Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Fran's Study!
We've set Fran up to study so that she can use her new computer and turn her chair around to the table behind her. It is a well lit and tranquil place for her to concentrate in the morning -- most of the time. Today it was a little crazy with unexpected visitors. Here are some photos I took about 10 minutes ago of her using tutorials she's found on the internet to help her with math problems.
Upping the ante!
Update: Fran will pay for
her exam between April 15 and May 30, take the exam on June 27, and
start June 27. She made a big decision. They discontinued the major
that was labeled simply "Lic. Informatica" and replaced it with INGENIERÍA INFORMÁTICA, a more difficult course of study that will give her the title of "engineer."
Here are the courses it will include:
http://www.itvalleoaxaca.edu.mx/reticulas/img/inf.html
I would love to hear feedback about this course of study from folks in similar fields -- what you think it might qualify her to do.
It will definitely be more challenging for her, and I can foresee the occasional need for a private tutor. I need to find one before she starts school. Fran does seem to be able to solve most of the mathematical problems she encounters by steadfast effort and ingenuity (she's found some great tutorials in Spanish on the web), but I imagine she will hit a wall or two and need some timely assistance.
She will probably continue to work as a "part time" cashier at Soriana (6-hours day, 6 days per week) because it is really set up for students and most of her co-workers attend local universities. She makes very little money, but it will give her enough pocket money to feel like a person, and to help buy her books.
So things are moving along! I will continue to keep everyone informed.
Here are the courses it will include:
http://www.itvalleoaxaca.edu.mx/reticulas/img/inf.html
I would love to hear feedback about this course of study from folks in similar fields -- what you think it might qualify her to do.
It will definitely be more challenging for her, and I can foresee the occasional need for a private tutor. I need to find one before she starts school. Fran does seem to be able to solve most of the mathematical problems she encounters by steadfast effort and ingenuity (she's found some great tutorials in Spanish on the web), but I imagine she will hit a wall or two and need some timely assistance.
She will probably continue to work as a "part time" cashier at Soriana (6-hours day, 6 days per week) because it is really set up for students and most of her co-workers attend local universities. She makes very little money, but it will give her enough pocket money to feel like a person, and to help buy her books.
So things are moving along! I will continue to keep everyone informed.
Monday, March 18, 2013
What Fran still needs
Fran will have just exactly enough to pay for two entrance exams and her tuition for one year for the Instituto Technologico de Oaxaca, of about 1200 pesos (we think). She is still in need of textbooks, clothes, a couple of warm blankets, and a back pack. Of course I would buy these items for her if I could, but on my Social Security benefits I can do little more than put a roof over her head, some soup on the table, and a few small things.
Her salary at Soriana amounts to about $50/week, enough for transportation and food. If you can donate a small amount for books and clothes, remember that you can use Paypal (and Paypal will let you use a credit card) to send the money to me at my email address: lcassady@gmail.com. Thank you!
Her salary at Soriana amounts to about $50/week, enough for transportation and food. If you can donate a small amount for books and clothes, remember that you can use Paypal (and Paypal will let you use a credit card) to send the money to me at my email address: lcassady@gmail.com. Thank you!
Learning her new job
For the last week and a half, Fran has been deep into learning her new job as a checker at the Mexican grocery chain, Soriana. We don't think she has earned a cent for her training period, but on Thursday (day after tomorrow) she will take her position at her checker booth and put into practice the thousands of pieces of information they have been cramming into her head all last week and part of this one!
There is some suspense. She will finish up her last computer study and exams tomorrow and has a meeting with the jefes (bosses) to receive the verdict about whether she has qualified herself for the responsible position of cashier. I will confirm as soon as I know!
Fran had to temporarily postpone her studies at the Oaxaca Learning Center (only for the week and a half of training) and change her study schedule to agree with her new part time job. We are hoping that her good luck in the job department will not greatly affect her chances of passing the exam. On Wednesday she will visit two universities to confirm the dates of the entrance examinations. Then she will sign up for both exams. She thinks she can arrange to take the exam at the University she DOESN'T want first, as a warm up.
To those reading this blog who make see these events as fairly routine, please know that they are anything but! Training at a huge grocery store with thousands of different products, codes for each one, and how to handle credit cards and other protocols is very challenging for Fran. There is no food store in the village where she was raised -- everyone there grows their own limited crops in dry, hard land.
