Just asking

Now that I can speak Spanish like a (semi-) pro, I find myself getting into all kinds of conversations about the American economy. No one ever comes right out and says it, but the overriding theme is that the USA has gone off and messed things up for everyone once again.

Obama, of course, is going to save us all (typed with tongue in cheek). In the meantime, my fellow Americans are getting laid off left and right, and others are in fear of facing the same fate. Not I, of course. People without jobs don’t usually get fired.

Yes, the economy is down on its luck right now, which means many of you are, too, and here I’m going to go right ahead and ask you for a little something anyway. The thing is I need a little help with school supplies for next year. Without a salary of my own, piling on the expenses of photocopying and teaching tools really stretches the monthly stipend.

Last year, a class at R.E. Baker Elementary School in Bentonville, Arkansas, collected supplies for my school. The supplies were a big help, but with 150 students using them day in and day out, they are almost gone. The last bit of purple glue has finally been dug out from all of the glue sticks. Most of the scissors have found their way into the pencil holders of needy students or the desk drawers of local teachers. The ink pens were all given away as prizes, and the notebooks were handed out to those students who were writing in microscopic print in order to conserve pages of the one ratty notebook allotted for their entire elementary school career.

Perhaps in your family, workplace or church group, you’d like to start a supply drive for the rowdy little kids of Potrero Grande Elementary School. I’d even make them practice their English by writing you thank-you notes.

This is what I need (and nothing more, please):

• Pencils
• Eraser tops for pencils
• Glue sticks
• Scissors
• Dry-erase markers
• Blank CDs
• Masking tape

For those of you for whom it is much easier to just write a check, let me tell you about the things I want but can’t afford. First of all, I want to buy a projector for the school. I want the kind that costs a few hundreds and that you hook up to a laptop or DVD player and display on a wall. The main reason I want the projector is for use in the classroom. I could design creative lessons around movie clips and PowerPoint presentations. Other teachers could do the same. The other reason I want it is to host movie nights once a week and charge the movie-going public a small fee, which I would use to pay for photocopies throughout the year. Oh, and I want to buy a classroom set of English/Spanish dictionaries.

If this option piques your interest, you can easily make a tax-deductible donation by sending a check with Jennifer Turner, Costa Rica in the memo line to:

World TeachCenter for International Development
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy St., Box 122
Cambridge MA 02138, USA

If a tax deduction isn’t all that important to you, avoid all the red tape and send checks straight to my front door:

Jennifer's Front Door
P.O. Box 309
DeWitt, AR 72042

Or, if neither school supplies nor cash are your style, maybe shopping for clothes is. There are a lot of poor kids at my school who are still wearing the hand-me-downs from their older siblings years after the older siblings have left the home for greener grass. It’s perpetually summer here, but because it’s winter where you are, I bet you could find some really cheap hot-weather clothes for my students. Next time you’re in Old Navy or Wal-Mart or Target, just breeze through the children’s section and look for any great deals.

And don’t worry about sizes. The students of Potrero Grande come in all shapes and forms and none are without need. Specifically, here’s a list:

• Navy blue socks
• White undershirts for boys
• White undershirts for girls
• Black leather shoes (boys and girls)
• Shorts for boys and girls
• Shirts of any kind for boys and girls

If you have any questions, just send me an e-mail at jturner114@gmail.com.

Merry Christmas! Thanks again for everything!