Hablamos Español (un poco)

Five days a week, our family snakes through the corridors between shops and houses to arrive at Cooperativa Language School.  As you might guess from the name, this school is a cooperative and values immersion as an enriching learning tool.

The school grounds with "classrooms" dotting the perimeter.

From 2:00 to 5:00 on weekday afternoons, the four of us sit down with our respective teachers.  Baxter and Atticus have teachers who specialize in elementary education.  

Faustina and Atticus.

Lina and Baxter.

Learning can take the form of arts and crafts, flash cards, games, or even counting while playing soccer with a teacher.  The boys seem especially astute at naming household objects, colors, animals, and numbers.  Given that our mode of education for the boys in the U.S. was a non-traditional life-learning approach, this is the first form of “institutional” education our boys have received.

The two adults in our family get occasional flash cards, but no arts and crafts or soccer.  Workbooks, conversation practice, and even daily homework!  With one 20 minute coffee and snack break, the three-hour session often leaves our brains a bit tired after so much exercise.

Delia and Shelly.

Clarita and Marshall.

Last week, we joined our teachers on an outing to bring food to three extremely poor families  in San Pedro.  Each family situation was unique, but equally tragic.  It’s likely the four of us in our family benefited more from meeting these families and appreciating their situations than the families themselves benefited from the bags of groceries we delivered.  Though not a required outing, we’re glad the school offered us the opportunity for this type of cultural immersion.  

Teachers holding boys' hands on our walk to deliver food to needy families.

Despite the tale of misadventure that resulted from miscommunication with the language school regarding our lodging arrangements, we’ve been tickled with the instruction we’ve received and the host family the language school paired us with.  And the cost is outrageous.  

For three hours of individualized instruction for five days we pay $90 US per person.  That comes out to $6/hr.  Three meals a day for six days (Sundays we’re on our own for meals) plus lodging only sets us back $210 US for the whole family.  So that puts our total weekly cost for our four-person family at $570 US.  Add a little more for Sunday meals and incidentals, and that’s our cost of living (and learning) in San Pedro—no extra charge for the daily sun and warmth!