Now that she is living with me, we talk almost every evening at the dinner table about where she came from, and the life she used to live. I don't see where she will find the time, but I have been urging her to write the story of her life in short vignettes, first in her native language of Cuicateco which is still her most fluent idiom. Then she can translate it into Spanish, in which she has become quite skilled (considering she only learned it 2 years ago), and then I will translate that into English.
I am so tempted to repeat what she has been telling me, but let me give you just a taste. There are no roads to her village, only a trail that goes off the main road about an hour away. Because the labor in the family field is so intensive, family members often walk the long way home after dark, especially when there is moonlight to light their way. They carry wood on their back for the dinner fire. The worst threat they face in the region where they live are poisonous snakes of several varieties, and one night Fran's mother heard whirring sounds overhead as she walked loaded down with wood -- snakes leaping through the branches. There is no medical care in the village, much less in the remote outback where most of the villagers tend their plots of land. Villagers have lost limbs and their very lives from snakebites. Fran told me that there is a kind of snake that you cannot kill by beheading it with a machete because the head will still come at you
One day, if Fran manages to find time between her "part time" (6 hours per day, 6 days per week) demanding job and her studies -- you may be reading about her life in her own words!
There is some suspense. She will finish up her last computer study and exams tomorrow and has a meeting with the jefes (bosses) to receive the verdict about whether she has qualified herself for the responsible position of cashier. I will confirm as soon as I know!
Fran had to temporarily postpone her studies at the Oaxaca Learning Center (only for the week and a half of training) and change her study schedule to agree with her new part time job. We are hoping that her good luck in the job department will not greatly affect her chances of passing the exam. On Wednesday she will visit two universities to confirm the dates of the entrance examinations. Then she will sign up for both exams. She thinks she can arrange to take the exam at the University she DOESN'T want first, as a warm up.
To those reading this blog who make see these events as fairly routine, please know that they are anything but! Training at a huge grocery store with thousands of different products, codes for each one, and how to handle credit cards and other protocols is very challenging for Fran. There is no food store in the village where she was raised -- everyone there grows their own limited crops in dry, hard land.
Now that she is living with me, we talk almost every evening at the dinner table about where she came from, and the life she used to live. I don't see where she will find the time, but I have been urging her to write the story of her life in short vignettes, first in her native language of Cuicateco which is still her most fluent idiom. Then she can translate it into Spanish, in which she has become quite skilled (considering she only learned it 2 years ago), and then I will translate that into English.
I am so tempted to repeat what she has been telling me, but let me give you just a taste. There are no roads to her village, only a trail that goes off the main road about an hour away. Because the labor in the family field is so intensive, family members often walk the long way home after dark, especially when there is moonlight to light their way. They carry wood on their back for the dinner fire. The worst threat they face in the region where they live are poisonous snakes of several varieties, and one night Fran's mother heard whirring sounds overhead as she walked loaded down with wood -- snakes leaping through the branches. There is no medical care in the village, much less in the remote outback where most of the villagers tend their plots of land. Villagers have lost limbs and their very lives from snakebites. Fran told me that there is a kind of snake that you cannot kill by beheading it with a machete because the head will still come at you
One day, if Fran manages to find time between her "part time" (6 hours per day, 6 days per week) demanding job and her studies -- you may be reading about her life in her own words!
New Computer
I believe it was the day after my last post (saying that Fran needed a computer) that one was donated by friends in Oaxaca! It is newer than my Mac, has almost twice the capacity, and a large screen, but I am NOT JEALOUS! I AM NOT!!! And neither is Marisol. No, we are not.
I had the hard disk reformatted and loaded with Office and Photoshop, got her a mouse and a sound cable, and she's in business. We are waiting for some additional memory so it won't be so slow (that's the only thing I'm not jealous about!)
We set her up in a corner of the living room next to the window, and she still uses the table in front of the window to study.
We have already given deep thanks to Cara (my fellow Quaker) and her husband Eugenio, but it isn't possible to give enough thanks for this valuable tool and window to the world. And I can't give enough gratitude to the universe that the person who received this gift -- Fran -- is so worthy of it.
I've been a bit under the weather, but soon I will be back to illustrating this blog with more pictures!
