it's been a long time coming

So Melvin broke his pen in half and painted the interior of his mouth blue…on purpose. Same day, while teaching a lesson I was simultaneously trying to release Amely from the hold of her backpack, sitting upright behind her on the chair, her hair at perfect zipper height. Sometimes these moments are the exploding laughter kind, resulting from life seeming so stinkin’ uncontrollably ridiculous that it can’t be held in. Other times it pushes me toward nervous breakdown. As Christmas vacation gets closer (while seeming so far out of reach), the latter is becoming the more probable response.

Then enter wildlife…

One day last week, right before the school day was going to start, I went to the library to get our class blanket. The kids often use it to lie on while reading and this particular morning we were going to have some reading time. I carried it all rolled up in my arms back to our classroom and started smoothing it out into the corner of the room where we usually have it. THEN, a mouse runs out and startles me!!! I scream and start doing the dance from leg to leg. Several of my students scream, more likely because I did than the fact that they actually saw the mouse. I started to giggle which broke into laughter. My students were looking at me as though I was crazy. The mouse darted into a corner where there is a giant plastic bin of art stuff. I quickly went to get Emily, the 5th grade teacher, who not only has a free period first period, but also is the most brave and animal loving of my housemates/staff. She went and got a trashcan and broom so that she could take the little mouse outside. Meanwhile I began Simon Says with the class. First, Simon Says stand on your chair (Ok, now they are all safe and out of the way). Second, Simon says put your hands on your head (Ok, now they are distracted). I hope you can picture this. So I am on a chair in front of the class and in this position I led the class in songs until the mouse was successfully removed from the classroom.

Today I sent the kids to the same reading corner to have screams erupt (this reading corner has GOT to go). Spider. Not just any spider. Tarantula. Same word in both languages. I don’t know if it was really a tarantula, but it looked close enough to both me and the kiddos to cause some action to be taken. After ordering all of the curious and hero wanna-bes to their seats with loud words accompanied by a fierce look, I went in search of a broom. Then, to the amusement of my class, I began trying to find the large scary beast hidden in my book basket, and then sweep him forcefully into the hallway. Mission accomplished. Back to math.

But there has been a ridiculous laughter moment lately…

After lunch on let’s call it Mouse Day, we were having a class meeting about what reward the students would to work toward with good behavior points. I was making a list on the board of their suggestions--class soccer game, extra recess, extra P.E: and then a kid raised his hand and said, ¨Go to Kentucky¨. Everyone else in the class broke out into an excited murmur and yelled out in agreement. After I got them calmed down I told them that it was probably not a feasible idea that we could go to Kentucky as a class, I even taught them the word passport and we talked about how you need a passport to go to the United States. I was so confused why they would choose Kentucky. I mean, come on. How could they all be this excited about such a random state? Well, then they told me that they went to Kentucky last year and started talking about conos and juegos (ice cream cones and games). It turned out that the whole time they meant Kentucky Fried Chicken! Ah!

Never a dull moment.

To give you more glimpses into our life…

Last night instead of doing any lesson planning or necessary exam preparation, we decided to watch Cinderella Story (yes, with Hilary Duff) on the back porch in the dark—movie theater style of course—while doing stretches (as to pretend to do exercises while really just watching the movie).

Last week what did I find myself doing after my bedtime? Saving all of my underwear from dying a slow moldy death at the hand (?) of the bucket. I’ll tell you one thing. Washing your underwear, by hand, on a cool, dark night to hang on the line is one of the last things you want to do after your bedtime. But sometimes it has to be done.

This morning I woke to the sound of steadily falling rain. I was so comfortable, warm and cozy that it actually didn’t instantly occur to me that the same rain would make walking the 20ish minute walk to school on dirt roads rather miserable. I pushed it from current thoughts and tried to enjoy an extra 10 minutes in bed, sacrificing a shower (who needs them anyway), and enough time to heat water for hot chocolate and then let it cool down before being able to drink it. While breakfasting, the phone rang. I joked that it was about school being canceled. We all giggled, but deep down everyone wanted that to be the case. It was almost as good. Our amigo Doctor Zelaya, father of one of my students, neighbor of the school, was calling to offer us a ride to school in his spacious SUV! We strategically positioned ourselves inside the SUV so that we could all aprovechar this wonderful situation. Marilyn squeezed in beside me and we bear hugged so that the door would shut. She held my left leg crossed over my right so that the Dr. could put it into drive mode. The stragglers crawled into the trunk and we were off, mostly dry and very thankful. The first time we have arrived to school, the whole crew together, in a long time.

I always let too much time pass and then have such a long, smattering laundry list of things to tell you about. And honestly I could tell you something from each and every day of my life here. This will have to do for now :)

Love, Sarah