The Reader

Today I watched The Reader and was overcome with questions about why the movie was made and why at this moment.  It was beauitful and very well done.  And I did find the answers to my questions about the movie.

But what captivated me more than questions of the Holocaust was the idea of living within such a small world.  Immagine being illiterate, have no internet, tv, telephone and being forced to live your life within the boundaries of your life.  No escape through radio, The Simpson, Rachel Maddow, no amazing stories to propell your life.  And then, one day having someone read you Homer.

Stories are a masterful way to feel and to connect.  However, sometimes we are become so immune to life through our over exposure to story.  A good book should be more than intertainment--it should be cathartic.  Its been a while since anything has done it for me like that.  I have the suspician it has something to do with living in a near constant state of living through others that I have forgotten to live my own life and have my own struggles.  I can't remember reading a book and being so connected that I cried.  Yet, somehow I think I should.

In Defense of Food

If you haven't read it, you should.

BTW, a friend's father died and my grandpa might be sick.  Alicia, I'm so sorry for your family's loss.  Grandpa, you're getting a call tomorrow.

Fotolog Crazy!

Ok, so the other week I discovered (or rediscovered, to be more accurate) Flickr.  I have used the Creative Commons licence photos in my class presentations for weeks.  However, the other day I loaded photos of a church protest online and got well over 100 views.  I instantly became addicted.  At this point I have now loaded three other sets of photos and am competing with myself to break my own personal view record.  I have been tagging photos in both spanish and english, I posted the link on facebook and sent the link to a few family members.  Today I had abotu 150 views. Meaning I am more addicted.  When will it end?  Do I want it to end?  Don't I have to work sometime?

In other news, a highschool friend who had been on the wrong side of life the past few years finally looks to have come back to his senses.  I am so friggin happy for him and the work he's done to turn his life around.  He's the type of guy who could do anything and I've always loved him.  Here's praying for you.

Too Little Time

Wow, I really took a step backwards on the whole keeping my blog updated thing. You'll have to forgive me, I was really busy. Yesterday, you see, I had my first class. I spent about 8 hours working on making an interactive slide show presentation that would serve to present information and be a form to practice and review information--both within the classroom and for the students in their homes.

The slidshow content was basic: numbers, letters, and colors. But I worked hard to make it interactive and usable. I included simple explanations of topics and practice information on how its useful. Then, to help them study on their own I included review information and recordings of almost everything. They can hear recordings of every number, letter, and word they will need, including short interactions such asking for one's name or telephone number.

My brother-in-law has been talking a lot about making his own open source book to help teachers in poorer latina american contexts teach english more effectively. I really think I'd like to help with that. Almost all of the content on my first effort was open source. And I could easily make the effort to refine that for the future.

In short, I'm working an happy. And--more importantly--so are the students. They told me they were happy and they had obviously made progress and had fun. The student who helped organize the whole effort said she thinks after this a lot more students will want to join. Which also means, I could be making a good amount of money from this exercise.

I just hope I get a little faster at making these things :0)

My poor body

This morning, Saturday, I woke up at the crack of dawn so I could go with my father-in-law to help clean-up a piece of property he owns outside of town. He would cut the grass with a weed waker and I would rake it up. Well keeping pace with him wasn't the hard part. It was that he'd been there a day or two before and I had all of that to clean up to. I was dead by 11:30 but had to keep going because if there is one person you don't want to outdo you, its your father-in-law. At least I have an aching back, three blisters, and a half cut field to show for it. He says maybe we'll go back and finish this afternoon. I'll spend my siesta praying for rain . . . or an aching father-in-law.

Work work work

So I have officially started work. This year I will earn around the same amount as a mason. It's not too bad considering I will work less than 1/4 the time they do in order to earn it. I tell you that because I want to tell you this: today I had examination tables. And I'm not happy with my own performance. A very nice student hadn't prepare enough for his oral exam. He had planned a very basic outline of the vacation packet he was supposed to have. Because I had just begun, I didn't know that's what they would be presenting and I really didn't ask the best questions of his project. Anyhow, in the end, I gave him a score that was higher than I should have, as I now realize. We did however tell him that the expectations for the next project would be much higher. And after I teach the class, they will be about twice as high for my students.

I have promised my students that I will make a blog and post the power point presentations from each class for them so they can review regularly, make comments about what they're having trouble with, and have something to team with their notes before our exams. Initially it sounds like a good idea . . . we'll see how it goes.

In other news, Beta Sigma Psi is still in one piece. Good job everyone. We managed to pull through. Now our work begins. I think the major priority should be on the coming fund raiser and Kevin's visit. Pull those two off respectably well and you'll be prepared for next year. As for us Alumni, I think we should be talking about writing a check or two to help out with the former and to be there to help negotiate and keep cool for the latter. Unfortunately I can't be there for the meeting with Kevin, but I have a phone call with him this weekend. It should be good.

Tomorrow is my friend Ruben's wedding. I am really happy to be invited, he's having a very small wedding and several people didn't make the guest list. We already sent our present with him. The only problem is that some of our friends might not be able to go, a last minute sort of thing. Sad panda. :0(

I really need to start reading my books again.

Monkies y el mono

So, the other day Tia Nelly called me and saying "There's a monkey in my bed playing with the covers." Thinking she was referring to my cat I said, "Isn't Matraka (as we often call my cat) cute." To which she replied, "no, really a monkey, he's blowing me kisses." And I told her I was coming over, my sister-in-law by my side. By the time we got there, the monkey had moved into the dining room in a bid to escape, unfortunately for him, the screen door was closed. My cat was a little tense.

