturday morning and I have had the most delicious sleep in. Everyone else has gone to work or other commitments and there is just Graciela (the house-keeper-with-not-a-word-of-English) and me. I got to bed at about 1.30 a.m.and slept ´til 10 a.m. What a joy it is not to have to get up to let scratching-at-the-door cats in or out. Few, if any people in Parana seem to have cats and I wonder if it could be related to the number of free-range dogs wandering about?

Note to Rupert-cat and Roger -cat ... you are not as cute and appealing as you think you are.

I have been able to use the internet to check out and research things that I had not quite ¨got my head around¨ previously. [For the English as a Second Language readers of my blog - that was a very long way of saying ¨understood¨.]

Here are some links to various internet sites you may like to check out to find out more about where I am, what I am doing and some of the things I mention.

http://www.lodgemotel.com.au/ The Lodge Outback Motel is in Broken Hill, NSW, Australia (the middle of nowhere but nothing like ¨Far Far Way¨in Shrek II. ) It is run by my dear friend Christine (also Julian´s godmother), her brother-in-Sydney, her daughter and son-in-law. It is to this out-post that we have just sent our 18 year old son Julian to help out and to have his small OE [overseas experience]. I am hoping that he has arrived there safely by now as it is his first solo venture. (Those of you who know Celia Lashlie´s book... I am off the bridge!) They are doing a wonderful job renovating the motel and have won several awards recently. If you are travelling through the middle of nowhere, call in and check out how they are going for me - and stay there for a while. Read their on-line guest book and those of you who know Christine will recognise that she is still the same!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage) This is the Wikipedia link to mate (mar-tay). Try checking out Google images for lots more images - but here´s my own contribution:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paran%C3%A1,_Entre_R%C3%ADos This is a link to Wikipedia to find out the area where I am living. For more pictures, check out Google images, Parana, Entre Rios as there is another Parana in Brazil. Parana at street level and close up looks a bit more tired and in need of maintenance but there are defintely signs of a former elegance and grandeur (like so many of us...).

http://www.stepelc.com.ar/english/contact.htm This is the site for the STEP English School where I work most mornings and evenings. It is full of dedicated and delightful teachers and all ages of students from children to adults, who are soooo keen to learn English. In fact, if you think you want to improve your own grasp of English-as-your-first-language grammar you should come here too. I am on my best grammatical behaviour when I am at STEP. The teachers are encouraging, supportive and always positive - and someone usually brings me a cup of coffee. How cool is that!

¿Where in the world is Otaua? and why is the map of NZ anatomically incorrect? A photo of one group of students at STEP.

http://www.cervantessaavedra.com.ar/index.htm Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
This is the school that I have gone to from 10.30 - 1.00 pm every morning. It is about three blocks and around the corner from STEP but I (foolishly) feel like Christopher Columbus setting out into the unknown every time I negotiate this voyage by myself. The students are lively and confident and seem to enjoy the distraction of something different in the classroom (a Universal Truth).Many of the students speak English well and most of them speak English better than I speak Spanish. One group of girls took charge of me and I joined their group for a geography task one day and a technology task the next day. The lesson was about the speed of technological advancement over the past century. I was able to tell them that my grandmother, as child, could not believe her grandmother who told her that one day she would see a carriage move without a horse - and my grandmother lived to see, on television, man land on the moon. The teachers are hardworking and kind and generously allow me to sit in on their classes. They have far far fewer resources at hand than we have in New Zealand and yet the students learn, and if their ability to speak English is an indication of the standard of teaching, they are very well taught. (Note to Susannah... That doesn´t mean I don´t need that list of resources I asked for....)

I am also grateful to Melanie (family connection at the school) who was able to interpret for me and explain to the teachers why I was in their room. She also organised a taxi for me to return home and confirm with Melisa that I was on my way home. All these things I could have eventually done by myself with much effort and gesticulation ... but the show must go on and I tend to slow things down a bit.

I gave my camera to a group of students and said,¨Take photos of what is important to you in your school.¨ Here´s a sample of what they came up with...

One of the classrooms I was in . Much smaller than in NZ but lively and vibrant none-the-less.

