First Day of School

Yesterday (February 10) was the first day of school in Costa Rica! Call me a loser or nerd, I don’t care, but for me, the first day of school was always an exciting event. My dad wouldn’t go into work on time, and every year, stayed to take a picture of each of us Ferrell kids in our first day of school garb, backpack in tow, on the front porch. I can still remember these days, when younger walking down to the corner to catch the bus, or later, jumping in to one of the various Ford Tauruses and driving up 35th street to ol’ Valley High. In high school, it may have been the only day of the school year when I was on time to all my classes. Having already done a walk-through of my schedule during registration, the first day amounted to schmoozing with the teachers I already knew, doing my best not to make any sarcastic remarks with new teachers, high-fiving all the friends I was lucky enough to have in my classes, and seeing which girls had spent the most time at the pools/gym over the summer.

Well, the first day of school at Colegio Tecnico Profesional Puerto Viejo was markedly different than that mentioned above. Luckily, I had been well prepped by my host sister as to what to expect. Fany, my host sister, as I’ve mentioned, is a great student, and my host parents are pretty responsible people. Yet, a few weeks ago, Fany mentioned that she wouldn’t be going to school the first two days (school started on a Thursday) nor the following week. Then at a meeting with my so called counterpart, the outgoing regional English advisor for Sarapiqui (my canton), she informed us that normally teachers at the high schools in this region get their schedules at a meeting just before classes begin the first day. So, my expectations were quite tempered by the time yesterday rolled around.

One of my main activities in the past two weeks has been to try to meet up and connect with the teachers/counselors at the high school and night high school (Colegio Nocturno de Puerto Viejo). I had eight phone numbers. Two of them were numbers now disconnected/cancelled. The night school principal had apparently not been notified that the Peace Corps was working with MEP (Education Department) to send workers to help the English teachers, nor that there was one coming to his school. He told me he knew nothing of it and hung up. Another teacher informed me she wasn’t teaching this year. One counselor told me she lived out of townand would get together with me in February. One counselor was amiable, and we had coffee about two weeks ago, she was fairly excited about me being here. One teacher said we could get together in March/April. I mentioned that school started the next week; he stuck to the March/April line. Another teacher said he’d call me to get together. That didn’t happen, so I texted him yesterday, and he arranged for me to have coffee with him and the other night school teachers (including one who informed me she had lost her phone-thus solving one of the disconnected numbers). And, lastly, an English teacher at the high school told me to meet him at 08:00 the first day of school in front of the office, to go to an event.

As I hurried out the door (still haven’t become a morning person) my host mom told me everyone was at the gym for an assembly. I said the teacher had arranged to meet me at the office for an event, which was surely the assembly. After waiting outside the office for fifteen minutes, I texted said English teacher, and he said, “come to the gym”. Could’ve been a helpful text 20 minutes earlier, eh? So I went down to the gym, met the English staff as a teacher leading the assembly introduced the staff to all the seventh graders (and some other students with nothing better to do). Essentially all the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders know better than to come to this assembly. At the end, I was introduced to the group, as someone “like a missionary” to help the English department. I saw no need to introduce myself, as pronouncing my name correctly would just confuse the students, but the guy insisted, so, figuring the students were ready to leave and the last thing they needed was some foreigner misusing the subjunctive tense. So, with “good morning, hope you’re doing well” I exited.

I accompanied the English teacher and a new special education teacher to guide one of the twelve seventh grade sections around the school. Each section has between 30-35 students. Normally, a walk around the school wouldn’t get somebody’s khaki’s muddy up to the knees, but that’s because CTP Puerto Viejo isn’t quite normal, at least not to an American. As a technical professional high school, it offers specializations for the tenth through twelfth graders. One of these is agriculture. So, the school owns a huge swath of land across the street and up the road, with cattle pastures, a duck pond, trails through the woods, a pig barn, and goat pastures. After making our way through these areas and returning on a nice path through the woods we had some iced tea and sandwich cookies. And, at 10:00, the school day was done-for those seventh graders that attended. It never even started for the rest of the seventh graders and almost all the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders.

Things went pretty similar at the night school. Each grade of students was taken into a different classroom with a few teachers; I joined the English teachers with the ninth graders. Although there may be seventy or eighty students in each grade, only ten to fifteen showed up for each grade (more for seventh and eighth). The teachers explained the school rules, hours, expectations, and maybe gave a short diagnostic test if the department so desired. We were done within an hour. Oh, and as to getting the schedules the first day of school-at neither the night school nor the regular high school, did the teachers have their schedules by the end of the first day of school. So, considering the teachers don’t know which group of students they are teaching, you can bet dollars to doughnuts that no verbs are being conjugated on the blackboard and no homework is being assigned. Nonetheless, I’m hopeful that things will get rolling week two.