SAT in El Naranjo

02-20-08 El Naranjo with Marcos

My first outing to observe an English class in the SAT program was to El Naranjo, a community a bit more than an hour’s journey away from Cusmapa. I went with Marcos, the English teacher for the program, who I have promised my help with his classes, more because I want to know the rural areas around my little pueblo than because I want to teach more English.

El Naranjo is one of twenty-some rural communities that surround Cusmapa, it is not the farthest away, but it is one of the more remote. To get to El Naranjo you go on a motorcycle to just beyond Angel Tres, another community, on the main road heading down the back of the mountain. From the main road, a bumpy dirt one, you take a turn back up and around the mountain on a smaller and very rocky road, perhaps better called a trail. This trail is steep, so steep that on the moto you move very slowly, often rocking around so much on rocks that Marcos balanced and guided the bike with his feet on the ground. The incline is so extreme that we had to pull ourselves forward as far as possible on the bike to prevent our weight from tipping us backwards and the bike from flipping back down the mountain upon us.

At the top of the mountain the trail ends at a little cluster of homes where we left the bike, paying a small amount to the woman there to care for it while we were gone. I imagine this must be helpful to her, as she lives in a circumstance the same as all the people in the communities. A house made of sagging adobe bricks and sticks, constructed such that any animal or disease-ridden insect can come and go freely through the walls. Worse, the rains in the wet season all come through, leaving not a single thing dry in the house. The structures are small, with dirt floors, and many, many occupants. This woman does have a nice location, however, from the top of the mountain where she overlooks the many valleys beyond.

The hike to El Naranjo from there is about forty minutes straight back down the other side of the mountain. The trail goes downhill fast and is slippery this time of year with all the dust and dry dirt on the rocks. I am curious how the hike must be in the rainy season, especially in its height during October when I imagine the trail must be more like a river. At that time in the year I think many communities are left totally isolated; the people unable to leave and no one able to venture in. The walk is beautiful, though strenuous. Every time the trail switches back the other way there is a new view of the mountains rolling out beyond to Honduras, El Salvador, and the Pacific Ocean.

We arrived in El Naranjo a little early, enough time to gather ourselves, have a drink of water, and for me to play a little with a bunch of kids just getting out of school. In the communities, sometimes it feels like you may be the first gringo the people have ever seen. They stare, mouths open, and won’t answer your questions until you’ve tried for a response at least five times (in my case this could be a language barrier issue). If you take out your camera, they stand like stern soldiers for every photo, giggling in between. And when they see themselves in the camera screen, they laugh wildly, pointing at themselves and their friends and siblings, like they’ve never seen their own reflection before and they’re shocked at how they look.

The class I went to observe is first year high school English, the students are all in their first and second year of high school, twenty of them altogether. Every SAT student is required to take four years of English, as is every high school student in the country as mandated by the ministry of education. The group of students in the class is diverse, as the SAT program is designed to accommodate. SAT (Systematica Aprendizaje Tuturial) is a rural education program that Fabretto is sponsoring in six communities around Cusmapa, now in its second year of five. The idea of the program is that the teachers go to the communities rather than the students all traveling the distance to Cusmapa.

There are no high schools in the communities, public education is offered through the sixth grade, at which point, if students complete primary school at all, they are likely not fully literate. This is where most people in the rural areas end their education, and as they age and never see the written word anywhere in their environment, they lose what little they have and move forward with their lives in the routine of mere survival. SAT is the opportunity for these people to break this trend of ignorance. There are students in the program who have been out of primary school for years, who have families, and are in the same class as thirteen year olds, all beginning their high school education together.

Most of the students are from El Naranjo, with several walking the distance from other communities in the area. One student is a public primary school teacher, he gives his classes in the mornings and stays into the afternoon for SAT. It is incredible to think this man teaches primary school when he himself is not educated beyond the very level he teaches. There are several older teenagers in the class, returning to school after years away. There are at least two mothers, one very young, the other older, whose children waiting outside the building during class wandered in an hour into the ninety minutes. The children of the younger mother, a six year old girl caring for her fourth month old brother, came into the class part way so that the baby could breast feed while his mother took English notes.

The class went well, the students were all extremely attentive and Marcos engaged them well. The program seems like an extremely interesting and rewarding one to be involved in, not only for its many qualities I have thus described, but because the students are all there because they choose to be. Marcos himself is an interesting and talented guy. He is twenty four, my same age, married with a little girl. He learned English, which he speaks and understands much better than any of the Nicas I have met with university English degrees, all from spending time with American volunteers who lived in Cusmapa over the years, and by translating American hip-hip music into Spanish. His pronunciation is fantastic and he can carry a coherent conversation in his second language. After realizing the potential of his English abilities he began attending a university in Somoto on Saturdays working toward a degree in the subject. He just began his second year of study in the five year program.

After finishing the class, then chatting with little Karlita and her four month old baby brother as they waited for their mother (stealing a quick photo), Marcos and I began our trek back up the mountain. I was tired coming down, with aching thighs, but going up my lungs heaved the whole way. Two thirds of the way up, my legs were burning and a little farther along they started shaking. The sun was hot and bright and I was sweating beads down my face. Marcos, with the wisdom that comes with being a local, had the usual Nica bandana, not just to wipe away his sweat, but to drape over his dark hair to cool and protect himself from the sun. I will remember this next time, and a bigger bottle of water too as I shared much of my water with Marcos, who, also in the Nica tradition, brought a bottle of Coca-Cola with him rather than water.

At the top of the hill, we arrived back at the spot with the moto to find that the gas cap was not screwed on; that it had certainly been tampered with somehow and some gas perhaps stolen. Marcos checked the level of fuel that we had and guessed (correctly, thankfully) that we had enough to return home to Cusmapa. We said nothing and continued on our way, silently acknowledging that it is sometimes easier to just let it go. The moto trip back to Cusmapa went a bit faster - down the steep trail is a lot faster than up it, though a bit more frightening for me. Marcos is a good driver though, and I trust him, though he did tell me he fell on the bike just the day before. I hope that I can make more trips to the communities with him in the future. SAT is a great program, I think one of the stars of Fabretto, and I hope I can be more involved in it in the future.