A Bit of Banana

Well today, for the first day, there was work. There were even children. Oh, were there children. There were 200 children. Unfortunately, there were only two laptops. This was problematic...to say the least.

First, before I tried teaching hundreds of children with 2 laptops, I thought that perhaps an English lesson might be fun. So we tried to the alphabet. We mastered the letters A,B, and C. It went steeply downhill after that. This first school is tucked high in the mountains on the outskirts of Cusco. It only has two electrical outlets, two classrooms (constructed of particle board) and two teachers. There are over 100 students. All of these students were simultaneously attempting to help me teach the alphabet. Perhaps this is why we kept getting stuck at C.

Mid morning was when the fun really started. Walking down to the second school (with markedly better resources) I began to wonder about how one could teach a group of 25 students with only one machine.

If I learned one thing today, it is that children LOVE cameras. So when one encounters problems with sharing the laptop or if everyone is too scared to try to use it, turn on the camera. This instantly brings joy to all (myself included).

After about five hours of playing with digital calculators, learning to use a mouse, and mixing sounds with voices I have a few things to show for myself. I have
a bit of banana on those green hiking boots of mine. I have grubby little finger prints all over my laptop, and a bit of blood (someone had a nosebleed--it happens I suppose). I also, thankfully, have a few ideas about what exactly I am going to teach tomorrow. It probably will not be the alphabet.