Where the heck is this place? Why am I here? etc.

I realized that I never introduced Guadeloupe: where it is, why I'm here, etc, so to make a long story short, I'm here teaching English at 3 primary schools until May. Technically, I applied to a teaching assistantship program through the French Ministry of Education (like our Dept of Education), and if you go to mainland France, I've heard that you really are a language assistant, meaning you help the actual teacher with oral practice, games, songs, etc. However, here it is different...as my roomate and I often say, "who are we assisting?" We are the language teachers at our schools, there is no one else at my school who teaches English. I have a bad feeling that these schools might be using us as language teachers to avoid having to pay a real teacher to teach their students. We come up with 45 min lessons for 7 different classes that each see us twice a week, about 300 kids total.  Of course, we are only teaching 3 different levels, ages 7-10, so we can reuse the lesson plans, but still, it's quite a big responsiblity. In my case, I'm happy to be the English teacher, it's more preparation and more work, but in the end I think it'll be more worthwhile. At the same time, I didn't apply to the program to be a teacher, I applied to be an assistant, mostly because I've never studied education and have never taught students in a classroom. So when I arrived here, and soon realized that I would be teaching these kids, it was a bit jarring because I don't feel qualified nor prepared to do this job. But all I can do is my best, and that's what I strive for. 

It's been frustrating because we don't receive much information from our program or from our schools on how to teach, but what we did receive is a folder for every grade level containing everything we have to cover by the end of April. Last week I found out I'm supposed to give the kids an exam before every vacation period. No idea how to give an 8 yr old an exam when all we've been doing is reviewing the very very basics of English, because I don't feel they're ready to move on until they've mastered what they should already have learned. In sum, I'm basically winging it everyday. No joke. So I'm supposed to give exams next week? No problem! So they're going to be given an evaluation at the end of april on their spoken English? Good to know! As I said though, I'm happy to be teaching and I don't want to sound too bitter, I just would like a little more help from my program and maybe would have liked a little more advance notice...not to be just plopped into the classroom like I was. Most of the information I've gotten is just from talking with the teachers at the schools, most of whom are really nice and helpful. At the very least, I'm going to demand that on whatever letter or proof they give me to show that I was here for my resume, it needs to clear that I was not a language assistant. 

While I'm on the subject, teaching is going pretty well considering my inexperience. Despite my daily anxiety about what I going to do every day and how to keep the kids awake and engaged, I think that everyday gets a little easier.  I'm slowly realizing that there is definitely a good and a bad way to teach though, and I'd really like to learn how to teach well. I'm realizing that for my grade levels, they're still learning how to write in their maternal language, so asking them to write in English is too demanding. So I'm trying to concentrate on oral work, teaching them songs, and trying to find games and ways of making the lessons fun. My first few classes (and possibly now too, but I'm working on it)  must have been pretty boring for the kids, and not very efficient, but I don't blame myself for that. Most of my classes contain at least a few kids who are really really motivated and eager to learn, and most of my kids get really excited when they see me arrive at the door which is pretty adorable.

 In terms of where the heck this place is, here's a map to help you situate yourself a little better:

Find Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe is just south of Antigua and Barbuda.

There are two sides of the island, Grande Terre and Basse Terre, which are connected by mangrove swamps. I live and teach in Les Abymes, just northeast of Pointe a Pitre (the economic capital but not very pretty to look at) and literally right next to the airport. It is kind of a dirty urban area, and the really pretty places on this side of the island are along the coast. The most popular beaches among tourists are in Gosier and St Anne, but there are many other picturesque beaches along every coast, my favorite so far being Pointe des Chateaux on the northern tip of Grande Terre, east of Anse Bertrand. Basse Terre contains the National Park, where there is apparently lots of great hiking to do which I'm anxious to do, along with waterfalls, a volcano which you can hike to to the top of, and more beaches and little villages.

Guadeloupe is an overseas deapartment of France, along with Martinique (a nearby island), French Guyana, and La Reunion. It is basically the equivalent of Hawaii to the US, (not a terriroty like Puerto Rico), but the relationship between Guada and France seems to be much more strained than that of Hawaii and the continental US. Most (75%) products are imported from France, and the cost of living is very high. The main export crop is bananas. Apparently Guadeloupe is about the size of the state of Rhode Island or around twice the size of Allegheny County; it has an area of 1434 sq mi, and the population is 451,000 (population of city of Pittsburgh is over 311,000).  The languages spoken are French and Creole.

The island was first sighted by Columbus in 1493, and the Spanish tried to settle Guadeloupe in the early 1500's but were faced with fierce resistance from the Caribs (the original inhabitants). Next the French invaded in 1635, driving the Caribs off the island, planting crops, building the first sugar mill, and establishing a slavery-based plantation system on the island. After a series of invasions by the British in the 1700's, during which time the economic capital of Pointe à Pitre was developed into a thriving harbor trading town, the island was restored back to France 1816 by the Treaty of Vienna. Slavery was abolished in 1848 by a Frenchman named Schoelcher, and in the years that followed, many planters brought laborers over from the French colonies in India to work in the cane fields. Today there are many Guadeloupeans with Indian roots as well as African. About 75% of the population here is of mixed ethnicity. (info taken from Lonely Planet trave guide to the Carribean Islands)

I'll post again soon, I promise. Happy Veterans Day, hope all is well at home. Allez Steelers!