5-24-12
Today we knew we were going to visit a rural school, but we had no idea the adventure we had awaiting us. We went to a school an hour and a half away.
On the way there, it felt like driving into the past. Notice the language on the building is not English or Spanish.
The school is located in the municipality of Guatemo in the community of Lloma de las liebres. The people who live in this area are indigenous people belonging to the tribe Santiago Mequititlan of the Otomí indians. They have their own language, HñaHñu. HñaHñu is their first language and Spanish is their second language. This is a bilingual school for both languages.
Fifty years ago their language started being written for the first time. It had been an oral language only. Our guide, Alejandro Angeles Gonzales, works with teachers in regional school to teach the children to write their native language.
It has been common in Mexico to only want students to learn Spanish. Many schools have only allowed Spanish instruction. As mentioned in a previous blog, there is also the cultural dimension that no one wants to be known as indigenous. These factors together resulted in many languages being lost. About 5 years ago this perspective began to change. Now many schools incorporate native languages into the schools. It is so new that most of the teachers speak the language but do not write it yet. Alejandro teaches teacher to teach the written language and thereby secure their heritage.
Alejandro studied pedagogy and linguistics at school. He supervises 150 indigenous schools. What a job! He learned the language in Holland of all places. He met a Dutch person that taught him the language and had developed the alphabet of HñaHñu. The alphabet is based off the Spanish alphabet.
The 6 of us were divided into 3 groups of 2. We were able to observe classrooms. Andrea and I observed a second grade classroom. At first the students worked on a grammar lesson in Spanish. After that, they reviewed both the Spanish and HñaHñu alphabets. One of the letters, la letra d, was pronounced du in HñaHñu. The students participated by choral responding. There was a word wall of their names on a wall. The teacher walked around the room to check for understanding during part of the lesson. There were some really strong teaching practices going on. It was not at all what you would expect. They also reviewed the numbers 1-10 in HñaHñu. The 2 sounded like yoho.
After the classroom observations, all of the students in the school went outside to have a chance to be introduced to us. Dr. McCormick asked the students how many of them had family in the US. Quite a few of the students raised their hands.
principal of school, Dr. McCormick, and Alejandro (regional director)
We took turns introducing ourselves. The students were fascinated by English so I introduced myself in English and then Dr. McCormick translated what I had said in Spanish. After we all introduced ourselves, the students sang to us in HñaHñu. They asked us to sing a song for them in English. We sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider complete with hand motions. They enjoyed it and wanted us to sing some more.
The students didn’t have any questions for us. They were either shy or didn’t know what to ask. We passed out 2 pieces of candy to each student.
We didn’t want to leave. Those kids were precious. Two senoras allowed us to take a picture of them. We were intrigued by their traditional dress. The senora dress in purple said Dr. McCormick could buy her and take her back to Texas. They were very sweet ladies.
These little girls walked us all the way to the van.
After we left the school we went to a place to taste/purchase freshly made cheese. The property used to be a big hacienda. The land has been sold off and subdivided. The older woman in the pictures owns the house. They make cheese there each day. I had never had cheese so fresh before. So good!
On the drive to lunch we found out that beginning teachers in Mexico make the equivalent of $6000/yr. Minimum wage is approx. $2000/yr. A full professor at a university only makes approx. $30,000/yr.
This pic is of the home of the man that created the HñaHñu alphabet. The man Alejandro studied under/met in Holland.
We had an amazing lunch. Thank goodness I walk at least an hour a day to burn off all the calories I am consuming. We went to the most amazing bakery. I bought this dessert. Compré la concha.
Check that out. I just wrote IN Spanish, IN the PAST tense! Are you impressed Ras? It says I bought the concha. Concha is the type of pastry. It melted in my mouth. So tasty. Compré café con leche tambien. I did the math – the dessert only cost 23 cents American money or 3 pesos. The coffee with milk was barely over a dollar, 18 pesos. I am so spoiled to the prices here.
We also toured a cathedral. - I am not going to post those pics this time. I love going to the cathedrals, but I am about cathedraled out. I feel like I did in England after touring tons of castles.
The drive was beautiful on the way back to Queretaro and scary for a minute. No visability due to dust for a minute.
Andrea stopped by after going to the Mercado. We went out for a drink and free food. Check out all of the FREE food you get here for ordering a reasonably priced AMAZING drink.
Oh I almost forgot. My host mom is having me practice writing about my day.
Not perfect but I am getting better.