Another classroom. The windows open up onto the footpath and the road. The school was once a large home and there is very little on the outside to indicate that a school is within. Notice the hot water thermos for mate. There is a water cooler for drinks but includes hot water for mate as well.

Some of the teacahers. Find the thermos, the mate cup (must find the right name for it) and the packe of yerba to make mate.

The school symbol.

Looking into the school classroom in the first photo above from the courtyard.

Check out the chalkboard to see what subject is being taught her. (Click on the photo and it should enlarge.)

The flag of Argentina. Light blue and white will forever remind me of Argentina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX9IY1ht92I ¨La Posta¨You tube link
(Led Zepplin alert) The first thing learners of English learn is personal information and how to ask questions about it. Consequently, most people at STEP know more about my family and me than people I know well in NZ. I was talking about son Julian, and describing how his reason-for-living was to compose and play music all day and that he considered this to be his ¨work¨. The teacher afterwards told me that her son was similar so we did what mothers do in any language... compared notes and boasted about the wonderful qualities of our respective sons. I got to meet the Argentinian son ,Juan, and was immediately impressed because he was wearing a John Lennon t shirt. I showed him Mark and Julian´s Youtube video (see below) and he showed me his band performing live last year. Check it out and add a comment if you can. The band, La Posta, are just about to release a CD. I think I was able to impress Juan by saying that I had seen Led Zepplin perform live a long time ago. I have found that that piece of information frequently gets me more respect from a certain demographic than any of my teaching strategies.

http://www.latinbasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=ARG&Team=4805 Link to Sionista basketball team.

Last Sunday night we went to a basket ball game supporting the Sionista team. The host family´s son, Martin, used to play in this team and, in his absence, I have his room. I have learned much about basket from reading the posters and framed pages from newspapers with him in them. He still plays but not at the top level any more. I believe we are going to watch him play a game tonight but he may only be on for a short time as he is recovering from injury. It was the first game of basketball I had seen live, anywhere, and it was truly an amazing experience.

The noise from supporters was deafening and made rugby and cricket supporters seem positively restrained. I was concerned that various parts of the tiered seating or, indeed, the entire building, could stand the earthquake-like impact of the stamping and thumping that is required to either support your team or indicate to the referee that he has made a mistake. There was a sort of band comprised of drums and a horn section that played the team song at appropriate times. It was pretty much the stereotypical South American sporting event. I couldn´t believe it actually existed.

Lowlight of the evening, which momentarily stopped the game for a few minutes, was when we looked across the court to see a man´s legs and torso dangling and kicking from underneath the top tier of seating. People were rushing to support him from underneath and it was not clear for a while what was happening. It seems he had fallen through the floor boards somehow and was caught in a potentially very dangerous situation. As soon as he was rescued the game continued. I don´t think there is an OSH equivalent in Argentina... I watched where I stepped very carefully and took that as a salutary lesson.

Action shot. Plan B is to become a sports photographer. (Ha ha ... There is no ´I´ in sport)

My only previous encounter with basketball was a particularly brutal five minutes on the court with Susannah and Bobby against the WPS Year 8 students. Susannah won! And to think it was a fellow kinsman (on the Naysmith side of the family) who invented the game of basketball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5fhUetf5s Otaua, world-famous in Parana. When people ask me about where I live and what we do, inevitably, I end up using this Youtube video as an explanation. It just happens to be by husband, Mark, and son Julian. So, for what it is worth, Otaua, you have the support of a small group of people from Parana. It´s a good way of me feeling as though I am still involved in our wee community´s big struggle which is now heading towards the Environment Court in NZ. Many people have told me there is a similar struggle to prevent pollution of the local river by Paraguay, except that is going to the International Court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim and finally, on my first night here .... I went to the local Jewish community´s Purim commemoration. My family explained it to me and I hope I understood it correctly. It is the local Jewish communituy´s way of keeping the history and traditions alive and is very much child-oriented occasion commemorataing a significant event in the past. Children and adults wore fancy dress and there were activities, stories and a dance with karaoke at the end. There was a slide show of the children´s activities throughout the year and at the end, a Queen was selected from amongst the girls. Some of the people I met on my first night I have met many times since and am now starting to remember names and connections.