International Day

          This week was the final push for International Day on Friday, January 25.  My class represented Mexico.  I made the display board with information about Mexico and then had my kindergarten students hand write the headings.  They colored the word Mexico and each one colored a flag.  I put the flags around the border of the board.  We made a piñata with candy inside, God’s Eyes, and a quesadilla together.  All week I taught them Spanish words and on Friday I showed them a video designed to teach young children simple Spanish words.  They were so excited when they heard words they had already learned. 

Parents with their toys in the foreground were blocking Clint trying to take our picture.

          At the morning assembly each class crossed the stage wearing their country’s flag colors or a cultural costume to music from their country.  I am such a literal person.  The directions were given to walk across so it didn’t occur to me to play a video from the country or teach them a dance.  I have to remember in the future to be as creative as I can and then tailor it down if needed.  My students stood like statues to the Mariachi band music and it looked pretty pathetic.  Everyone dances in Nigeria so of course the other groups did some moves.  I don’t think they all were necessarily tied to their chosen country but they certainly looked like they were having fun. 

The big kids checking out our pinata but not the display.

          From 1 – 2 pm the Early Years Department toured the displays and from 2- 3 pm the older students came over.  I had two students who wanted to touch everything.  I had to hold their hands.  When a third started to get out of control I turned around to look for my teaching partner and she was at one of the tables eating.  My students were good and stayed with me.  It was like taking them on a field trip to a museum.  At first I told them quite a bit about each country but after awhile their attention span hit a wall and we mostly walked past and I just answered questions and pointed out things I wanted them to see.  As we left to go back to our classroom I had one little fellow break down into hysterical tears.  He didn’t want me to leave the piñata with all that candy.  He thought it belonged just to our class.  The others, although disappointed, understood we were sharing it with the whole school.  I was later thanked by an administrator for leading my students around.  I guess some of the teachers just let them run around.  The early years kids cannot read the displays.  I am not sure why anyone would do that.  It was just common sense.  I was so focused on my bunch and counting them every few minutes that I never even saw the wild ones being chased.

I love her idea for getting Chinese food to sample and having a dress made for the event.  First year teachers always think outside the box.  Great Job, Li!!!

          Back in class, I let my teaching partner finish the last 15 minutes of the day so I could go back and read more of the older student’s work.  I checked on the piñata and it was nearly empty.  It appeared that at first nobody knew about the candy because they did not bother to read the sign which told what a piñata was for but once one did, the word got out and it was a big hit.  I think the best display was from one of the first grade classes.  Their teacher is from China.  She made a deal with a Chinese restaurant to advertise his restaurant by providing sample food.  He brought in about four dishes.  People swarmed her table to have some.  Clint and I were privileged to have already enjoyed his food on Sunday evening.  To celebrate both her birthday and the owner of the restaurants he had prepared a huge spread of food and a beautiful cake.  He even had things brought in from Lagos, Nigeria for the dinner.  It was so spicy that my eyes and nose were running.  We ate cow’s stomach and squid besides many other interesting things.  The power went off a couple times while we were eating so we sat in total darkness until the generator was started.  It is just something you get used to here.

This is a booth at the open air market.  They sell warm eggs, cigarettes, and alcohol.

          One of the teachers was in another African country during the Christmas break.  He came back with a whole bunch of boot-leg movies.  We were able to see The Hobbit.  There is no way that was a legal copy but it was nice getting to see it.  Getting to watch something is like a luxury.  I have even watched things I would never have watched in the States: The Big Bang Theory and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.  I hate to admit it, I enjoy TV that much because it just gets too quiet in our flat sometimes.  I read a book my daughter gave me a couple years ago that I had not had time for before.  Next year, I will come better prepared.

We walked past this today.  The sign said you can buy kerosene here.

          We hadn’t seen butter for sale for a month.  Today one of the teachers said he found some.  Clint went right away to go buy it.  This is the week we work on our 2^nd quarter grades so we get to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  We were afraid we might have to try and make it with olive oil.  Thank you again to my friend Bunny for your gift as we were packing.  Having lived in Africa, she knew it would be a big treat for us to have chocolate chips.  The butter will also taste good on the fry bread tonight.  Clint is making chili to go with it.  Yumm!  He is missing meat as a protein.  I am missing fresh salad and raw veggies.  This morning he tried to feed me fish sausage.  I swear they looked just like the two cockroaches we found when we got up today.  He says I am finicky but I think he is too about some things.  We are both learning to get along with what we can find here to eat.  I missed breakfast and lunch today but I have enough stored to live on if he keeps trying to feed these to me.  LOL

fish sausages or cockroaches?

He and I had words today.  The deal was you get to stay if you eat all the cockroaches.  We found two this morning, so you aren't holding up your end of the bargain.

          Friday night a big storm rolled in and woke us with pounding rain on our metal roof, thunderous bangs that shook our flat and flashes of lightening I could see with my eyes shut.  The next morning, when we went into our kitchen the floor was flooded.  One of the teachers said his roof leaked above his bed and so he had to get up and move his bed during the night.  A tree was broken in our compound.  I asked the guard if it was struck by lightning but he thought it was just the heavy rain rushing off the roof.  This morning we woke up and found about 50+ little wings littered all over our front stoop.  The guard said they are from a certain kind of bug.  I don’t remember the name he called them.  I am guessing it was a transition in their development.  He thought they were attracted to our porch light.  There must have been a swarm of them.

bug wings on our front steps

We leave the light on at night in case our young teacher needs us during the night.  We told her she could knock on our door no matter what time if she needed us.  It is so fun having her here to share this adventure with.  She is our daughter’s age.  In the future if we get to teach in South America, I wish our kids would come teach with us.  Our daughter could work as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and her husband could be the school technology guy.  Our son could teach art.  Of course this would be in a perfect world where you get everything you want.  I would say I was dreaming but with the malaria medicine I only have nightmares.