School work

I'm emphatically sure now that I'm done with college that the people who told me college was the best time of your life were wrong. It's definitely got its high points, but it's got plenty of lows to make up for them to. For example, every time I think about school and tests I get sick to my stomach and every time I happen upon a school file on my hard drive, I nearly hyperventilate. The reason I bring this up is becuase I've started giving computer classes once a week in the grade school in my town and will soon be giving even more. The thing is, these schools are NOT what we think of when we think of grade school.

Exhibit 1: Manual Labor - I noticed I hadn't seen a couple of the kids one day, and when I asked where they had been I was told that their grade had been moving bricks all day for a wall that was being built. Interesting.

Exhibit 2: Alcohol Storage in School - The other day I walked into my classroom to a box with about 8 bottles of whiskey in it.

Exhibit 3.a: Alcohol Consumption in School. A couple weeks ago there was a program for parents where the kids were all dressed up and did a march with the flags and such and then presented the president, vice-president, etc of the class. Halfway through the program, one of the parents begins to walk around pouring cups of straight whiskey for the parents in attendance.

Exhibit 3.b: Exactly one week after the ocurrence of Exhibit 3.a, there was another function in the school to celebrate the Immaculate Virgin. The night before there was drinking a insanely dangerous fireworks in front of the church (drinking on the church steps?). Then, the next morning, a bunch of semi-hung-over professors come to school and march the kids around town until around 10 when the (sort of) kick the kids out and the professors from the schools around town all hang out and eat, drink, and be merry...in the school cafeteria. I tried to keep my drinking to an extreme minimum since there was still the occasional kid wandering around the schoolyard.

Exhibit 4: Leaving large groups of kids alone in classrooms - Yesterday while I was in the middle of a class session I was pulled out of class by the professor because the fish they had cooked was ready. The kids were 'sitting' alone in the classroom for about 20 minutes. Which leads me to my next exhibit.

Exhibit 5: Running out of Food?? - Apparently food is given to schools by the semester-load (Don't ask how the food doesn't spoil), and they have to ration it themselves. Well, with over 2 weeks left in the semester, the food ran out and now the kids don't eat. The 'good news' is that the kids are only in school for 5 hours. The other good news is that it means I don't have to worry about the less-than sanitary conditions the kitchen and food receptacles are in.


Well, those are just a few examples of some interesting things in my life, since (from what I hear) I haven't been great about putting strange Peace Corps anecdotes into my blog. Hope you enjoy! Visit anytime!