A Poem, and English Lessons

A Poem

The chickens are dead, but there are still flies

on the ceiling, in the wind chimes, sitting

next to my toothbrush buzzing in the morning

begging to go out the closed window.

I stretch in my bed like the animal

I tell the children I´m not. At school, they tug

on my hair, smooth their hands over my white

arms, and pull me to their classroom.

It´s a room with a dusty wooden floor,

rolls of colored paper, and a broken

cash register. They fight over the play

money, jump on the desks laughing,

and swing from the door. After they find

the ball behind the teacher´s desk and run

outside, only three remain

coloring pictures of Jesus.

I haven´t written a poem in a long time, but there´s some practice and a little insight into our volunteering at a small public school in Oropesa. It´s always a surprise how the days will go and what I learn from the children. Classroom control is usually non-existant and I feel like many times I just have to trick the children into being interested in learning. I have found that children of all ages love songs, whether it´s "Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes" (which doubles as a nice little English lesson) or "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." I´m with a different group of students each day, ranging from kindergarten to fourth grade, sometimes teaching art or English, sometimes just helping out as I am able. Always interesting. Always a challenge. Two hours a day is definitely plenty for me.

and English Lessons

As Matthew said, I also started teaching Engish lessons, which is a completely different experience than volunteering at school. (And as I´m writing this, about 8 sixth-graders are asking me questions about whether I can help them with their homework and about these private lessons...so we may have more customers...) I don´t want to speak too soon, but I really enjoy the private lessons because the students are eager to learn and don´t take much prompting to copy down words, etc. Yesterday the two girls were thrilled to learn about colors, and maybe they were more eager to finish the coloring sheet I made for them, but there was definitely some enthusiasm in the room. Loved it. Above is a photo of the finished project. I took the song from an Internet website (thanks Diane!) and drew some lovely little pictures (ha!). Unfortunately, there are no plums  or cherries here, but the song still works...if only it included pink!

and an afterthought
Today is Earth Day, and we celebrated properly at school. Each class (or, each teacher) made one or two posters and we paraded around Oropesa chanting pro-earth slogans. (This is after I dragged two kids out of the classroom because they were hiding under the desks while the entire school was gathering on the playground.) We made it down the main drag, stopping traffic because of so many people walking in the road. It was like an organized event, sort of. There were police officers wearing giant costume heads, which the kids loved. The teachers hung up many of the posters on the walls around the main square.

Sounds like a good idea, but it was tainted with kids buying all sorts of snacks at the shops along the way and throwing the garbage on the ground, not to mention the typical rough-housing/smacking/punching/throwing each other down to the ground just because behavior. Unlike Monday, though, I didn´t find anyone crying because she tore off most of her fingernail. phew. I did scold the same kid three times for throwing his popsicle wrapper on the ground today of all days, when we´re celebrating the earth. Finally, he found a garbage can. I´m trying to remember that I´m not here to fix anything. I´m here to support the teachers and the students, not start a revolution. Happy e.day...wherever you are.