I have 24 kids in my class...I continue getting 1 or 2 new students daily. The youngest person I have is 17, and the oldest is somewhere in their 30's. It is so wonderful..these kids are so smart... Today when I asked them for different ways to say "goodbye" one girl acutally said "so long!" Someone else said "take care." I almost fell over, I do not know where they pick these things up. It is so exciting when I teach them a new word and they acutally say it correctly...it is almost like they are my children and they are learning to speak... and I am the proud mother!
I was just talking to my parents last night and I was telling them how hard I am working.... this is my typical day: I am RUDELY awaken by music on a megaphone, and the HOT sun beating down on me at 7:00 in the morning...I then try to force myself back to sleep but give up after an hour and roll out of bed at 8:00 (or right around 8). I get out of bed, make myself a cup of cold oatmeal (which is so yummy)! Then Sonja and I sit on our living room floor and start planning the lesson for our classes... We usually get done with that between 11 and 12...then I hop in the shower quick, change my clothes, put my hair up (wet) because I am scared if I run the hair dryer it will blow a fuse... heat up lunch (which daily consists of mashed plantanes, beans and rice, and eggs). Then, grab all of my stuff and take off on my 7 minute walk to school.
I get to school and clean up my classroom, and mentally prepare myself for the students. As soon as the first student walks in and says "Good afternoon, teacher" I almost get butterflies in my stomach... I LOVE it! I then teach for 4 hours (from 2-6)....So far we have learned how to introduce ourselves ( everyone is doing great except one girl who is still confused and is convinced that her name is "English." We have learned (and are still learning) the alphabet, when to use the word "a" and when to use the word "an," the difference between singular and plural, classroom objects, classroom commands, and other odds and ends. All of the students call me "teacher" which I think is just the cutest, little 2nd grade thing ever... I love it...These kids are becomming my lifeline. If anything goes wrong in my life ( like my power going out) I think about how happy these kids make me and I am happy again. Anyway...after my class I go to Sonjas class with her until 9..get home, have some watermelon for dinner, and try to get to bed by 11:00...and then start over the next day.... I have NEVER worked this hard, but the satisfaction has made it all 100% worth it.
My students are still trying to speak a little Spanish in class...but I have implemented a new rule: If I hear anyone speaking Spanish they have to come to the front of the room and sing the ABC's all by themselves! Let's just say...the Spanish will hopefully be cut down very quickly! I am not allowed to speak Spanish in the classroom and neither are they! If I have to..I will make them do push ups or sit ups if they keep speaking Spanish..I will break them of it!
The kids are so nice...yesterday I had a student buy me a juice and a snack during our break...Today a student was looking at my computer during break and it had chalk dustings on it..he took it upon himself to take out his wipes from his bag and clean my ENTIRE computer... I could have cried....we have a 20 minute break everyday and I have students coming up to me during break asking me to explain stuff to them or asking me other stuff and taking notes...it is the most beautiful thing...These kids almost bring me to tears mulitple times a day.
We had a little scare with the good old hurrican talk earlier this week...we had quite a bit of rain and wind and it finally cooled things off....then on Tuesday we lost electricity at around 9 am.... and did not get it back until around noon on Wednesday...which made for a ve
ry fun day/night...we bought an extra bottle of water, filled up a bucket of water to shower with just incase our water stopped working, bought candles and sat around in the dark.... Here is a picture of our dark kicthen with our candles!
Yes...that is right...we used our only glasses that we had, we filled them with sand and candles...so now we have to drink out of coffee cups! :) Oh Life! :)
We also had no computers to type our lessons on so we did it the old fashioned way: Pen and paper.... That was VERY fun! Life in a 3rd world keeps things fun and interesting... You have to be ready for it all...and let me just tell you that it really makes you be thankful for what you have back home... Something that I love about this life...is the simplicity of it... people just hanging out on the streets, the whole community coming together when there is no power, the sound of kids playing outside... I LOVE it! The things that I am not excited about.... I saw my first rat the other night out on the street. I am also still somehow getting eaten up by the bugs... only my legs though...and I think that is because I am too long for my bed so I kick my mosquito net out of the matress at night and my feet hang off and the bugs go to town! I am still working on a solution for this problem...BUT better my legs than my face.
What else can I tell you?? We had a tiny mix up with the people at the grocery store earlier this week... We told him that we needed another bottle of water and he asked if the one that we had was empty..we said almost...what he acutally said was " ok bring it back here and then we will have another one delivered to you." What we thought he said was " ok I will deliver the new bottle and take the empty one." This happened around 3:00 on Sunday afternoon... we sat in our apartment until 8:00 waiting...he never came...so we decided to walk back up to the store...which was CLOSED!! But the owner ( a different person than sold us the water) acutally believed that we paid for it and told us what acutally was happening and she had her sons come and get our empty bottle and give us a new one... a little lost in translation but...we got it taken care of! Just one of the difficulties of speaking different languages! But that is half of the adventure!
Also...for this I have my parents to thank...My name will forever be the laughing stock of Latin America.... in Spanish the word "Casi" means "almost" so EVERYTIME I tell someone my name I say "Cassie" and they look at me, very confused, and I say "si...mi nombre es Cassie." And I give them a little smile and they say...oh "casi casi...es como... casi llego, o casi liso.... jajaj " oh almost, like almost arrived or almost ready...hahaha."
Anyway I am sure you are all casi sick of reading this so I will end here!
Love you all and keep in touch!
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