Eye-opener

6-6-11

Today was a real eye-opener.  It was a good start to the day, since my mom made coffee!  Except, she gave me a full mug of hot milk so that I could put half of a ladle of coffee in the mug.  haha.  I furiously drank the “hot milk” so that I could add more black coffee.  After my scrambled eggs, coffee, cut apples and bananas, and pansito, I was off to Muñequitos for a pretty unusual day since there weren’t as many kids present, thus, not as much crying and hitting of each other. Once I left the kids, I went to pick up Tupperware from another older couple (so that I could bring them their food from the comedor). However, since I still had to bring Clarita (the woman in the wheelchair) to the comedor, it was difficult to both push the wheelchair after lunch and carry lunch for the other couple.  One of the cooks from the comedor suggested another man help me carry the lunch, since he lives close to Clarita, which helped a ton!  I hurried home to eat lunch (yucca and plátano soup), then to the store because today was the day I started English courses! There was another volunteer from the university in Cumbayá helping me, which actually was extremely helpful because the English class was absolutely awful.  There were only 4 boys who attended, but three of them caused much trouble the whole time.  It was almost as if we were just babysitting the kids, thrown in with a little English.  The class was located in the FEVI store, so you can imagine how much trouble these boys could get themselves into.  They tried picking up/taking anything they could get their hands on, then running out of the store while continuing to grab other things on their way.  I taught them the “head, shoulder, knees and toes, knees and toes” song to remember different parts of their bodies, which was very successful.  We went through colors, days of the week, and months of the year as well.  One of the boys truly wanted to learn English, so I felt bad that he wasn’t getting my full attention because of the other three boys.  The trouble didn’t end when “class” was finished (it was supposed to last from 3-4pm).  The boys didn’t seem to know what “class ended” meant.  So, they continued to take things, hit each other, and tip over a big garbage can outside. The other volunteer and I didn’t know what to do with them—since we didn’t have the telephone number of their parents and they wouldn’t leave the store “because they didn’t want to”.  Finally they left after the director showed up, but they returned about an hour later…

There was supposed to be an adult English class at 5:30PM, but no one showed up.  I was ready to go home after waiting a half hour…Hopefully next class is a better experience…

I now know what teachers have to go through sometimes if they have children who act up…good job Katie and Danelle!