So it is was my third day of teaching. This whole week I could not wait to get the heck out of this small village and enter civilization. Well now I kind of font want to leave.
This place is completely grown on me. Getting water from Sarangkot made me much happier and now I've started to truly enjoy my experience. I'm not just doing the tourist thing! My friends are all in the city doing what most travelers do where I realized I've jumped in head first.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a huge struggle. Struggle is not even the correct word. But something changed last night. I have been feeling terrible for these people but I haven't let myself let go and live with them. Ok so maybe I eat with my hands and cut up a chicken my first night. I guess that is getting into it in a way. But it's been a physical thing, mentally my mind would not accept my living conditions. No that is changing, I've started to accept it where I a, and who I'm with. I've started to appreciate waking up three to four hours before school starts just to enjoy the sunrise and eat corn that Mina rolls across the floor to e at 7 am.
Yes, it's not the best. But who am I kidding? Isn't this exactly what I came for?
Being alone was the tough part. I met some pretty amazing people during orientation and the thought of leaving them was hard. Knowing my sister who I love and adore might have had her baby boy and I would know was even worse. The longer I was away from it the easier it became. Having to hike over an hour to send a short message was a reward and still a privilege that most people in my small village didn't have.
My school is horrendous. No, that is an understatement. My school is a plain *insert the worst word you can thing to describe something disgusting. These kids walk anywhere from 1 minute to 45 to get to school. After school these same 3 year olds to 14 year olds walk up to an hour and forty minutes home. And I thought walking to Sarangkot was a struggle? This one girl named swastica, I'm not sure ho to spell her name but its pronounced just like the German symbol, lives in the very very top of Sarangkot.
School was just like the past two days but I had more classes alone. The pronunciation of some of this teachers makes me cringe, the punishment if hitting the children makes me cringe more. The children who are so malnourished and sick that they sleep all day and sit in their own urine makes me cry.
I won't lie, some of these kids are brilliant. Most four year olds know their entire a alphabet, read, and know their number and can spell and writ them. However, I believe it is mostly memorized. Because of the language barrier I haven't proved it but for the little ones I don't think there is any reason behind what they write. Is just memorization.
My school however, although a physical mess, is quite advanced. They placed second in an academic competition out of the 47 schools in the valley. This is the teachers lives. They love it and devote their time and effort while heatedly.
I've accepted that academically I'm not going to make a change. It just is not reasonable. However, I can still have an impact. I've agreed, not fully to my host/principles knowledge to invest a nice amount of money in the school. Surroundings and aesthetics can be quite important for young children. Anyone who had seen my classroom knows I believe in that. I've planned to paint a room or two and now I'm trying to raise money to paint and draw murals in every room!
These kids walk into the most disgusting, dark, dingy place I've only seen in movies. The type of movies you watch and think ehh it's a movie it can't really be that bad. It is a tragedy. There is no other way to describe it. And it is etched in me every day when I a treated like a goddess by these people who have nothing.
Teaching alone in the classroom is challenging. There is no way to describe it. I've learned quickly how to say sit down please.
We had a half day so at 1 o'clock it was time to take the bumpy road down to the city. I found out I would be going by motor bike! Ahhhh I was so scared. I hoped on the back with Santos, a teacher from school, and off we went. I was terrified at first but then I started to love weaving around rocks in the path, bumping up and down, and then cruising down the hill around cars!
Great day! I can't wait to buy paint and make a difference at this school! Please consider donating to my cause! If you would like to send me a message and you can get the money to my mom to wire to me!! Thanks in advance!
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