Cultural Center

We were in yet another location today. We taught in the Cultural Center which is a very modern building. We took the same mini-bus again. We didn’t get a ticket this time.

Initially we were not given access to building because the prepayment had not been received. While we waited in the front of the building the students were milling about talking with each other. In one group, women were talking to each other and fixing each other’s hair and straightening clothes. Then I noticed one woman sort of fondling the belly roll of another woman. It was quite something.

We moved to the back of the building so that Mango could continue forming the teams and assigning team leaders. While we were doing that, there were men pouring gasoline into a motorcycle without the benefit of a hose or funnel. There was gasoline everywhere on the ground. Again no one seemed to think this was at all strange.

While doing roll call outside, the same fellows turned on the generator and any roll call was impossible. We were able to go inside at that point though. Of course I was already anxious about how much time I needed and this delay didn’t help.

The building was modern and lovely. It was well lit and the seats were comfortable.

Training is mso much harder than I had expected it to be. First of all, there were about 75 people in the class. Then everything I said had to be translated, but it wasn’t a literal translation. I would say something in 30 seconds and the translation would go on for 5 minutes – clearly going beyond what I had said, but I didn’t know how much. My voice was still scratchy from the cold so they provided a mic for me to use at all the locations. Mostly, what made it difficult though was that nothing on the smart phone comes naturally. Some of the participants have used cell phones to send text messages, but many have never used a hand held device before. Most had never used a QWERTY keyboard so all of the letters were jumbled and finding letters was tough.

I was surprised to discover that the participants weren’t psyched to be getting to use a smart phone and learn that technology – they were mostly frustrated and annoyed. Several of them just wanted to go back to using paper forms. In spite of that they were actually mostly showing significant improvement as the day continued.

I discovered that, although the building was new and modern, the bathrooms were still not what I was accustomed to. It smelled like a latrine when I went in. I was told something in Portuguese that I later realized must have been something like, “The toilets won’t flush.” Apparently the women decided to use just two of the toilets for – shall I say – solids and the other two for liquids. Needless to say there was no toilet paper at all. Oddly the sinks worked fine, so it wasn’t a question of no water.

It was clear that Mango and Adriano were getting a bit frustrated. They were using the mic but speaking at the same level as if they weren’t. At one point I thought my head was going to explode. During lunch I told Mango he could either speak loudly OR use the mic not both. During the afternoon I actually took the mic away from Adriano at a couple of points.

A few people were pulled out of using the phones because they were struggling. There was one woman who was told to give her seat to someone else and she seemed irritated at the whole thing and refused to give her name when asked.

There were about six young men who had been working with us on Saturday and Monday and they were trainers. They helped us out a bit in the morning and the students who had been selected as team leaders also helped out a lot. The only disadvantage of this facility is that the rows of seats were much closer together so students who were sitting in the middle of their rows were hard to get to.

By one pm (what they call thirteen hundred) we were where I expected to be by 10 AM. I started getting really frustrating not being in control of what is said to the students. I couldn't create the interactivity that I would have wanted and that I normally have as part of my class.

At around 15:00 Adriano started trying to push the students a bit to enter information somewhat quickly to see who could keep up and who seemed to be really on top of it. The problem was all of the trainers had disappeared, Mauro was off handling other things and Mango and I were dealing with the problems of all 75 students. On top of that, all of the instructions were in Portuguese so I’m trying to figure out what they were to enter and while I was helping one student I would miss the next several instructions so when students would hold out their phones asking for help all I could do was shrug my shoulders and say, “no se” (I don’t know.) It was exhausting.

At 16:30, I was told we were being asked to leave the building. We had not finished. I was distraught and worried. We had created forms but we never got a chance to send them. At this point I thought this was my last day to teach.

One the drive back we passed another mini-bus that had our posters in the windows, so we pulled over to see why they had stopped. It turned out it was the entomology team that had stopped because their van had gotten overheated. We were now three mini-vans pulled over where there really isn’t a shoulder and it was advancing dusk. Eventually we got back on the road and I didn’t know what the plan was for the van that had been stuck.

The dusk was so beautiful as the mountains faded into the late evening sky and nature showed off in pink and purple hues.

It got so dark so quickly! I worried about the group that had been left behind. I could see that the driver was really working to drive. The road was very dark, approaching cars often left their brights on even though he would flash at them for relief. As we drove I noticed little fires all over. They didn’t alarm anyone else and seemed intentionally set. I’d seen this before, but I don’t think I had seen so much. I think it was to clear the ground for planting.

Lots of fires

We finally got to the office by 8 and worked some more. I think it was after nine before we even left.

Lourdes made us an awesome pasta dinner. I told her that she reminds me of Martine in the way that she has “nothing” in the refrigerator, nothing planned and then manages to pull off a fantastic meal.

After that I went straight to bed but didn't sleep well even though I followed the same Robitussin, Benadryl, Melatonin regimen as the night before.

Pictures