BEWARE THIS SCHOOL and the recruiter Becky!!

I made the mistake of going to Mexico to work for these guys. Here are some of the problems I encountered:

1) They will tell you that your airfare is reimbursed upon completion of contract - they neglect to mention that this reimbursement is capped at $400 US.

2) They will tell you that all you housing expenses are covered by the school. They will actually only cover rent and up to 100 pesos for gas. YOU must pay for drinkable water, garbage collection, cable & internet (whether or not you want it, I asked to have it disconnected and they never did get around to it, and I ended up pay 400 pesos a month for it anyway). Small surprise expenses popped up all the time! I was losing nearly $100 a month in these extra housing expenses which they neglected to mention were no covered under their "all inclusive" policy.

3)The apartment was sub-standard. While it was a nice design and had lots of room (3 bedrooms), it was extremely sparsely furnished, and had only 1 broken old air conditioner in the back. As you can imagine, this DID NOT cool the apartment very well. My living room, some evenings, was about 30 degrees celsius, at 8 or 9 o'clock at night IN APRIL. The entire time I was there, I had no hot water. Even though I asked nearly everyday to have it fixed, I never did get hot water before I left. Most of the time the apartment was so hot that I didn't mind showering in cold water. Except half the time there was no running water at all and I had to shower at my neighbour's house. And I also am not a very big fan of cockroaches, though they were a very big fan of the apartment.

4) They will tell you they have a curriculum and materials to teach with. THIS IS COMPLETELY FALSE. The "curriculum" was a page and a half of loose topic ideas - such as "Art" - with some simple suggestions for conversation topics. There were no materials at all - the library was filled with catalogues for ESL workbooks, and a few beat up old English novels and story books. This is what I had to work with to develop classes for grades 1-6 (a total of 13 different classes, being taught 2 or 3 times a week depending on grade).

5)When I became ill, I missed three days of school. When I asked to be taken to the doctor, the person who was in charge of this - Becky- said she would come by at 10 to take me. She finally showed up at 2:30. I was so angry that I refused to go. But since I got sicker I had to go a few days later anyway. I had to cover all medical expenses myself (though I know they do have medical insurance to cover me, as I was told by other teachers at the school. I suspect they were committing insurance fraud by having me pay for it and then using my receipts to make a claim with their company. I have no proof of this however... it is just speculation on my part). I felt that Becky was annoyed and didn't really care that I was clearly sick (the doctor confirmed I had a kidney infection) and later on it came up that she thought that I was "just feeling sorry for myself".

6) When the school closed due to the Swine Flu outbreak - which was just after I was ready to return to work from my kidney infection - they decided that they didn't have to pay me for the days the school was closed. However, all the other teachers got paid. Why didn't they pay me? I still don't know, but I suspect it was some sort of punishment for missing classes. I can't confirm this though. All I can confirm is that for all the time I spent there, for the days of actual teaching (2) and all the prep work I did put in - including developing lesson plans for 6 grades for 1 month, as well as finding my own materials and preparing my own powerpoint presentations - I got paid a total of about 752 pesos - or approx. $55 US.

WHEN I COMPLAINED THAT THEY LIED ABOUT THE CONTRACT DETAILS, (i.e. the airfare and household expenses not being covered when they said they would be) they told me I should have asked. When I told them I was angry about not being taken to the hospital when I asked, they told me I was just feeling sorry for myself.

THESE PEOPLE ARE LIARS WHO THINK THEY CAN TREAT YOU LIKE SCUM AND GET AWAY WITH IT! COLEGIO MEXICANO IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE SCHOOL IN REYNOSA, ALL THESE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT IS MONEY. THEY HAVE NO LOVE FOR EDUCATION, AND VIEW THE STUDENTS ARE CASH COWS, THE EMPLOYEES AS SLAVES.