Goodness

My parents sent me a care package last week, which included a little thermometer. According to the thermometer, it is a stuffy 89 degrees in my bedroom during the day. By morning it's down to 75 or 80, depending on the day.

So, to escape the oven of my room, I take long walks every afternoon. I explore every road I can find, going up hills, down hills, across rivers and through cattle farms. Yesterday I was walking down a particular rocky road for the first time and saw two women, one of them very elderly, struggling to carry a bucket of pig slop, plus three big bags, down the hill. I offered to help, and the younger woman and I walked, each with a hand on the bucket handle, to her house. In the first 30 seconds she told that her husband is dead, that she works on a pineapple farm and that she knows some gringos like me at the pineapple factory.

She wore the black rubber boots of a farmer and was strong and tough-looking. She told me the names of her four children, none of which I recognized. She told me how difficult it is for her to raise her family, expecially with the added expense of buying glasses for her youngest son. Ah, the darling little first-grader with glasses, now I remember!

She invited me into her home, where I was met with "Hello, teacher!" from all of the kids. One little boy, who was not hers, had stitches above and below his swollen eye from where the huge barking dog chained up outside had bitten him.

Speaking of sick eyes, mine is doing much better, thank you.

The long walks are my favorite times, especially when I get to visit with people and see the kids in their homes. Besides that, the exercise is good for me. My diet isn't exactly healthy these days. Yesterday I had for the first time arroz con leche. It's a hot mixture of rice, sugar, milk and nutmeg. So delicious.

School is tough. I find myself getting very angry and losing my temper with some classes. It seems impossible to keep the kids in their seats and quiet for more than 30 seconds. My goal for next week is to have more patience, although I'm really not sure how patience is going to help.

One problem is that the kids just don't know as much as I thought. When I ask them to put their seats in a circle, it's a disaster. It seems they just don't know how to do it. Or when I write the answers to questions on the board, then ask the questions, they still don't know the answers, even though they are looking right at them. I get so frustrated. Maybe I need to lower my expectations.

But overall things are still going well, and I am very happy to be here. I have talked to some of my fellow volunteers in other towns, and not all are so content. One friends is almost ready to pack up and head back to the U.S. I feel lucky to have been placed in this mostly well-run school and with this wonderful family. I wouldn't change a thing.

Except maybe a few of my second graders.