Week 1

Greetings from Santa Ana,

We are both settled in and hard at work, Angela has fourteen classes each week starting at 7.20am. Bells, bugles and alarms go off at 5.30 am - if you leave getting up for another hour the water supply disappears.

I have thirty computer classes over the week plus sessions for computer homework (6pm until 8pm) making 36 in total and teaching computer programmes is only a small part of what I have been asked to do!

The children have decided that I’m not here to teach them English but they are here to teach me Spanish; not sure who will win!

The teacher uses a Spanish version of Encarta to teach Maths, Geography, History and so on (all in Spanish). Nobody speaks very much English except the Fr Mario, the Principal, but everybody wants to try the bits of English they know on you.

The area we are in is very picturesque, mountains and volcanoes on all sides (most of them active). We are surrounded by very poor villages.

Everybody is very pleasant and helpful, most of our children are orphans or from one parent families, many have been sent here to escape the very violent gangs that exist in the cities (gangs in the UK are tame compared to what they have here). From what I’ve seen, Don Bosco is doing a wonderful job by giving the children a trade so they can earn money when they leave us.

Till next time,

Leo


Week 2

Buenos Dias

I should have taken Spanish lesson before coming here, but at least the computer screen layout for Word and Excel are the same in Spanish and English, it was much easier on Thursday and Friday when I had 12 classes of 40 seven to ten year olds. With the help of Encarta Maths program I coped reasonably well.

To help them learn English we are installing Encarta 2007 in English, as always, it amazes me how these developing countries manage to get hold of the latest computer programmes complete with encryption keys.

Today, Sunday, is our day of rest so of we took 20 of the students to a lake in the middle of a volcano about 10 miles away. It must have been quite a blast when it went off- I imagine it would have been similar in size to Krakatau. The outer rim of the crater is about 20 miles in circumference with a 1000ft crater wall all round, the lake in the centre is about 2 miles across. Our boys were able to spend about four hours rowing on the lake; with packed lunches and terrific scenery they had a great time.
Round the edge of the lake tiny villages have sprung up with small restaurants catering for the local people at weekends. Very few tourists come here probably because of the civil war and its reputation for violence.
We feel very safe travelling about but most locals are still very wary - all houses have steel doors and iron grills. The shops and all Government building have armed guards outside; even our school has armed guards and a twelve ft high steel gate, and barbed wire around the perimeter. At least it keeps Angela in!

Till next time.

Adios

Leo

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