The School

School started this week. Only 4 students showed up and one was a village kid who walked in off the street. It was disappointing. There should have been about 30. It is certainly not about the numbers but disappointing that I have done all I know to do to raise awareness and to get everyone on board. Iris has been great in joining me in this endeavor and want to make this a part of the kids daily schedule. This week was an off week though and we are short staffed. I am going to have to literally go and get the kids and bring them down to school. It is frustrating. The first few days of teaching went well. I had help from our visiting YWMA students and was able to divide the students up and give one on one instruction to the introductory level students. Then in the afternoon class it was just me. I had a very advanced student who could have been doing proper English grammar but I only had my basic introductory book and was completely thrown on how to teach him. I wound up scrapping the book and talking about directions and geography and trying to get an idea of his depth of vocabulary. It made me feel like I don’t have a clue what I am doing. But I do know and it just means that I am going to have to plan and prepare for anything and everything. It means I have to get up an hour earlier and round up students. 

We had about 15 show up today and we practiced asking questions. Our missionaries who are here working on our farm came and answered the questions that we asked. The girls protested that they want to have class EARLIER rather than later so now this means I have to get up two hours earlier. And this week of all times I am sick. Other than that little mango allergy, I have been well. But this week I have bit hit with nausea and other violent stomach issues. I have not felt well at all. I am in between classes now and will have our afternoon session in an hour. I have got to study and review and figure out what in the world I am going to teach. And how in the world I am going to do it with just me. Materials arrived in the mail this week and they will be incredibly helpful, when I have time to sit down and add them into the syllabus. Some of the books I have don't really work in this culture.  There are entire readings on "going to the mall" and "Christina Aquilera" and so many things Western. It will take advanced simple planning and preparation and what teachers all over the world do every day. But it is new to me, in this context and I am learning. 

Then there are the problem kids. There are unruly kids who misbehave. There are kids who talk the whole time. There is the class clown. I was all of this and more. There are some who sit quietly and peacefully and listen intently. I was never this student. There are some who answer all the questions and some who never say a word. It is a chore to be fully aware of what is going on in the classroom and go over the material, leaving no one behind and getting the whole group involved. It ain’t easy. 

And now, just as I am getting started, I am already making preparations to go home. As excited as it is to come home, it is honestly rather premature. This six months "on", six weeks "off" schedule is one that has been forced upon me because of my visa. But it would be much easier to stay here a bit longer. We are just getting started and to leave in 8 weeks is just too soon and I don’t want everything to fall apart. 

But I am excited to see all of you and excited to see what the next 8 weeks brings here with our students. I am looking forward to the weekend to plan and prepare for the coming week. It is my neighbor’s birthday today and she and a few friends are coming over tonight for cake and card playing. 

I also had an idea, in my illness, to set up Edy with a Personal Shopping business. All day yesterday I needed someone, anyone to go into town or a barraca and get a cold Coke for me. It is the number 1 remedy for all illnesses in my book. I had to go and get it myself, but it made me think. I sat town with Edy last night and made a list of all the things that most missionaries buy in town; eggs, bread, milk, cocoa, peanut butter, bananas, tomatoes, cucumber. We are going to go to town tomorrow and price all the items. I will help him make a shopping list for us to simply add the quantity of items we want. This has been done before. Apparently the boy took a very huge order that wound up being several thousand mets worth and decided that getting ten percent was not good enough and pocketed the cash. But I think I can trust Edy. I just asked him to get me credit for my phone and gave him more than enough. It could be a lucrative business for him. The buyer will have to pay less then $2 for his ride on the bus into town and will pay him 10% (or some other agreed upon price) for his labor. I think it can work. He needs 3,600 mets and I told him he could earn this in no time. With a little diligence and a lot of integrity, I know that he can.