This one's for...

My mom. But everyone else can read it, too. See, a few days ago we talked, and she told me that she checked my blog every day. Well, call me tickled. I'm in the capital now, so I will take advantage of the internet and update, I thought to myself. But about what? You all already know about stuff here that's different, men and women issues here, how people like to call me a cow, the funny stuff my kids do, and how much I love my cat. So then I got to thinking...I'm pretty sure most people blog about stuff that happens to them. Thus, my day, Wednesday the 2nd of March, 2011.

Alarm goes off at 7, about the time my cat starts knocking on my door to let him in (he knocks for about 10 minutes, at which point I either let him in because I know the noise bothers my neighbors, or he gets the door to open. I know. My cat can open my door. Is nothing sacred, life?!) So I let him in, but I'm feeling really really drowsy from the benadryl I've been taking to help me sleep (I've got TONS of bug bites right now, so I can't really sleep unless I've got something to get the swelling down). Also, work has been pretty crappy, life is hard here for me, alone, sometimes. So I decided, well, self, maybe I'll just keep sleeping. I know, sweet life. So I slept some more, until maybe 9, and then watched my cat sleep (he is. so. cute). And THEN I got my lazy butt out of bed and said again to myself, self, I have to shower before leaving. I'm really dirty. The problem? I still have not much clean water, since a spider decided to drop its eggs in my water tank (I know this because last time I opened my water tank, I saw a huge spider, and as I was shooing it out, I saw it drop a big white sack from it's bum, and then I saw lots of little eggy things spread out in the water. It was as good as a Nature documentary, except that was my water tank and it takes a LONG time to fill by bucket). Yes, I get the kids to help, but again, it's a time issue. So anyways, I'm dirty. With about 30 ounces of water, I manage to wash my face and hair (which is the part that looks greasy anyways). Pants take care of my legs, and I use a baby wipe on my arms. My feet will get dirty on the walk to school anyways, so I just don't worry about them. The next challenge is breakfast, but I pop by the nearest colmado, buy a masita, which is like a lump of hard bread that's mildly sweet,and I'm on my way. Also, I bring a little bag of garbage with me. My house is full of garbage because the garbage people come when I'm at work, and I can't leave my garbage outside because then dogs or other animals get in it and then I have to pick it up, and that's very annoying.

Okay, walking to work. I get a few compliments on the way, a few motorcycles slow down to stare at me as they pass (I'm terrified I'm going to be the cause of an accident one day), as expected, my feet and sandals get dirtier, I drop the garbage at the convent by the school (they have a large outdoor garbage can; metal drum; nothing is getting in that sucker except for my waste!), and I set up shop. Today the part time psychologist was there, and I cede the office to her use when she comes in; I feel like she's more important, since the school pays her and all. I looked for my first student of the day and discovered that we're making close to negative progress (wonderful). Then, before calling my second student, I walked up to the third grade classroom to find the kids killing each other and the teacher, in a depressed state of dispair, had her head on the desk (it was recess time so that's ok). I put my hand on her back; I couldn't control 40 8-12 year old's, either, with zero resources and a room that's noisy no matter what. Then she told me that this punk I just taught to read LAST WEEK after almost a year of hard work was in a fight with a younger kid, and might get expelled (which here is a BIG DEAL, like, you have to machete someone in the face to get expelled; regular bleeding fights are nothing). So of course I'm upset (but mostly, selfishly, because I JUST taught this kid to read, and, I mean, come on.) Luckily I ran into the vice principle (because the principle is never at the school) and they're giving him a second chance. Also, his mom came to pick him up, which was surprising and good.
Anyways, now it's time for my second student. This girl does not know the meaning behind not screaming. It's a little funny and also not. We're practicing the ba be bi bo bu's and accompanying words, and she screams them all. Also she keeps saying va ve vi vo vu intead of the b's and I don't know why she does that; I've never seen a kid do that before, and I'm not sure how to fix it. So I correct her repeatedly, and she forgets, repeatedly. But she had done the homework, and she is progressing (we started with the vowels, and now she can sound out syllables with half the alphabet). However, the whole b/v thing was frustrating, and around this time a PC friend who lives in the capital but works in the nearby bateys called me and asked if I wanted to meet for lunch. Of course I said yes. Then I looked for my final student of the morning (short morning, but I blame the benadryl). He and I are neighbors, and he is progressing also, which is something of a miracle, since we spent like the first 8 months on the same vowels (there are only 5, by the way, just like in English). Anyways, I was writing his homework in his notebook, and in that time he picked up a piece of tape, taped it across his eyebrows tomake a straight line, and said "look, Alicia, I'm Chinese!" Kids say the darndest things. I finished up with him a little later than expected, because my PC friend called to say that she was waiting at my town's "cafe," and had ordered me a sandwich (that's the only thing they make; with bread, ketsup, tomato, onion, mayo, a piece of cheese and a piece of ham, toasted. It's delish.) I got there, and we chatted; a third volunteer was there too, so she and I planned the event our youth groups are going to have on Saturday. After that, my PC boss stopped by for a minute (she had been checking up on the new volunteers who live close to me) to see my cat (she had given me my cat). Of course, for the 3 minutes we were in my house, 3 boys came in and started coloring, which was cute.

Then I made the executive decision that, that night, I would come to the capital so that tomorrow I can go on a field trip to prepare for the science camp I'm taking 3 kids to. Since I have to leave the capital at 7 tomorrow, I had to spend the night. I packed my bags and then went to school to start my afternoon session.

I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my morning students patiently waiting for me; sometimes he comes in the afternoon for additional help, because he lives close and is a good kid. We worked for a long time (maybe an hour) and then I had to start preparing for my parenting class (it's good to prepare). Today was parents plus kids, and we'd never had one like that before, so I was nervous and excited. All 5 parents brought their kids, and for some reason the art teacher with whom I co-teach didn't show up, so I took the lead that was unceremoniously dumped on me, and did what I think was a great job. We had been talking about communication, so we all played communication games, with the goal of getting kids and parents to 1)communicate without screaming, cursing, and hitting, and 2) to get parents to start seeing that it's okay to play with their kids. Pretty much everyone enjoyed it, and we ended just as the school day was ending, which was perfect.

Then one of my youth helped me to find a respectable motorcycle chofer to take me to a place where I could wait for the bus (usually I don't have to use a motorcycle, but it was around 6 by this point, so today I did). As we were pulling up to the stop, a big gua-gua was passing by (!) so I hopped on, then around an later, got on the metro, and 30 minutes later, stepped off in the capital. I ran into a bunch of volunteer friends also in the capital for business, and I had a delicious dinner of chicken soup and diet coke. And now I'm typing this. And tomorrow I'll leave my wonderful, flea-ridden cheap hostel bed around 6:20 with the hopes of making it to the bus station on time, to begin my 5-7 hour trek to the science camp site (not on foot, by bus). Also, I took a shower here in the capital. This is how dirty I was: The water turned brown. Gross. Also also, I brushed my teeth. That's also good to do from time to time. Don't worry, Papi, I floss every day.

That's it. I hope you found it entertaining and very bloggerish, and that you all have a wonderful thursday and friday!

peace,
alicia