Time

Time is flying. I've only got three months left of teaching, minus the two weeks of classes I'll miss while I'm getting my Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate. A few weeks ago, when I was homesick, three months seemed like an eternity, but now it seems like not nearly enough time. I still have lots to teach these kids, and there's the Internet cafe to set up, world map to paint on the wall of the school, and so much Spanish left to learn. How can three months possibly be enough?

It won't be, but I guess there’s no use in panicking. When I first started teaching, I sort of hated the kids. They were always tugging at me and and blabbing away in a language I couldn't understand. Now I can barely stand the thought of leaving them.

They grow and change so fast, and I want to be around to see more of it. Of course, some are moving more slowly than others. Cristofer still cries when I ask him to copy pictures from the board to his notebook. He tears holes in the paper with all the furious erasing and re-erasing he does before melting into a fountain of tears at his desk. Kendal still spontaneously jumps up from his desk during class to wrap his little arms around my waist in a loving but disruptive hug. Yesterday Jean Carlos (pronounced Yan-Carlos, or Yanka, for short) spit casually onto the floor beside his desk.

Others are too smart for first grade. Keilor now rushes ahead and shouts out in perfect English the words to the songs I sing before I get a chance to sing them. I'll still be singing, "Teasing Mister Alligator...." and he'll already be wagging his finger and saying tauntingly, "Can't catch me."

And where I used to lead the alphabet with hand motions, Leo now says the letters before I do, so I just follow along with the rest of the class. The other day on the bus, when I didn't understand what Carlitos was saying in Spanish and asked him to repeat it, he said, "Casi llegamos a mi house," swapping in the English word to make it easier for me to follow.

Just imagine what they'll be like with a few more years of English classes. I hate to think I won't be around to see it.