Which side of the donkey do you pick?!?

Every day here seems to present new challenges, experiences, and adventures. I really like it here, although it’s kind of hard sometimes too. Here is a brief re-cap of my week.

On Monday, we were rearranging desks in the classrooms. (I still don’t have classrooms yet although they are coming along much better! We will be in make-shift classrooms like the lab, the teachers’ lounge, and the library until they are done.) So, we were carrying desks up to the second floor, and I was wearing a skirt and really slippery flip flops. So, I’m carrying two desks up the stairs, and Manuel, the Spanish phy ed teacher was behind me. And me, being incredibly coordinated as I am, totally wiped out and started falling down the stairs holding two desks. It was pretty smooth…. After he made sure I was ok and carried all the desks to the top of the stairs, he laughed at me really hard. It was ok though because I wasn’t actually very hurt, just a little scraped up, and it was pretty funny. Monday was also laundry day… In case you missed it, see the previous post.

Yesterday, was quite an eventful day. Walking to school, the road is fairly narrow and there is no sidewalk. So, answer this question for me… When there are cars coming and also a donkey, which side of the donkey do you walk on? If you walk on the ditch side, you could fall in and risk injury… If you walk on the street side, you might get run over by a motoconcho (one of the motorcycles that tear around and are very dangerous)… So, it’s kind of a toss up. Kaitlyn and I picked the road side which turned out to be a fine decision that time around. Then later, Rosanna, the Spanish math and science teacher, and I were cleaning and organizing the science lab. I opened up a box full of magnifying glasses and got a little more than I bargained for. Out of the box came TONS of cockroaches that ran all over the lab. We had to run all over the room stomping on them. It was pretty gross. Fortunately, we’ve only found a few in our apartment. Just so you know, no matter how clean you keep things here, cockroaches and ants seem to find a way in. But, it’s all part of the experience I guess J Keith, one of the American teachers who is an aerobics teacher at a gym here too had a kickboxing class for us after school. It was actually pretty fun! I was pretty proud of all us Americans. We made it through the whole kickboxing “class” just fine and the PE teacher, Manuel, had to quit about half way through. Now I guess I have something I can laugh at him about! After dinner, two of my roommates and I went over to fellow American teachers Micah and Kaitlin’s apartment and watched the Olympics, had snacks, and played cards. So, it was nice to be able to get out a little bit!

Today, we were walking to school with our paraguas. That is one of my favorite Spanish words by the way because it just makes so much sense. “Para” in this case means “for” and “agua” means water. So, it’s a “for water” aka an umbrella. So, Kaitlyn and I were walking to school with our paraguas and ended up talking to these two cute ladies. One was really old and was wearing house slippers and was shuffling down the road. The other I believe was her daughter. They were very friendly and didn’t try hitting on us once! PS: We get cat-called at all the time. Some interesting things we’ve heard are “I love your mommy!” “Mi amor” “Que bonitas americanas”, etc. Its ok though, we are getting used to it. At school, one of the Spanish teacher’s brothers-in-law came in. He is the principle of a high school in New York City and teachers in a master’s in education program in a college there too. He gave the American teachers a presentation on giving lessons. For me, it was pretty interesting since that wasn’t what I went to college for. After that, he gave a presentation to the Spanish teachers about critical thinking. Keith and I stayed for that one too which was good practice for my Spanish. I was pretty proud that I understood the whole thing!

Tonight, we are going to one of the missionary’s houses for pizza and a welcome to the DR get-together. So, that should be pretty fun!