Location, location, location!

In other news, I had to turn my first kid away from English class tonight. We have a lot of kids that are already coming regularly. But, I had to draw the line with a kid that can’t read yet. He’s still young, so I didn’t feel quite as bad. If he can’t read, he won’t follow the worksheets we’ve created—and ultimately will drain attention from kids who might actually learn.

In an effort to try to remain as inclusive as possible, we moved our class this week. We used to hold the classes in our house. Then kids from families we didn’t know started to knock on the door and ask when the next English class was. We had a conversation about this with two of the farmers. I expressed concerns about security—kids that were showing up have older brothers that hang on the corner. I trust the older brothers as far as I can throw them—which isn’t much.

So, in this conversation, we talked about moving the class to the church or the municipal building, or even borrowing a hallway at the school. We planned to go with Filiberto and Timoteo to talk to the folks at the church to arrange space. Then the next day they came back to us with a different plan—we would hold the class at Filiberto’s house and that way he could take note of which kids were coming and help out if we got any rowdy kids. Personally, I think he wanted to stick around for the extra English class.

Our first English class at Filiberto’s went fantastically. We have a lot less light there, but there were enough seats for everyone and we sat around a table. At our house, we were all in a circle on the floor.

More structure breeds better attention. We played a game this time and they were leaning forward in their seats the whole time.

It is so refreshing to be in a teaching situation where kids are there to learn. Unlike soccer, these kids show up without us having to round them up. And when they see us in the street, they are constantly asking when the next class is, even if they already know. Although, even for soccer, the kids have been rounding us up lately.