The School by the Lake LUCY HOLDSWORTH VISITS A MENDOZA SCHOOL IN THE MOUNTAINS
It’s 8.30am and my first day at school. I’m nervous, what if the kids don’t like me? My friend Silvia is a teacher at the school in the mountain village of Potrerillos, and is about to start teaching English to her class of 12 year olds. She believes that being presented with a real life English person will interest them more with the language. I’m a gringa show and tell. My first day at school as a student may have been many moons ago, but I do remember that the journey to it didn’t involve any horses or mountain ranges, the sky was probably not perfectly blue and my alarm clock was undoubtedly not a rooster. Just off the main Route 7 to Chile, Potrerillos’ new village and school was built to make way for the man-made reservoir. The community is overjoyed with their new homes and the new Capitan de Fragata Carlos Negri School which has 100 students. “They are outraged on my behalf” Silvia greets me at the gate, reminds me I’ll be needing to use my Spanish and wishes me luck. I walk into the class and am met by 19 shy, smiling little faces. I take my seat at the front of the class & Silvia introduces me as Lucy from London, does anyone have any questions for her? And then
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there’s a terrible silence which lasts for seemingly eternity until, hooray, one hand goes up. “Te gusta cerveza?” Do you like beer? So they do know about the English. “Yes”, I cautiously venture, “but I prefer wine.” Although talking about alcohol wasn’t quite what I had envisioned, I’m happy to run with it. “How much is wine in England?” I tell them that the cheapest bottle is about 30 pesos and they are outraged on my behalf. “And cigarettes?” asks a little voice from the back. I hazard a guess at 30 pesos, and again there’s uproar. And we’re off, fortunately steering away from potentially addictive and life threatening subjects and onto Princess Dee and Prince Carlos. It takes a second to realize who these exotic royals are before agreeing that yes, wasn’t it sad and no I haven’t met him but I’m sure Carlos is a very nice man. That I once met Keanu Reeves has ingratiated me with the girls and that I don’t support Manchester United with the boys. Everyone has crowded around, girls playing with my hair and the boys with my Ipod. The girls want to talk boyfriends and the boys can’t think of anything worse.