Week of Transformation

On Monday afternoon, we took our kids to la guarderia (a daycare) which was a short walk from our host home. The kids were excited about playing with other children and Asha kept yelling, "Me! School!". It was in fact her first school experience and she was thrilled. As we walked to the school, I felt a sense of relief, knowing that they would be well cared for and we could concentrate on our classes.



Every day at the school, we had a different teacher in a small little classroom. Most students were one on one with one of the 8 teachers. The school had a courtyard with rooms off it. It was quite the quaint little place. There were two bathrooms (you supply your own toilet paper) and a little canteen that you could purchase jugo de platano, water, or sandwiches during break.

The first hour or so the teacher and I would talk. I figured out after what I thought was just chit-chat, was an opportunity to accomplish a couple of things. First, with a new teacher every day, with her own style of speaking, I improved my listening comprehension skills. Some teachers corrected me, others listened more and asked me lots of questions. A few of the teachers were passionate about politics and religion, others talked about home births and solar ovens. I learned some v-e-r-y interesting and bizzare things from my teachers. But I think the idea was to inform me more about Bolivia, her history, her struggles, her development among a whole variety of topics. I don't know at what point it was, whether it was in my class or at home with Nelson and Charo, but I felt myself change.

When we first came to Bolivia, not being able to communicate or understand, I would get an anxious, nauseated feeling settle in my gut when in an all Spanish environment and just want to hide. I felt helpless and isolated. After I learned a bit of Spanish, I was not anxious so much as I was uncomfortable because I didn't trust that I could understand when spoken to. Then after a while, I was only nervous with people I didn't know, and still fearful of new situations where I would have to respond to someone in Spanish. When we arrived in Cochabamba, I was on edge around our host family (although it was all me, because they were so warm and welcoming) because I didn't feel confident to understand what was going on.

But one day, I can't remember which one, that changed.

It was like a wall was broken down and words became clear and meaningful. I didn't dread being spoken to by a stranger, I stopped translating every word and things started to just register. I could sit and listen to a conversation and understood what was going on. And if I didn't, I knew how to ask for it to be explained. I actually read an article in the paper and could figure out what was being said.



It was like a light went on. I have been waiting for that for a while. They say that language acquision grows, then plateaus, the grows, then plateaus. And goodness, I've been on the plain for a long time and it's been frustrating! Not sure if it's because Cochabambinos pronounce their S's, unlike Santa Cru_, or if it was the hours of being spoken to by someone different every day, or the fact that Nelson and Charo loved to visit, and weren't shy about correcting me or clarifying for me when I had a blank look on my face. Or maybe it was a combination of it all that helped push me over the edge. It was a very empowering feeling to move to the next level.

Well, that kind of got dumped on when my last day one of my teachers pulled out a form with all the different tenses on it. It was labeled Presente, Futuro, Past Perfecto, Past Indefinido, Past Imperfecto, and Past Pluscuamperfecto. ??? Hilda asked me to to conjugate a bunch of verbs, in primero singular, secundo singular......okay, I'm lost. I felt like everything that I had learned just jumped out of the window. I couldn't even remember how to conjugate the regular verbs.

It was almost break, and I felt like crying. I got a sandwhich AND the banana drink just to make myself feel better. I sat in the sun and listened to everyone talk in German, the switch to Spanish, and then to English. Oh, for pity's sake! So I headed back to my little classroom and hoped the next two hours could be salvaged, along with my self esteem.

Hilda and I worked on it, and I realized that I knew how to do it all, it's just that I have no idea what all those tenses are called. I know that if I worked at a specific time I say, trabajé or if there is no beginning or end to my work, but it was before, I say trabajaba or if I just worked then I say he trabajado. But do I know what they call that? Noooo....that's the problem. But is it really? Maybe I should have asked Hilda that. Because I had no idea what a long and short vowel was, or what an adjective was, but that didn't stop me from mastering English.



So I plugged along at the crazy extensive form and figured out what I was doing. It ended quite well, that Hilda said that my Spanish was great after a year and I should be proud of myself. That was very meaningful; check, self esteem recovered. She pulled out the student sign book and I wrote a few words of thanks using my new vocabulary. Hilda thanked me for coming and said that my husband and I were great students and that we are a wonderful family. She hoped that we would come back and visit or maybe even take more classes so they could see us again.

I got a bit choked up as we left our last class. Lots has happened this week. Lots has changed this week.

We were headed home for lunch and then the afternoon held something that we'd never experienced before.....