I had the hard disk reformatted and loaded with Office and Photoshop, got her a mouse and a sound cable, and she's in business. We are waiting for some additional memory so it won't be so slow (that's the only thing I'm not jealous about!)
We set her up in a corner of the living room next to the window, and she still uses the table in front of the window to study.
We have already given deep thanks to Cara (my fellow Quaker) and her husband Eugenio, but it isn't possible to give enough thanks for this valuable tool and window to the world. And I can't give enough gratitude to the universe that the person who received this gift -- Fran -- is so worthy of it.
I've been a bit under the weather, but soon I will be back to illustrating this blog with more pictures!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
A few necessities
I am glad that we don't have to worry about coming up with rent for Fran this year, but there are a few things she will need. Hopefully these things, or the money for them can be donated. They include: a back pack, books and supplies, and for her future beyond my house....a computer!! She uses mine about 2 or 3 hours a day for math tutorials, research, and English, and once she starts college she will actually have assignments that involve online work.
Please scan your resourceful mind for any generous persons or businesses who might donate some of these items. Thank you!
Please scan your resourceful mind for any generous persons or businesses who might donate some of these items. Thank you!
Two giant steps forward! No steps back!
Fran has jumped over many hedges since we last spoke!
Hedge #1:
Last week she PASSED her first exams in Math, Chemistry and English at the Oaxaca Learning Center. There's an interesting story connected to her Chemistry exam, one that indicates the added burden she carries as one of the few female students at the Center. She is the only female in her class of 3 chemistry students, and when the exam was graded the first time around, she was the only one who passed. The two males accused her of cheating and demanded that the test be given again. A few days later, the three of them took the test for a second time -- and Fran saw this as an extra opportunity to practice test-taking, not as a problem. During the second test, Fran observed that both of the boys were peeking at their notes, but she didn't tattle. She knows that if they succeed like this in the Learning Center, when it comes time to take the real exam later on they will not be able to slide by.
Hedge #2:
She had the stitches removed yesterday from her dental surgery yesterday. No more wisdom teeth to bother her.
Hedge #3:
I told her she could live with me for another year, rent free. One less big worry.
Hedge #4:
She got a REAL JOB, part time (6 hours, 6 days a week ... I wish it was less, but she says she can do it) at the Soriana grocery store chain as a cashier!!! Of course she PASSED their math test, and today she waded through 3 or 4 interviews and an online questionnaire with 400 questions! Tomorrow she has to stand in line to get her social security number, have her picture taken, and she's ready to start!
That's enough hedges for now! Fran is excited and encouraged today. Right now she is preparing herself a meal before running off to class to share her good news with Sonya, the director of the Learning Center.
Here are a few photos of Fran taken during a visit to the ruins at Atzompa last week:
Hedge #1:
Last week she PASSED her first exams in Math, Chemistry and English at the Oaxaca Learning Center. There's an interesting story connected to her Chemistry exam, one that indicates the added burden she carries as one of the few female students at the Center. She is the only female in her class of 3 chemistry students, and when the exam was graded the first time around, she was the only one who passed. The two males accused her of cheating and demanded that the test be given again. A few days later, the three of them took the test for a second time -- and Fran saw this as an extra opportunity to practice test-taking, not as a problem. During the second test, Fran observed that both of the boys were peeking at their notes, but she didn't tattle. She knows that if they succeed like this in the Learning Center, when it comes time to take the real exam later on they will not be able to slide by.
Hedge #2:
She had the stitches removed yesterday from her dental surgery yesterday. No more wisdom teeth to bother her.
Hedge #3:
I told her she could live with me for another year, rent free. One less big worry.
Hedge #4:
She got a REAL JOB, part time (6 hours, 6 days a week ... I wish it was less, but she says she can do it) at the Soriana grocery store chain as a cashier!!! Of course she PASSED their math test, and today she waded through 3 or 4 interviews and an online questionnaire with 400 questions! Tomorrow she has to stand in line to get her social security number, have her picture taken, and she's ready to start!
That's enough hedges for now! Fran is excited and encouraged today. Right now she is preparing herself a meal before running off to class to share her good news with Sonya, the director of the Learning Center.
Here are a few photos of Fran taken during a visit to the ruins at Atzompa last week:
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