Day Eleven ~ Art Class, Maps, Staff Meeting, & a Phone Call

Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Breakfast was a banana & a half of a ham, cheese, & lettuce wrap. Yes, I know, that sounds more like lunch than breakfast. The truth of the matter is that I have still really been struggling with allergies in the mornings & I'm just not pulling my body out of bed early enough to get a proper breakfast!  (Can you see my allergy eyes here?)  :(

Well, anyway, I’ve been eating “on the run.” Miriam is a Mexican who quickly became a friend when we discovered that not only are we the same age, but we have a lot in common! She is one of the Spanish teachers at the school & lives just a block away.  She is my morning ride to school 4 days a week & she’s gracious enough to allow me to munch on my “breakfast” while she’s driving & we’re talking.


Today, I observed/helped in the 3rd/4th grade classroom. I observed that same class while they were in art too. It was fun! They were making Mother’s Day cards out of special watercolor cardstock & crayons to resist the paint. What a neat craft that was! So, yeah, I made one too! Of course, I have no way to actually get it to my Mommy for Mother’s Day ~ she’ll have to wait a month until I’m home!

Then, I learned the inventory procedure in the school’s massive library & helped inventory the fiction section for about an hour. For a school of only about 50 students, the library is HUGE! I can’t even estimate how many books are in there…I’ll have to ask someone in charge…

Today, David gave me a map he’d bought for me & took the time to show me on the map where the school is, where home is, landmarks, & bus routes.

From that map, I found out that the house I’m living in (Julie & Roy’s) is “downtown” ~ you know how whenever you look at a map, the “city center” or “downtown” part is always magnified in the corner or on the back of the map? Well, on that magnified part of the “downtown” ~ it has their street! So, I guess I live in downtown Oaxaca City? Who knew? Certainly not me! I’m SO disoriented! But, this map should be a big help!  (The circled spot is where I'm living.)

There was a staff meeting after school (2:45 – 5:15) & I was invited by David. When he told me about it, he told me that there would be food. I had to laugh out loud when he explained that the food was “mainly for the single guys”. The meal was chicken and spicy rice. Sure enough, there was a single guy at my table & he ate & ate & ate, through the entire meeting! I was glad to be included in the meeting, because it allowed me to get to know the teachers a little bit more. Because the school is Kindergarten through twelfth grade, the breaks teachers have are at all different times. So, you can easily go an entire day with only seeing 1 or 2 other teachers…

Even though I live on the total opposite end of the city, David had volunteered to drive me home, so I wouldn’t have to take the bus. He was also driving Brian (math & Bible teacher), Sarah (school secretary), & Stan (science teacher & also a W.A.). Most of the way home, we discussed the possibility of me returning for next school year & the variety of roles I could fill IF I did feel led to return.

Supper was half a chicken breast & black beans, with the leftover spicy rice from the meeting.

I did a load of laundry & hung it up. The amazing SPEED that the laundry dries on the line is just unbelievable! At home, I’d typically wait about 3 hours for a load of wash to dry. Here, it’s totally dry in less than an hour! Yes, it IS THAT HOT!!!

I called my sister, Jackie, & talked with her and her 3 precious girls for an hour and a half after finishing the laundry.  (The people I live with have what is called a VOIP phone.  It is Voice Over IP ~ meaning, it goes over the internet signal.  It has an Arizona phone number, so it can call anywhere in the US without it being an international call!  Amazing!!) 

Then, I created a blogpost for Day 8 until midnight.