Jody's teaching English project

Before we came to Huanchaco, the plan had been that Jody would work on the HELP women project and specifically cooking with them. Then it was hinted at that she could also help teach them some English which was all ok. So when we arrived in Huanchaco and attended our induction on the Friday, only to find out she was to teach English to children on Monday morning - not only that, but there were 61 kids signed up in total so she would be taking her own class, and by the way - you will need to write your own lesson plan ready for it - there's a pile of stuff over there you can use - well you can imagine. Panic attack didn't begin to describe how she felt. More like a mental meltdown! The following day she went back to the office to find out more details from the HELP English coordinator - Amy. You can imagine her relief to find out there were some other new volunteers who were here to work with her too and she was paired up with Jeannie from New York to do the classes together.However, it transpired that the classes would be split and Jeannie would take the tiny ones and Jody would be teaching the older ones. Well she just didn't know where to start. Talk about being dropped in the deep end. By Sunday though, she got the news that Amy would come and take the class with her and she was finally able to sleep that night. Relief doesn't begin to describe it either! Monday morning arrived and Amy took the lead on the class and Jody found her place getting the lesson ready and having things to hand when Amy needed them. 3 hours later and it was all over for the first day. Phew - she had survived! The lessons had been hampered a bit though, because although Otra Cosa had booked the library way in advance to run the lessons in, as in all things Peru, that didn't mean we were going to get it! Dance classes had sprung up in the main room forcing us into the smaller areas at the back and trying to teach English over the musical din that came from them. It was impossible.A hasty re arrangement was made - we were moving to the football stadium. This also meant we had to rearrange the classes to fit the size of the room. And it also meant another sigh of relief for Jody as it meant Jeannie would run the lesson and Jody could play teacher's assistant again. An arrangement that seemed to work well. Some of the numbers dropped off too with the change of location. It meant that the classes were small and manageable for us. We had about 10 6-8 year olds, another 10 9-12 year olds and about 10 again of the 12+ although they were mainly around 14/15 years old and their English was pretty good. After each lesson we would sit and review the lesson for each of the 3 age groups and plan the next one - the theme, the games and the worksheets. Who was going to find what materials etc. And then the parcels started to arrive!Oh and did it ever help. New materials, new books to work from, new story books (which I think Jeannie enjoyed more than the kids - ask her about Mr Happy!) new pencils for them to play with and new colouring books for us to copy. Thank you to each and every person who sent things for the school classes. Some of the people who sent things are people we haven't seen for years like Jody's old school friends Tammy Reay and Sarah Boucher. She hasn't seen either of them for over 30 years and they just keep in touch using facebook (Sarah you went completely mad when you went to get things to send us didn't you? 16 1/2 kilos that parcel weighed!) As well as the many parcels which arrived from England, we had parcels from Australia and the USA too. It was a truly international effort. Well done everybody. But each and every parcel meant something to us and to the kids who receive the benefit of the things inside. Well all good things come to an end as they say and a new volunteer turned up - Wilf from Totness, Devon and he would be taking over Jody's slot for the English lessons. He got stuck straight in and as his Spanish was much better than Jody's, he will be much more help to Jeannie too which can only be good for the kids.So after 3 weeks, 15 lessons, numerous kids and no nervous breakdowns, Jody finally bowed out of the English lessons and moved on to more cooking projects. But more about those elsewhere. So how did she feel about helping teach the kids in the end? Well to say she enjoyed it might be a stretch too far but yes she did enjoy working with Jeannie and did pick up a little bit of Spanish too which always helps. It was very strange working with such little people though - something she has never had to do before in her life. But overall, yes it was an experience and that, afterall, is what life is all about!