Saturday, June 14, 2008

Color me red. or yellow. or both?







So in my last entry I quoted a little inspiration from Gabriel Garcia Marquez about how the real joys to life are about climbing the mountain, not being on the top. So, I’ll recount one of those “joys” this past week in my classes.
I was teaching my kindergarten class, and everyone seemed pretty excited about learning my song with the exception of Katherine and Javier. Katherine, who is quite the character, decided that she was bored, and kept chatting with herself about being bored, on repeat (apparently kindergartners haven’t learned the skill of keeping that inner dialogue inside). She then marched to the front of the classroom and decided she would wave the yardstick around wildly. Javier, who has a behavioral problem as it is, decided that he would like to wave that stick around as well. Fighting ensued, Javier cried, Katherine marched back to her seat defiantly. I took it all very personally and took the morning as a complete failure. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, which is why I put it in all caps, just as I was walking along the road at dinner time, thinking about my participation with the kids, and if it is benefiting them in any sort of capacity, I heard one of my kids yelling “Lila, Lila!” I turn around and he starts singing the song that I had taught this morning, and he had taught his 3-year-old brother as well… WOOP WOOP, someone learned something today. I also taught them the “high five” in class that day.
As my hodgepodge entries usually go, one story will not tie in nicely with another, because A. I’m not that great of a writer and B. The weirdest things happen to me, making my life, ergo, my blog, a mishmash, random assortment of stories. I was using the Internet last week, and met some gringos in town, a Dutchman and Englishman. We all had dinner together, travel stories started and although I cannot share most of them on my family friendly blog, I will share a good one. We’ll do this Quentin Tarantino style. It ended by the Englishman eating a giant beetle.
So we were having a delicious meal when the Englishman told us how, while in Thailand, he tried fried cockroaches on the street. Whilst in a Thai bar, there was a pretty considerable sized, rather exotic bug on the bar. Everyone started betting him beers if he ate it. I do understand that those who travel often find themselves in a precarious financial situation, and apparently desperate times called for, well, eating a bug at a Thai bar. His quotation was the following, “You know how all meat pretty much tastes like chicken? Well, pretty much all bugs taste like cockroaches.” So, at the end of the night, the Dutchman bet him a dollar to eat the horned beetle on the ground at our feet. He popped it into his mouth. Crunch, crunch, “Tastes like cockroach”.
As well, I went to the capital this weekend to go get a shot (fun), though it ended up being a very interesting, lovely weekend. However, upon my return to my site, 2/3 of my building was painted bright red. My 1/3 was left its original yellow. Since the elections are coming up here, the opposing political party in my town rented the space beside me. The setup is as follows, one giant room, sectioned off by thin plywood, the political rallies taking place on the other side. Therefore, I will be hearing everything that goes on, and have to endure the new, red harshness of my once uniformly painted area. But hey, if I thought I was lucky to have a yellow building so I’d never forget where I lived, now I really won’t be able to miss it. Bright side.
I’ve included some really bad self-portraits that I took this morning with my newly colored building.

3 comments:

cy said...

Interesting to read about your Peace Corps adventures! xoxo Cy

Tyler said...

I would say if you wanted to back at those FMLN guys you can paint your side white and blue. But I hope you're enjoying your Ronald McDonald house. See ya on the 4th/5th for the party?

Catie said...

you are so amazing! i cant wait to get these stories in person. and you dont have to lie i know you tried a buggie too! we miss you lots!!