Absolute Chaos

Before I start this post I will let you all know that I don't know just how long it is going to be...as it might just end up being more for me to get my frustrations out rather than to be informative to you...So please do not feel that you have to read the entire entry...

I know yesterday I sounded very excited but today is a whole different feeling... Today for the first time I broke down while being here. The other Americans and myself were sitting in a frozen yogurt shop after "work" and I lost it...but I was proud that I was able to hold it in that long...and I was also glad that I was not the first to cry..I was in fact the second. Here is where I will being my story...

Today we went into our "training session" and we were just getting ready to begin preparing for the day...Our plan was to train this morning and then go to one of the universities this afternoon for half an hour and teach one lesson that we had been given in advance...We would then be observed and we would go back and discuss it with our trainer so that she could give us tips and things of that nature.... That did not happen....

We were sitting there as I said getting ready to start when all of a sudden one of our cell phones rang and it was this lady who is the Academic Director (who none of us happen to be super big fans of becuase she has become so pushy and not understanding of anything so it seems). Anyway...she called and said that 2 of the teachers were not able to come in today because one of them was sick and the other had his car stolen so 2 of us...Sonja and myself had to be there in 15 minutes to teach 2 classes...4 hours each.... With no lesson plans and no previous experience in the classroom. After almost being in tears we asked our trainer what we were supposed to do and she tried to prepare us in the 10 minutes that we had.... but we were in such shock that it didn't seem to help...She then suggested that we take the 2 others and we would team teach.

We ended up being forced by the director to leave right at that minute and go teach...so we were thrown into a room of about 25 students each and myself and the other teacher taught them about keeping the enviornment clean, pollution, and other such related topics. It went fine and the students were all very nice and very excited for us to be there because currently they do not have Americans teaching them so they get really excited when they can hear Americans talking and being able to understand them...They did have to tell me to slow down a time or two..but who does that surprise? The students were all very grateful and all of those sorts of things but that did not change what happened. It was also kind of difficult because I had about 4 male students offer me their email address to which I had to politely decline! They just don't quite understand that I am their teacher and that is not ok!

Anyway we were then told that they still don't know when exactly we will be going to Yuma ...they said that everything is ready except they are trying to get our furniture for our apartment still and once they have that we will get to move...the other girls who are going to Veron were informed today that they still do not have classes set up for them so they are stuck here in Santo Domingo for an indefinite time. ( Needless to say they are NOT happy). Honestly all that I want right now is to go to Boca de Yuma tomorrow and be done with all of this. It has been so unorganized and such chaos that I just want to get to Yuma, have my own class, and do my own thing.

I just got my thought interrupted because I was on the phone with my parents who got the joy of listening to my vent!

Anyway..I am trying to remain positive and remember that I would rather be here, living in the DR, speaking Spanish than living in DM working at Wells ...I just have to remember that this is what I want and it will just take some getting used to and as soon as things are in place it will be better!

I also know that I am still experiencing a bit of culture shock which is natural but on top of this chao it is not a good thing for my emotions!

If anyone has words of wisdom for me feel free to either leave a comment on my blog, send me a facebook message or shoot me an email at cjeckles@gmail.com

I will be in touch soon...with hopefully some brighter, more positive news!