| | |  Vallarta Living | September 2009 
An Evaluation of Rural Teaching in Mexico
 Lindsay Simpson - Outreach International UK
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I think its almost impossible to put into words the absolutely incredible time I had teaching in Chimo Mexico, nevertheless I will give it a try! Before I start I have to say that the whole experience was fantastic and that I loved every single second of it! Well, where to start?
We had a bit of a hairy start as we were stuck in Madrid airport for 2 days due to snow… a little unlucky as it was the first snow in 5 years I think! However, there were five of us flying together so we had company and I guess it gave us a chance to really get to know each other if nothing else!
When we arrived, we (when I refer to we, I mean Vicky (the other Chimo girl) and I) spent a week in Puerto Vallarta staying with Roxanne (who became a brilliant friend of ours) and her host family (Justina and her daughters - Nahuli and Alicia). It was so lovely staying with them - they made us feel so welcome and were so kind to us making every effort to help me understand as I had barely any Spanish when I arrived!
I would, however advise having a basis of Spanish as the language barrier was probably the hardest part for me - luckily I had Vicky by my side to help! During this week we had Spanish lessons which were such a good laugh and we got to know the city and the other volunteers who were brilliant - such a lovely bunch of people! We got our first taste of real Mexican family life, Mexican food (which is amazing by the way) and the warm, friendly Mexican people. We went to the cinema one night with the family to see ’Bolt’ - a cartoon about a dog - it was good fun - I remember thinking it was so weird that they put chilli on popcorn but by the time I left Mexico I was putting chilli on almost everything!
As much as we liked Puerto Vallarta, Vicky and I couldn’t wait to head off to Chimo which was to be our home for the next 3 months. Our first journey to Chimo was incredible as it was every time - it never lost its magic! We got a lift in the back of a pick-up (a popular form of transport in Mexico) to Boca where we took the taxi (a small lancha) that took about an hour stopping of at lots of little seaside villages and finally ending up in Chimo. Martine the driver became a friend of ours and always made the trips great fun by making us laugh the entire journey.
I remember Justina saying to me ‘its just around the next headland’ and sure enough there it was. It was so beautiful, a tiny little fishing community with small dusty buildings surrounded by lush green palm trees, backed by jungle covered mountains only metres away from the deep turquoise ocean and both stony and golden sandy beaches …it was just like a mini paradise - no joke! I think it was love at first sight for us both! As the boat couldn’t reach the shore we had to take a small canoe (a very ungraceful experience especially when the locals of Chimo were watching as you struggled to get from one to the other without falling in!) nevertheless it was fun!
We stayed with Alicia and Alberto, who lived with their eldest son as a neighbour on one side and another of their sons, his partner (Fabiola) and their son, Sammy on the other. Alberto’s elderly father lived in a little shack at the end - he was such a legend - he appeared everyday for lunch and we always saw him attempting to work out his arm muscles as he watched the few passers by pass by! The family were so so kind. Sammy kept us entertained everyday with songs, hilarious comments and games and Alicia always looked after us, made us the most incredible food and always made us laugh!
The accommodation was really nice, it was quite basic but felt like home. We had a cold shower which strangely enough we really liked, it was refreshing and occasionally when there was no water we had to bathe in the river. That was a bit of an experience. I can remember my first time, sitting there shaving my legs whilst having a conversation about life with Fabiola and the school teachers walking by as I was washing my hair - it was quite a sociable event but also a little embarrassing!
The teaching was brilliant. It could be quite hard work but school is so relaxed out there. As the teachers travel in from Puerto Vallarta and Tepic for the week there would often be no classes on Mondays and Fridays. We never knew if they would arrive - however when they did, the news spread quickly and all the children arrived at school within minutes! We went to the Telesecundaria everyday where we taught the 2nd and 3rd years with our own planned classes which usually went quite well but the children did have quite short attention spans so we ended up playing all sorts of games outside when they got fed up, which was actually great fun!
We did all sorts of things from vocabulary to grammar with written exercises, making posters, doing plays, reading and listening comprehensions and other bits and pieces. We helped out in Maestra Cuca’s class (the 1st years) but usually just helped them with the books in their curriculum which were not the best! Cuca was well… very enthusiastic and eccentric! She taught the children dancing every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon which was always funny to watch.
They did all sorts of dancing from typical traditional Mexican dancing in large flouncy dresses to dancing to Michael Jackson and even ‘Walk like an Egyptian.’ They certainly were not short of imagination! Vicky and I had a go at it one day - it was hilarious! We also sat in other classes such as Maths and technology where they always did interesting things like making mops and brushes. I asked one of the girls why they were making mops and she said due to the economic crisis - to save money. I found this so funny as Chimo is probably the last place in the world that would worry about the economic crisis!
