Gringo In Peru

One of my five classes this month has been an adventure.

This class is full of children aged 8 to 13. Boy is there a difference between the maturity and energy level of an 8 year old and a 13 year old. Besides the language barrier, I’ve got some major behavior gems.

One student, whom we’ll call Jimmy, was a peach from the start. He wouldn’t do his work and if he’s not paying attention, he’s wandering around the class looking for trouble. A few of the older girl students have noticed this and decided to use Jimmy as their errand boy. He’s always running to serve at their beck and call, playing messenger and throwing away their garbage.

Jimmy is a little prince compared to a boy we’ll call Bobby. Bobby crawls on the floor, follows me around like a shadow and is always asking “what time is it” in Spanish.

Needless to say, what started out as a good class quickly zoomed out of control. It got so bad I had to call in back-ups, my bosses. Once I explained the situation, they attended my next class. They could see that I was prepared, and doing everything by the book. They also witnessed the major behavioral issues contaminating the learning environment.

It’s sad. Out of 25 kids in class there are my problem children Jimmy and Bobby, four who are really good students, ten who show real potential and would thrive in a better situation. The rest obviously don’t want to be there and will likely fail.

My bosses were impressed I was able to conduct some kind of class in that room without totally losing it. It may have been a while since I was their age, but I do remember the teachers that blow up usually don’t help matters. Plus, I would be yelling at them in another language. Their English level is so low I’d be just entertaining myself.

Needless to say the month is almost over. My supervisors have promised me I won’t get a class at that age level again.

A boy can only dream.

V seems to think our bed has fleas.

Last night, she checked our sheets and there were little spots of blood, which V says means we’ve been invaded.

She also has a bunch of little bites along her ankles and lower leg. I don’t know what to think because I haven’t been bitten.

She claims I picked the fleas up while riding the bus.

That I could believe. The buses aren’t clean and you see a lot of crazy stuff.

Beggars come on all the time telling sad stories about how their families need money and they can’t work because of some ailment. Sometimes they are selling something like candy or bracelets. Most of the time they stick out a dirty hand and hope for some loose change. The most disgusting or disturbing example of this I’ve seen was a guy who finished his story, lifted his shirt to reveal a colostomy bag. You don’t see that on you average city bus.

Now that its summer is here you see a lot more kids selling candy. Today two kids got on at one stop with their sad story and candy. When they got off at the next stop, two more kids got on, with a sad family story and the same candy. I’ve been told while many of these kids are poor, they are also exploited by their families or gangs to get money from bus riders. The parents don’t work, they use the kids as a way to scrape together a few sols everyday. Sad.

In happier news Metallica stopped in Lima last night. I didn’t go. I had to work. When don’t I? This morning there were a few students in class rocking brand new Metallica t-shirts. It reminded me of a time when I went to concerts like Metallica (whom I’ve seen twice). Thanks to the internet and camera phones YouTube is littered with video evidence of their performance last night.

So I’ll leave you with one of the better videos I found on-line. Enjoy some “Enter Sandman”

As ABBA said it is indeed a rich man’s world.

While we are both plotting our return, we’ve been thinking about cash. Mainly my stupid school loan. It’s only $105/month, but its draining us. Big time. I’ve been spending my off hours looking into options. This also proved to be a good exercise looking at my student loan situation.

A few caveats before we continue. I realize this whole blog post may seem petty with people losing their homes, losing jobs and scraping what they can just to survive. I also know many of you loyal readers have student loans and payments that pale in comparison to mine.

Here in Peru this wouldn’t be an issue. There’s no such thing as a student loan. If you can’t afford school you don’t go. Colleges, institutes and universities base tuition on household income. I’ve heard stories of people hiding money or fancy cars to guarantee a lower tuition.

What really depressed me about this student loan fact finding mission is my payback date. I graduated in 1999. My loan amount was less than $12K. I’ve been making timely payments ever since. After all these years of being a good citizen, my loan will be paid off in 2017. That’s discouraging.

I was a little shocked at all of the non-payment options. It’s a sign of the times I guess. With so many options, I didn’t know what to choose or what form to download.

Thus, I decided to call the loan company. Keep in mind, toll-free calls are toll calls here in Peru. Which isn’t that big of a deal, we pay like 7 cents a minute. What is frustrating is a wading through a never-ending series of menus to finally reach a recording estimating my wait time at 41 minutes. So, I sent an e-mail. Which is what I should have done in the first place, but actually talking to someone seemed good at the time.

All this makes me almost look back at my college career with a little hindsight. Not the cost, not the five years, but the career choice. If I had went down another road, not slaving away in the TV for peanuts for so many years, I may have this loan taken care of. Then again, I might have been saddled with even more debt or responsibilities making it hard to move to South America. I’ve always lived for experience, for that alone, I’m a rich man. Unfortunately, experience isn’t paying the student loan bill.

So, I’ll continue waiting for some answers and options.

In the meantime how about those Vikings?

(How do you say exploited in Spanish?)

Sorry kids for the delay, I’m a bit busy these days.

It’s summer time here south of the equator, you would think because its summer things would be slow around the old English factory.

It’s not.

I’m teaching 10 hours a day, plus another 8 on Saturday. Two of my classes are new, so I spend a lot of time planning them. Once you factor in assignments and grades I sometimes feel like my head is on another planet.  All this leaves me with precious little e-mail and blog time. Sorry.

Now, I know “real” teachers spend a lot more time working. But they get three months off and they are salaried. We are paid by the hour (and in case you are wondering) no overtime. In fact the idea of time and a half doesn’t exist here. Do you think we’d be putting in 58 hour work weeks if there was OT?

If I sound like I’m complaining, I am. But I’m just echoing the feelings around the teachers room. We are all tired and getting borderline burnt out and we’re barely half-way though the month. We’re so busy this month that we’re short substitutes forcing some people to teach 12-14 hours in one day.

My hope is things will slow down a bit next month, because I need a day off. Not a mental health day. I have some important business to attend to, an appointment at the embassy. A visa is in our future.

You may remember, its been a year since our last visit, so this is really good news. We’ve been printing out TONS of paperwork for our interview. So much so, we ran out of ink.

Of course, this is a real good sign for us. If a visa is granted, we would have six months to leave the country. I only say “if” because there is a paragraph in our invitation letter with the standard legal mumbo jumbo not to make travel plans before your appointment and that getting a visa is not guaranteed. Although, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t get a visa.

When are we coming home? First, we need the visa. Nobody knows when it will exactly happen. We’ve been told anywhere from two weeks to three months. Then we have six months to leave.

We will be back in the U.S.A. sometime in 2010. When, I don’t know. I’m staying out of the prediction game. Everytime I make one, it turns out wrong. All I know is our time in Peru is dwindling.