Wednesdays are my absolute favorite day of the week because it offers a chance to break away from the routine of commuting to UESC every day. On Wednesday I take a local bus to the center of town and work with a UESC student, Aryadne, to give English classes at the handicraft market. The vendors are anxious to learn any English they can because Ilhéus is a hot spot for tourists. Periodically, huge cruise ships dock at the port and then the town is overrun with Europeans toting cameras and wearing hats. Nearly all of them make a trip to the market at some point during their stay in Ilhéus and the vendors report that they usually try and communicate in English.
Classes at the market are fun and challenging in ways completely different than teaching in a classroom at UESC. Almost all of the students are older adults who are very shy and self-conscious about speaking English and some of them can't read or write Portuguese very well. The vendors don't have to pay anything for the course and all of them come an hour early before the market opens to study with us.
We keep classes very basic and focus on practical words and phrases along with pronunciation. We try to emphasize the fact that being confident, friendly and even attempting to use English with tourists could make a difference in their sales. Classes are casual and involve a lot of laughing and joking around. Since we have class in the food court of the market other random situations occur like stray cats and dogs hanging out and vomiting or defecating during activities, giant venomous centipedes frequently fall from the rafters and land on tables sending students running, and sometimes the rain falls so hard on the metal roof that we can't hear each other even if we shout. When teaching in Brazil, every day is truly a new adventure.
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