That to me just sums up their chilled out yet quirky personalities and attitudes to life… life with them was never boring! We became very attached to our pupils, in particular ‘las Divinas’ (a group of 6 lovely girls in the secondary), Paula (who was always eager to learn more and we spent many an evening doing extra classes and talking to her lovely family) and Ericka (the joker of Chimo). These girls were such great fun, they taught me so much and were always on hand to help when I was ‘lost in translation’.
We also taught in the primary school. There were 3 classes and we worked in particular with one class. The children were so enthusiastic and great fun to work with! Similar to the secondary, our classes usually ended up with a game in the playground! On our last day we had a typical British sports day with the three-legged race, the wheelbarrow race and the egg and spoon except we used limes instead of eggs just to give it a little Mexican flavour - it seemed to go down really well. One day a week we went to the kinder where we just helped out with the work they were doing and played with them as they were too young to be properly learning English. They were so cute!
I really really enjoyed the teaching. The children were such friendly people and on the whole well behaved despite a lack of discipline! I found it so rewarding when I had a break through with someone. For example I remember working with Lucio (a boy in the secondary school) on pronunciation. They all found it hard to say words beginning with ‘s’ as they always said e-spanish instead of Spanish. I worked with him and he got the words absolutely perfectly and with a perfect Scottish accent haha! I also loved it when the children said words in English that we had taught them when we were just in the street chatting or just passing by! We did lots of after-school classes, which were usually 40% work and 60% banter and as we came to the end of our time there we had to sort of make timetables as we were being double booked!
The people in Chimo are so lovely as was the atmosphere. Every time we walked anywhere little children would shout ‘hola’ and would always ask us where we were going and what we were doing. We would always find someone to chat to! We made lots of amazing friends and did lots of amazing things with them…too many to say in this evaluation but Il just mention a few! One day, two of our closest friends, Luis and Manuel, took us to get fresh coconuts and they cracked them open with boulders and we sat on the beach eating them..they were delicious.
They took us up to waterfalls in the jungle and to a beautiful beach about a half hour walk from Chimo where we swam out really far. Manuel went for a dive and said that there was a dolphin and her baby playing beneath us! One day he actually took us diving to a ship wreck - it was incredible!
We spent our evenings chatting to our friends on the Pista or in the street, playing La lotteria (the most amazing and most addictive game ever!) and eating choco - bananas, lying under the stars on the beach or at the secondary listening to scary superstitious stories or up at ‘las mandarinas’ where the boys picked fresh mandarins and we ate them with salt… yum yum! We spent lots of afternoons sunbathing on the beach or up at Erica’s eating all sorts of fruits with chilli and ‘picante’ (which is frankfurter sausages, cucumbers, takis, chilli, salt and lime) - sounds strange but was really tasty. We went swimming with the children off the espigon most days where we would swim out to a panga and sit and chat!
The women played volleyball everyday and that was always good fun to watch too… The social life is great in Chimo! The Fiestas are so much fun, lots of cervice, coronitas and tequila. Also lots of dancing! Mexican dancing is such an unnatural movement but so much fun and you do get the hang of it! I think eventually we picked up a bit! We went to the Charreadas which are real Mexican parties with bull riding etc in Ixtlan and of course in Chimo (it’s one of the major events of the year) where we drank and danced the night away with the Chimo boys. They are so much fun! I think the last night we spent in Chimo was one of my favourites. Vicky and I had been dreading leaving for a while and the thought of leaving this amazing place and our amazing friends and family really got us down, however our last night was such good fun, we almost forgot that the next day we would be leaving!
We spent our last night eating tacos with Selene, Nadia and Nayeli, playing our last game of la lotteria with the usual crew (this night Vicky and I actually won some money!) and then we headed down to the pista with Manuel, Luis, Cesar and Misael. We sat and drank tequila, danced and laughed for hours and hours completely forgetting that the next morning we would have to leave! At about 4am everyone went home but Manuel (one of my closest friends) and I decided to go for a walk along the beach and through the palm trees. We chatted for ages about all sorts, it was crazy as at the start of my time in Chimo our conversations were pretty limited due to my level of Spanish but by the end I could get my point across more or less!
I headed back to the house with just enough time for a quick nap before finishing packing. Leaving Chimo broke my heart and even just writing about it brings a lump to my throat. We headed down to the beach to catch the taxi, almost everyone was there. We said our tearful goodbyes but the taxi was late and every moment that we spent waiting just killed as we really just didn’t want to leave.
The three months that I spent in Chimo were without a doubt the best 3 months of my life so far. Mexico is such a fantastic country with such a vibrant and colourful culture and such warm, open, friendly people. As clichéd as it sounds it was a life changing experience for me and I am sure I have made friends for life with both Mexicans and fellow volunteers. One day soon I hope to return! |
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