So, the past few days...

STARTED at the school!

I tell you, it´s hard work...ah jesus! I do four hours a day, two days of teaching English, and two days assisting teachers in the multiple workshops that the children do. I love it, but every second the kids are like "¿Cómo se dice...en inglés?", which is "How do you say...in english?", every minute of the time I´m there...it is exhausting, as there´s about 300 hundred of them, all demanding my attention for the duration I´m there! And obviously, me: white boy, red cheeks, freckles, fair hair, accent, from the otherside of the world...I´m a complete alien and they are so interested in me...they ALL gather round whenever I´m near, and hang on my every word....they never met anyone from Europe, and are full of questions about castles, and english kids their age etc... And obviously they´re 8-12 year olds, they speak very, very fast, use lots of slang so it´s a mission understanding what they say, but I manage it. I have to, no one, again, speaks English!

I feel very sorry for them, the situation that they are in...this is a boarding school funded by the Eva Peron foundation, and it´s for poor children. Theír families are either too poor to care for them, work too much, the families are too broken, or simply they don´t have a family. It´s tragic, given this. But I admire them all for just being kids, and smiling, and laughing, misbehaving etc...like any ordinary children...they´re a good bunch, that need affection. This is what I´ve been told, and it is the schools "buzz word", affection. The teachers hug them, and all that (Obviously would never be allowed in England, and I feel very uncomfortable at the prospect of this)...already, within mnutes of meeting them, they were jumping all over me, hugging me...argh it was uncomfortable! The other teachers don´t have a problem with it, because it´s what their used to, and to be honest, the children demand care...they simply don´t have a family. The teachers are their family. Anyway...the school, being a state school for poor children, is very poor itself, and ill equiped. It´s all a load of chaos as well!!! Yesterday I was supposed to do two hours of carpentry, and an hour of gardening with the kids...never happened, they just ran amock! There was an exhibition of the kids work for their parents to see, only a handfull turned up....they asked about David Beckham, Michael Jackson, and they all know Pitbull and his awful song "I know you want me, etc..." *

I spent the first part of the day with the carpentry teachers, who was expressing all his thoughts and political beliefs to me (in true Argentine style!!!), and his points were; Europe (namely Spain, France and the UK) and the US exploited south america so much for it´s wealth of resources, for the sake of capitlism, and our economic benefit....for example, Argentina is a massive country, with everything anyone could ever need; oil, food, natural resources... The country produces enough food (meat, wheat, soya etc...) to feed itself 8 times over, yet theres a lot of poverty and starvation here...It´s a tricky one, particularly for me, as westerner, to witness. And, obviously, in the school, the teacher implied, I´m witnesses first hand the victims of this exploitation...uncomfortable, but educational and eye opening.

Today was a lot more structured though, I took my first class today! We did the numbers and greetings...I was stood up with my whiteboard marker, going over and over the numbers 1-20, and repeating "Good morning", "my name is...", "whats your name..."...it was funny. I then told all the cildren what primary school was like in the UK and all that...they were intriqued. It seems I´m a bad influence on them as well, unintentionally, whenever I´m around al hell breaks loose as they all get excited about talking to the gringo!

Everything else is going well, I have rented a film, another English film with Rowan Atkinson, never heard of it, but to remind me of home, no? Spanish is coming on well, I have no choice really! And I´m becoming very familiar with this amazing city...pictures soon!

*On the note of British culture hear, I´ve heard loads of British songs on the radio, my housemates (Argentine) have listened to British music. And, we saw and advert about ´Talento Argentino´, which is their version of Britain´s Got Talent...and they all told me about how much they love Susan Boyle!!!!