Thursday, July 15, 2010

I got up at 7 and had breakfast at 7:30 (banana, papaya, and pineapple with a little bit of strawberry yogurt on top, and of course coffee). No one else was around. I left for the daycare at 7:50 and arrived just a minute or two after 8:00. There weren’t very many children when I arrived, but many soon came. There were 17 today!

After they had breakfast, which consisted of half a hard-boiled egg in black bean sauce (very messy), we went to the classroom. First the children got a half sheet of paper on which to draw, and then the teacher gave them coloring books to color in. She left me in charge of the class for about ten minutes while she went and did something. I was able to keep them all in their seats, for the most part, and not hitting one another. We also sang some songs, including the Eensy Weensy Spider and the teacher gave the children white yarn to hold to make a spider web. After singing the song about six times, the children played limbo under the yarn. Next, we went outside and had a mini P.E. class. The children skipped across the patio clapping their hands over their heads like “clowns.” They also hopped like frogs, hopped on one foot, and ran back and forth. After this, another teacher came and gave each of us a lollipop. Audi told the children to sit down while they were eating them, but they didn’t, so we went inside for a story. She read a children’s story of David and Goliath, and then she told them the story of the three little pigs (Los Tres Cochinitos). After this, the other teacher came and told the children to go into kitchen and sit at the table. I was confused because it was only 10:30 in the morning… not time for lunch. When the children were served a special snack (a crunchy tostada with sauce, pollo, raw onion, and crumbly cheese) and Audi had Willi give the other teacher a card, I figured out that it was some sort of a thank you/goodbye party for her. After we finished eating our rather messy snack (I got one, too), we went back to the patio. Audi had some children help carry out the wooden toy chest filled with dirty toys. We sorted them by soft stuffed toys (de peluche) and plastic toys. Then I figured out that she was going to wash the plastic toys. The children found a spider in the toy box, and all of them were screaming. Audi killed the spider. I think the children enjoyed that the best. We stayed out on the patio until lunch. I played with Estefani and her sister Katy. They were pretending that they were my babies, and both of them wanted to lay in my lap at the same time. Estefani brought a blanket over and I convinced my twin babies to sleep on the blanket instead of my lap for a short while. Then I helped wash the children’s hands, and accompanied them to the table. I left after that.

This is the part when my day started going downhill. On my way to the internet café, I discovered that the 100 quetzal bill that I had placed in my wallet this morning was no longer in my wallet. Nothing else was missing from my backpack. I always put my backpack with the workers’ purses out of the reach of children. That is only about $13, so I am not too upset about the money, but it is disheartening to think that one of the women that I have been working with took it. Of course, it is possible that someone else could have taken it, but I am pretty sure the cook was in the kitchen (where my backpack was) the whole time, and the daycare is locked so only people that they let in could have even possibly had access to it.

I continued on to the internet café. I only had a little over a half hour until I had to be home for lunch. I was hoping to Skype my family, but the computers with Skype on them were in use. Finally after about 15 minutes into my time there, one of the computers was available. I changed computers and tried to login to Skype, but it wasn’t working. Meanwhile the person on the other Skype computer left, and the worker told me to try it on the other computer. I finally was able to get on, but no one was available. Eventually, I got to talk with Natalie, and she went and got my mom. It was great to talk to them! I had been online for 35 minutes when I left. The cost for 30 minutes is Q2. However, the worker charged me Q3.5. Somehow I don’t think that math quite works out!

I went home and helped Sandy set the table while I told her what had happened in the daycare. She gave me a hug and said she was sorry and told me not to take any more money with me when I go to the daycare, although I had already figured that one out! We had a very starchy meal: chicken broth with noodles, rice, potato salad, and cabbage salad. I left early for class and went to the ATM at the gas station near the school. I almost waited until during the break, but I didn’t want to wait in case it was raining then. When I got to the school, Oscar told me that my teacher would be a half hour late, so I left to go buy a roll of toilet paper. The problem was that I only had a Q100 bill, and so I couldn’t buy just one roll because no one would give me change for that. I ended up buying a package of four rolls for much more than the cost of four individual rolls, but it was the only way I could break the bill. I hate trying to get small bills in foreign countries! I only buy small things in Xela like using the internet café, buying a roll of toilet paper, or small snacks. On my way back to the school, I stopped at a little bakery that always smells really good. I wanted to buy a sweet tostada or sweet bread like we sometimes have at my house. I explained that I wanted something sweet and the woman pointed out which types of bread were sweet. I pointed to the ones I wanted and asked her how much they cost. She told me that I could buy four for one quetzal. I said I wanted four. She then asked me if I wanted four tostadas or four quetzales worth. I laid a one quetzal coin on the counter and said four tostadas pointing to the ones I wanted. She must not have understood me because she gave me one of the kind I wanted, one of another kind, and two of another kind. It really didn’t matter, but I was kind of frustrated because it seemed like nothing was going right.

I went back to the school and reviewed my notes while I waited for Leonel. It is so different here than in the U.S. Leonel was a half hour late, and the director of the school didn’t even seem to care that I had missed out on a half hour of class. I think if this were the U.S. the director would not be happy with him! We reviewed the perfect tenses and the passive voice today. After we went over some examples, Leonel gave me a huge packet of worksheets (8 or 9) and told me I could do all of them since I don’t like to talk. I said that that wasn’t true, but he said it is true and got up and left me with the pile of worksheets. I was frustrated because I had already missed a half hour of class and now he was out smoking and texting while I did worksheets that I already knew how to do. He came back in to get something out of his bag, and I asked him if we could go over the worksheets I had already completed (three of them), and then if I showed him that I understood the concept, I asked if we could move on to something else. He had me read the worksheets to him, and I got all the answers correct. We moved on to something else, but when it was time for the break, he told me that I had to do all the rest of the packet. I didn’t want to waste more class time doing worksheets that I really didn’t need to do, so I finished the packet during the break, while munching on some tostadas. Helen works in the same work as us, and she noticed how hard I was working. I wish I were still working with her! The rest of the class went fine. I made a point of asking Leonel if I could retell the story of the three little pigs to him to show him that I do like to talk. He let me tell it, but he didn’t say much. After that, we reviewed some more things and I did a bazillion more worksheets. My hand was hurting from writing so much because for many of the worksheets, I had to rewrite the entire sentence. Leonel gave me the homework for tomorrow. I have to write a composition about my family in Xela using the perfect tenses and the passive voice, and I have 8 pages of fill-in-the-blank stories that are missing almost all the verbs and some vocabulary words.

Hussein and I walked home together. His Spanish is really improving. I don’t feel like my Spanish is improving. We had black beans and rice with curry in it, bread, and a fried egg-ish creation. I really liked the curry dish. Hussein is really funny. He told Sandy and Roberto that he has only learned regular present tense verbs, so they can only use those verbs when they talk to him. Gaby didn’t know what regular verbs were, so Hussein started pointing out all the regular verbs in what we were saying. It was really funny. I talked to Roberto about his jobs while I washed the dishes. He sells car stereos, he is writing a document for the local university to use with people who are in prison, and he is learning how to fix computers. Sandy and Roberto went to a Bible study that Roberto teaches for married couples. I sat in the living room with Gaby and did my homework for 2.5 hours! I finished it all. Gaby was watching Glee with Spanish subtitles. I went to my room, got ready for bed, and wrote this blog entry. I am hoping tomorrow is a better day! Bed around 11:15.