Elena, The Bandito Boys and Jose Bautista

How does the American (American means Canada and USA) mind work in Nicaragua? Well let me tell you how mine and two of my TEFL partners minds work. We were given an assignment. Take a look at this picture and write a quite "present tense story about it, a few lines". So that we did. We were then told to each take a basic tense (present, past and future) and build on the few lines that we quickly created. This is our masterpiece.

 ** Certain creative liberties have been taken **:

Elena and The Bandito Boys.

 

(past)The children of the barrio had just come back from a successful day relieving dumb American tourists from their possessions. They managed to steal a few cell phones, a pair of sneakers, an Iphone and some Cordoba's. Jefe would be proud. Tonight they would certainly get more food than usual, maybe even extra beans. Life was good in the Barrio. Elena and the Bandito Boys worked hard. The did not steal from anyone who was poor, only the rich Americans and Europeans who came to Nicaragua with soft hearts and fat wallets.

(present) Elena and the Bandito boys are returning from a very productive day of robbing the rich tourists that are always walking around their lovely city of Isla de Dinero. As they are walking Elena says to the boys, "Jefe is going to be so very proud of all of the loot that we were so fortunate to find in the generous touristsa pockets and purses"

(future) Many years later Elena became a great criminal mastermind surrounded by the Bandito Boys. After the Jefe died a very mysterious death she become the leader of the empire. Over the years they devised ingenious methods of separating tourists from their money and belongings. Elena used all the money to buy food and feed her village and the people of the countryside. Her village became strong and powerful and so Elena expanded her influence through out the land. Elena became the Queen of the kingdom and the Bandito boys became her soldiers.

So I ask you dear readers "what does this story say about the mentality of travelers who, although like to think they are immersing themselves in the place they are living, still deep down think the worst. Hypocrisy and stereo type thinking runs deep, even to those who preach enlightenment. For the record this picture is of kids in a school yard. I still have quite a bit of work to do.

Jose, you deserve a large picture on this blog. Well done Sir, best bat toss ever!!

I spent the better part of this past summer sitting in front of the TV with my mother and big old Blue Jay Fan Meema.  I was impressed more and more about her knowledge of the game and the players names. She has a thing for Josh Donaldson, struggle with the fact that Ryan Goins is bald "he is so young to be so bald", cheers every time Edwin Encarnación comes to bad because she wants to see the "Parrot Trot". To be honest I had no idea who played for the Jays in early July. By the time September came around I knew the lineup, positions and strengths of the players as happens when you jump on a fast moving bandwagon. It was fun and I looked forward to the nightly Jays games. When they Jays had an off day Meema walked around like a Zombie not knowing what to do. "No Jays game tonight"?  She looked like someone had just stole her lunch money in the schoolyard.

I have been trying to follow the Jays the best I could, however with the course load I have it was pretty much impossible to blow off 3 hours to run to the local bar and watch the game. I would jump on www.mlb.com and grab scores and highlights the best I could. Jays down 2 game to 0. I honestly thought. No not going to happen. This team has to much going for it to loose to the Rangers. 2-1 back in the series. 2 -2 back to Toronto.  When I read they Jays won 6 - 3 I thought awesome and went to bed. The next morning I started to read the Toronto papers online while having coffee and the story started to unfold about the win. Holy Crappola. It turns out every media outlet is calling it the craziest inning of baseball they have ever witnessed. As quoted on SBNation  "There will never be an inning like this again. Send the whole thing to Cooperstown and bury it" 

I was late for school (nothing new considering my history with going to school) and spend most of the morning reading stories from every possible sports page and watching videos of the inning and the home run. I remember the Joe Carter home run of 93, but this sure ranks up there with the emotions and drama. Well Done Jose. That was the best bat flip imaginable.

What I like the best of all the reports came from a reporter at NBC  In this age of political correctness and whining this guy from the state stood up for the bat toss, even going out on a limb and telling the Texas pitcher who was whining about it to basically "shut the fu** up.".  It was an amazing baseball moment and you were on the bad end of it so it sucks to be you. 

As I write this the Jays just lost game 1 of the ALCS to Kansas City 5 - 0. Good job KC, you are no slouches. However I do not think the Jays will so softly into the night and I am going to watch the 7th inning again on YouTube regardless of the fact I have about 20 hours of homework to do. It's my last week of the course and graduation is on Friday. I can then go into the world as a qualified TEFL teacher. "God help the children"