A time of mourning.

If you read the title of this blog, you are probably wondering why I would be in mourning, no? I want to warn you before you being reading, I am in a VERY bad mood, I have had a TERRIBLE day and this blog is probably not going to be very positive, so read if you like!

Why am I in mourning? Well... I have had my group of 27 students since August 23rd, back when they could not even being to form a sentence in English. Now, it is February 17th and they asking me things like "teacher...can you explain 'when there is a will, there is a way?" I have such smart students, and I know that is partly because they are just smart, but partly because I am good teacher (in no way am I trying to brag- I'm just saying.) I have had this group of students since they were "babies." Now, they are "children." This group of 27 students have become my family. I spend 4 hours a day with these students; I lean on them and they lean on me. Today I was forced to give up those students, to put my babies in the hands of another teacher (a Dominican teacher). And to get these straight- I have NO problem with a Dominican teacher, but with that being said, here is my problem. If I were in Mexico to learn Spanish, I would want to learn from a Mexican teacher, I would not want to learn from an American teacher who knows Spanish. That is my opinion. The other teacher may very well be a great teacher, in fact I hope that he is because I love my "children" more than anything and I will be very upset if the progress that I have made with them is taken away. So for this, I am in mourning. I feel like I am a mother who is losing her children. I know that to some of you, I might sound like a bit of a drama queen, but you have no idea!

When I delivered the news to my "children" today, out of 27, 15 of them were in tears (me being one of them). It broke everyone's heart. It's a very hard situation because it is a rule of the program, but things here where I have been teaching have been just a mess basically since we began and now everyone is trying to be the boss. I am not ok with that. In my humble opinion, if you are making the same amount of money that I am making and you have the same title as me, I have just as much right to make a decision as you. If you are my boss- that's great- but if you are not my boss, I have problem. But whatever.... Anyway, so tomorrow my 27 children are in the hands of someone else and I will now be in classroom with 9 students. 9 students whose learning level is so far behind where it should be. Right now, I am praying to God, that I find a better attitude and a way to get through to these students.

Again, I am just being negative today, but I would like to add- If one more Dominican "hisses" at me...I swear I am going to blow up! It is very very disgusting, even more so when it comes from a 12 year old boy every freaking morning. UGH!

Anyway I have a lot more that I could complain about but I will stop for now. Im just having a bad day. And when you have a bad day in another country, almost everything about that country bothers you. Give me a couple of days and I'm sure I'll be fine.

On a lighter note, I will tell you a funny story. Last week I went to the grocery store to buy 2 pounds of chicken. Normally they just give you a carton of chicken like you buy in the US. This time, I saw the boy cutting it up and I just thought ok whatever... He puts it in a bag, gives it to me and I come home. I start to take the chicken out of the bag...And THIS is what I see....

OMG I freaked out! It was so gross! UGH! My roommate and I decided that we needed a picture, then we needed to get it out of the house. So I cut the foot off and we ate the rest! It was quite tastey but I do not need a foot of any sort of animal to be part of my meal. (ps...if you look closely you can see the toe nails...gag me!)

Que mas? Tomorrow is Friday, gracias a dios! This has been a very long week and I am in need of the weekend. I am not sure of my plans just yet, I may stay here or I may go to Santo Domingo, it just depends on a few things. I have no exciting plans coming up, just life in the DR. I am still looking for visitors!