Inicial (AKA kindergarten) and the Olympics

Every Monday at 11am, we head over to a local Inicial (kindergarten) for basic English classes and physical education.

In a number of ways, this is quite different from what we do the rest of the week. For starters, Inicial is about a 10 minute walk from our primary school. In recent times, the local council has been installing a sewerage system, which is great for the local community, but it has meant that our walking path has come to resemble a war zone. We even had to wait to return to our primary school a few weeks ago because explosives were being set off along the road.

The class itself is pretty basic. We often begin with flash cards, saying the Spanish and English words and getting the class to repeat them. We also try to make the classes fun and interesting, for example this week we got each child to act out a scene with us where they shook our hand and said Hello, accepted a gift and said Thankyou, and finally waved and said Goodbye as they walked away.

With PE, tears are guaranteed. If one child doesn't smack another in the face or throw dirt in their eyes, someone is likely to stumble over a rock or get hit in the face with a ball. The play area is a small area blanketed with dirt and riddled with large stones, but these kids don't know any different and they're always eager to get out and run around for a while. I normally start PE with a warm-up, and get the children to copy everything I do. I randomly drop to the ground and yell Abajo (down), and spring into the air and yell Arriba (up), and it is always fun watching the kids second guess when I'll do it.

Last week, the local district held their Olympics for Inicial schools, and it was a blast. The children love to run, and after each race every child wore a winner's smile. It was great to see.

There were individual races, relays, sack races, and even crawling races. But my personal favourite moment was in the relay. Early in the race, one team established a clear lead, and by the 3rd runner the result was a formality. However, the 3rd runner (as were all the runners) was facing his oncoming teammate, and after receiving the baton started running in the wrong direction. That's right, he forgot to turn around. Needless to say, by the time he recovered, his team was clearly in last place. But with the spirit in which the Olympics were contested, he walked away as happy as everyone else, and received nothing but warm hugs as reward for his error. Imagine seeing that in the real Olympics!

Lizelle and I had the honour of being the Godparents of our Inicial school in the Olympics, so we got to lead our school in the opening ceremony march.

Once the Olympics were over, we flew to Chile for the weekend, and...

Chris