Not knowing if it had rabies I cautiously opened the door to allow for its escape. It played in the back yard a few second before climbing the fence and running down the street out of sight. We neither saw nor heard of it again.
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In other news, my pastor was fired. The commission never did like anyone who questioned the 40 year tradition of one family rule. So after a series of legal battles trying to displace him, this week they found one that might work. As things stand he was officially fired (again) after a very interesting vote. Those in favor of the pastor decided not to honor the vote by voting and instead handed they showed up to hand in blank ballots--my wife and mother-in-law included. In addition, they signed a letter of protest. I really don't understand this move but . . . I'm neither an official member nor in charge. In any case, the vote passed overwhelmingly and now, Clovis is fired from this job (again).
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Finally, today was my first day on the job at IPESMI, the private school with which I was recently employed. I was there for the examination tables. Only one of the many students showed up, which amazingly enough in the Argentine education system, is not academic suicide. Anyhow, I got the opportunity to talk with my colleague and found out about what I will actually be teaching and the level of exspectation. Which is a plus.

Vale's Getting a Compu

My computer died right after my wedding last December. I gave it to a pastor, he touched it and it worked. This Christmas he got a new computer and gave me back my computer. It became Valeria's computer. Last week it died.

So to save our marriage I decided it was best to get a new one. Today I found the same computer I bought to replace the one mentioned above for a third cheaper. They'll have it in stalk this weekend.

I called Pastor Melang today and it looks like he'll be retiring from Midland this summer. Sad panda but it might be nice for Midland to have some young blood in the campus pastor position. I hope the guys of Beta Sigma Psi give him a little something for having been our Pastoral adviser for so long and for helping us out in several of the tough times.

Jake, you rock my world.

I helped Valeria buy new shoes (again) today. They're cute.

With all the good things going on in my life lately I have a lot more confidence and have found myself happier and with more energy. I really hope I can pull this whole thing off :0)

Miracle on Mendoza

So I had my interview yesterday--my first solo interview in Spanish. Despite some pre-game shake-ups it went rather well. There were moments where I was a tiny bit unclear but there were never any embarrassing moments. In fact I was rather surprised by how much she went into detail explaining the class content and the potential schedules. The only hitch may be that my diploma has not been authorized in Argentina. She's finding out if that is a problem.

After that I got notice that my Argentina National Document (DNI) which means I am officially and Argentine resident. This is actually a predocument authorized until my final document can be made and sent. Its a strange feeling but I'm happy to know when I got to work now that it's legal.

The final piece of news is that I was contacted by a group of students studying to work within the hotel industry who want me to provide them private lessons. My school has okayed the use of a school room for free. If I charge them what my wife suggests it could almost double my monthly income. Which is friggin sweet. I think I will change them less than the suggested amount--but not too much.

I am interested to hear what happened at the Beta Sig meeting last night. I think things are beginning to head in a new direction--the way we need to be walking. Now, let's keep with it!

Food, Confidence, and Civilty

Hey ya'll, I've broken my promise to write a little something everyday possible.  Yesterday, you see, I did not have internet.  I began my morning by waking up late (around 10 am) and then heloing get things ready for the big lunchin dinner party my aunt was hosting.  Complete with 15 "invitatdos".  I setup and set the tables.  The event was based around 5 Peruvian women studying in town coming to eat and the family invites were simply an excuse to make it a big dinner party.

Anyhow, after listening to my father-in-law talk about how I don't speak enough spanish and how its everyone elses fault because they talk to me in spanish.  I decided to go and wash the dishes.  Before I was finished (there were a ton of dishes) pretty much everyone had gone.  Except the Peruvian girls who were talking with my loving wife.  As I listened in on their conversation they were tlaking about what a wonderful husband I am because, unlike Argentine men, I actually help around the house.  I decided to simply listen and not interrupt.

I then went upstairs to clean and shower while Valeria stayed and chatted.  It turns out the girls are Adventists and have very conservative morals.  Which made for very interesting conversation with my wife who is not and does not.  But what was remarkable was the civility of the the conversation and the genuine interest of learning to understand the viewpoints of the other.  The girls shared freely and congratulated Valeria on have such well-articulated positions.  And they spoke in a mannor of mutual love and respect.  This is so impressive to me because sometimes when I an working with fractured groups and sharing my beliefs I sometimes forget that people regularly disagree in love and communion.  Just hearing about it made my day.

This morning I had my first solo job interview in Spanish.  It actually went very well, though, the job is very different than I thought.  First, it was a differnt school than I thought.  It was a place where I had not left my resumé like I assumed and the position was not to teach english for tourism but rather english for information technology--AKA a translation class.

Despite all this the interview went well.  Not only are they desperate for someone but the interviewer and I were able to communicate with minimal problems.  With the notable exception of when I asked her how the english courses relate to the rest of the carreer.  Be that as it may, I think she might have offered me the job except that it may be a problem that my degree has not been authenticated.  She will find out the details and notify me within a week or so.  If I get it, it will be exciting and terrifying, if not I will be happy with my performance and know I have the ability to do a damn good interview.  Despite the beliefs of my suegro (father-in-law) I am making real progress and, in this moment, I am content.