Monday, our first day of orientation did not go well! We
were hit with a lot of hidden costs – individual photos for the Mexican
government, a school fee for the testing of the boys for placement, art
supplies, and the worst one, the possibility of having to pay for our boys’
tuition which would have eaten up most of our two paychecks. The person who had
hired us did not clue us in on any of these additional costs possibly because
he had been fired and was closing up shop and was gone before our arrival in
ASFG. While we would be earning about 3,500,000 pesos each month ($1680 CDN),
our rent, living costs, AND tuition, would leave us with deficit finances.
I immediately went to Charles Prince, our director, and presented
him with a calm but firm ultimatum before him. Because no one had informed
us of tuition fees for our children, I said that they were not acceptable. I
asked him to waive them or we would be leaving on first plane out of
Guadalajara the following day. I reminded him that we were probably in the
small select group of actually qualified teachers with loads of practical
experience and that
our
leaving would not only cause him to lose two very good teachers, but that it
would be difficult to hire to hire English speaking replacements to work in the
bilingual Spanish/English on one day’s
notice. He said he had to present our case to the board. I told him we would
expect positive news from him on Tuesday.
It was hard to concentrate on orientation with the
possibility that this would be all for nought!
Later in the afternoon, Nathan and I did some exploring. We
took a bus to the new Plaza Patria being currently constructed. We were not
impressed with the new mall. It seemed like every second store was a zapatería, Spanish for
shoe store. We went home before the sky opened up with its daily downpour. It
was the worst thunderstorm yet. The boys played outside in the rain and got
totally drenched. After they came in, we got them into a hot shower
immediately. Now let me explain our Mexican hot shower. The hot water came
through pipes from a tank located on the roof. It was heated by propane. The
water seldom reached 30C and took a long time to heat up. One shower at a time
was all it could handle. Remember we had three bathrooms. We could not all use
them at the same time!
Next day I met with our director and I learned that the
tuition fees for our two boys had been waived. We would stay on. After thanking
him for his consideration I went for more orientation to learn more about our
school. Upon talking with other teachers at the sessions, it seemed that almost
everyone was disillusioned about what has been told to us and what is actually
happening.
On the Wednesday of
orientation week we went to the school and met with Ellen Reicho, a “veteran”
teacher at the school. She was here while her husband was studying medicine and
she was teaching for income and for something to do while her husband was in
training. Ellen would become a life-long friend. She drove a little VW Bug. Our
family all squeezed into her little car and we went off to Jean-Guy and
Barbara’s apartment for a potluck supper and party. A whole slew of teachers,
new and veteran were there to enjoy lasagna and rice dishes with plenty of
Mexican beer! It was great and the boys had a great time with all the teachers
and OD-ing on Mexican pop which was quite tasty.
Thursday, Overload time! Lots
of pertinent and not so pertinent information. We had to fill out an incredible
number of forms. Viewed my classroom for the first time. It was on the second
level. By Canadian standards it was something out of the 1930’s with old one
person desks each with a writing part on top and obviously carrying an
uncountable number of coats of paint of battleship grey. Two blackboards. Two
chalk brush erasers. Lots of windows though with a northern exposure. The view
was of the north wall bordering and protecting the school from any form of invasion.
It was made of stones and bricks and beyond the wall was a large vacant lot
covered with new growth trees and shrubs and waist high weeds. On the plus
side, I counted about 25 geckoes sunning themselves in the cracks and crevices
of the wall.
The room was flanked on the
south side by a concrete walkway running the whole length of the school.
Protecting the users of the walkway was a cement wall of about a metre and a
half in height. All of this overlooked a large soccer field and the paved
running path ringing the field. Beyond the soccer field were the buildings
housing the lower grades and the administrative offices.
Friday we woke up to a very
polluted atmosphere. Never again would we take for granted clean air, clean
water, and clean clothes! We had been doing our own laundry, breathing in
polluted air, and fussing with using only clean water. But complaining about
it, didn’t make it go away. So we hoped we would be able to adjust.
More orientation today. We are
finding out that the students here are not all the sweetness and light that we
had read about. There were so many conflicting viewpoints from so many
different teachers!
In the evening we ventured out
to Plaza del Sol, the most modern mall in Guadalajara. We had supper at Denny’s
with just barely edible fare but they redeemed themselves with very clean
washrooms. We bought the boys each a skateboard and on the way back we stopped
in to see Brigitte. She and Matthew live in a most interesting neighborhood
with actual life and activity on the streets.
Saturday saw Patti and Nathan
cleaning up the house while David and I bused our way to Sanborn’s for
breakfast and to buy some English newspapers, notably the LA Saturday Times and
the Saturday USA Today.
