Montanita: And another hundred people just got off of the bus

Montanita is a surf town on the Pacific coast of Ecuador that is very definitely on the backpacker circuit.  All of the guidebooks warned that this is a party town and not appropriate for people over the age of 30.  Also, that it was impossible to sleep here because it is so loud.  I thought, how bad could it be?  I never imagined an entire town could be so loud.

I arrived last Saturday and found more life here than in the entire city of Cuenca, parades and all.   Because it is warm here, none of the buildings have front walls, much less doors.  All of the restaurants and clubs are open to the street and all play very loud music.  When you sit in a restaurant, music blares from five directions, and you can't carry on a conversation.  OK, I thought, my cabin is half a mile from town.  I'll be fine.  Well, you can't hear the music at that distance, but you can feel the persistent bass beat.  Last Saturday night was pretty bad and I wondered what I had gotten into.  But Sunday night was much mellower, and it seemed a lot better during the week ... or I had gotten used to the undercurrent of bass beat.

But I'm not complaining.  It is hot, humid, and uncomfortable here - just the way I like it, although some days it is overcast.  I like my hot, humid, and uncomfortable with full sun.  Everyone wears shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops although tops are optional for the men.

Backpackers waiting for the next bus

Backpackers moving on

My cabana

My office

The backpackers are mostly South American with a fair number of Europeans, mostly Swiss and German.  English is the second language in Montanita, but there are not many Americans here.  The language school is considered to be very good so a lot of people stay for a while.  As you can see it is very formal.

The sign says to take off your shoes to go into school.

My classroom

Since this is a outdoor party town, the bars are open air.  The sign says, Welcome to the street of cocktails, and each of the stands is a bar.

Although my class is good, I decided I needed to speak Spanish in a non class setting, so I volunteered to help the English teacher at the local public school.  We are at the end of the school year (it is summer here) so the ninth graders are preparing for graduation.  Like adolescents everywhere, the line of girls walked in perfectly and stood still for ten minutes while the line of boys had to repeat (walking in a straight line, that is, without falling), and at one point had to do push ups.  They are all balancing books or papers on their heads.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but ... the English teacher seems pretty bad to me.  She has no classroom management skills, so she just keeps talking while the kids talk, move around, and just do whatever they want.  For the first few days, she asked me to help some individual kids, so I did, and other kids came and asked me questions, too.  One day, she asked me to read the words, so the kids could hear them without a Spanish accent.

The kids are learning very simple English, way below the level of my Spanish, so I pretty much explain in Spanish.  They are hardly ready for English immersion.   Yesterday when I got there, the teacher asked me to teach that day's lesson which was too and enough.  (This skirt is too tight.  That box is not big enough.)  Seemed pretty easy and I didn't know why she didn't just teach as she'd been doing and I would help, but I said okay, and started teaching.  After ten minutes, she left the classroom and never came back.  I had to wing it after I finished the exercise in the book.  Then class got over and it was time to go to another classroom.  (The kids stay, and the math and English teachers change rooms.)  She never showed back up.  I went to the other classroom, looked at where they were in their book, and came up with a quick lesson plan.  Oh, well.  Sometimes, you get more than you bargained for.  But this has been good for my Spanish.  The kids' language is not very sophisticated so I understand most of it.  They correct my errors or help me when I don't know a word.  One boy laughed at a mistake I made and I said:  you are learning English and I am learning Spanish, but I don't laugh at your mistakes.  No one laughed at me again.  Fortunately, I had recently learned the word for laughing at someone.

When I left the school yesterday, I told the kids I hoped they had a good weekend.  They told me they had school on Saturday.  Sorry, but it is my day off.  I spent the day reading at the beach although after a few hours, I realized that there was no sun at all.  I sure hope it comes out tomorrow because I have another long day of reading planned.