In the afternoon we went to
Gigante to shop for school supplies and food! It was a large bill! Karen Pike,
Teena, and Brigitte with Matthew were over for potluck supper. We enjoyed our
first salad since leaving Canada. The greens had to be specially washed as the
amoebas are very virulent. Patti made chili and pasta. Karen brought a tomato
pasta dish and everyone contributed “pan o bollos”, bread or buns. We closed
the evening off with a rousing game of Pictionary! Oh, the excitement of a
Saturday night over 3000 kms from home!
On Sunday we skipped church.
Our landlady, Irene Acosta and her husband brought us some needed large pots.
Then our family and Brigitte, Matthew, and Karen headed for the centre of the
city, Plaza Tapatia in the afternoon. Here were wonderful old examples of
beautiful architecture and some magnificent churches. The grand market, Mercado
Libertad, known by locals as Mercado San Juan de Dios, was closed. This
we would have to visit on a day other than Sunday. It consists of 3
levels of shops and stalls and is the size of a city block in area.
Monday
orientation began in earnest for everyone including returning teachers. Because
of the changing of the guard over summer, there were some new rules and
regulations and procedures. A lot was a rehash of what we had already heard. It
became more obvious to us that we would be doing a lot of testing, marking, and
book-keeping. The school seemed to be very grades-oriented and it also seemed
that every teaching minute of every school day had to be documented. But lots
of changes were being promised with this new administration. Chuck Prince, soon
to be known among the teachers as Prince Charles, seemed to have a good
educational philosophy and we hoped he would get this school “back on track”!
On
Tuesday we had more repetitive meetings. We met all the staff on this day. What
a huge bunch it was! On first appearance it seemed like everyone would be very
supportive, friendly, and helpful. We went through a lot of introductions. I
was glad there would be no quiz at the end of the day because I am notoriously
bad at remembering people’s names upon first introduction. We hoped that
eventually everything would fall into place but at the moment our new place of teaching
seemed a tad daunting. After supper that evening we went to Bing’s for ice
cream and later on I helped the boys prep for their re-test next day.
On
Wednesday while Patti was meeting her staff in the elementary wing, I was
acquainting myself with the high school staff under the direction of Larry
Steele. My “office’ consisted of a student’s carrel located at the back of the
fairly large library. My “carrel-mates” consisted of all new teachers, both
Mexican and foreign imports. The Mexican teachers had teaching diplomas earned
at various Mexican teacher’s colleges, while the “ex-pats” were all people with
degrees but not in education. With all the questions fired at me because of the
fact that I was a qualified teacher and administrator with over 25 years of
experience, I knew that I would be conducting many non-paid impromptu
in-services at the back of the library to help my teaching compadres in their
attempts at teaching, both in organizing lessons, planning units, and teaching
styles.
That
evening, Nathan went on a sleepover with the Paicopolis family. Jim and Gloria and
their 3 children hailed from Massachusetts. Patti and David and I visited Plaza
Patria and it’s under construction atmosphere. Many of the shops had young
security guards out front carrying automatic rifles. I guess robberies were still common place
here.
Thursday
was spent at school getting English units planned and daily lesson plans in
place. I spent/wasted a lot of time waiting my turn to use the one duplicating
machine available to service all the high school staff. My teaching assignment was
going to be to teach 2 classes of Grade Nines and 2 classes of Grade Tens.
Because of my experience I would be handling the more difficult and needy
students. Zounds! I was back in Canada. That was my usual experience back home because
I could “handle” these kinds of kids! What that meant was if the principal
assigned his or her hard-cases to me, they would have less to deal with in the
office than if they had assigned them to other “less-capable” teachers. And
like in Canada, I would get the same pay as those teachers who had the “easier”
classes. Oh, well. Bring ‘em on! After supper
we attended a “party” at Karen Pace’s place. There were a lot of smokers, a lot
of salty food, and salty talk! Getting to know our teaching staff more and more
after each such session. Got a ride home with Ellen (she of the aforementioned from Minnesota).
Guy Campbell was also a passenger. We all determined that possibly we were
getting too old for these “youth” parties. I was pushing 47!
On
Friday, Nathan received word from “Prince Charles” that he would indeed start
in grade 6 even with his low math marks. His marks were lower because AFSG was
following the State of Georgia’s math curriculum which was a full year ahead of
where Nathan had studied in Canada. He and I would have to do a lot of homework
together until he caught on to all the new material. Patti and I and a few
teachers attended the barbecue Mr. Prince put on for the support staff as a
thank-you for all their hard-work in getting the school ready for a new term.
The food was Mexican and delicious!
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