Where the hell was I?

Oh wait...

Zdraveytey everyone!

Sorry about the lack of posts the last month and a half. I’ve been pretty busy with, really, everything. But on the bright side, I have at least 4 posts (including this one) to share (and write) with you and I’ll hopefully be able to get them out every week or so. With the apologies out of the way, let me get on with the excuses…

I’m not going to lie: the last month was one of the hardest, but most fulfilling months since I’ve been here. Let me rephrase that. The first week of the last month was one of the hardest weeks since I’ve been here and that’s led to one of the most fulfilling. Essentially, a lot of stuff happened and I flaked on writing blog posts. Sorry about that. Anyways, last week was the first time I properly felt like a teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been teaching since I’ve gotten here but a lot of the time it’s been with one of my colleagues and it isn’t often that I get to take the reins with a single class. Last month I got to teach all of the 2nd through 4th graders English.

The primary teacher for English in one of my towns got very sick and the doctor told her to take some time off. I happen to be the designated pinch hitter in these situations so I was given all of the English classes that she taught. There were 6 of them (2 each from 2nd to 4th) and there were around 20 kids in each class. It is safe to say that they were not the best behaved students I’ve seen. Certainly not the worst, though. I’d have to say that my 3rd grade class that got a teacher to quit due to a chemical imbalance in her head may have been the worst. In case you didn’t understand, that’s the 3rd grade class I was in when I was whatever age you’re in when you’re in 3rd grade in Jamaica. She went craaaazy. But I digress. I was essentially teaching them all the back half of the unit they working on so it was pretty rewarding when I gave them a test at the end of it and they seemed to understand at least half of the material. I couldn’t tell you which half was mine, but none of the kids failed the tests. Or at least failed in the Bulgarian sense. I’ll need to discuss the grading system here at a later date.

So, the kids were completely psyched that they had the American (or Englishman depending on how much they knew about me) and they loved getting little sticker rewards. Kept them in control and kept me a little saner. The kids also had the great habit of boosting my self-esteem by telling me that I’m a great teacher and that they would like me to teach them more. One little girl found me yesterday as I was walking home and said that she missed me. That was adorable. But all good things must come to an end and their teacher has recovered and is now teaching them again. I’m not wishing anyone ill but I wouldn’t mind teaching half of those classes because really only half of those classes gave me any problems.

Well that was my month. I spent it teaching small children via stickers and pantomime. That last part was a lot of improvisation. Got me pretty tired at the end of the day but it was fun. I’m also pretty tired right now. It might be from the teaching, it might be from the vacation. It’s probably from the vacation going into the teaching. You guys know what I’m talking about. Next time you see a post, it'll be a really late one on a certain holiday that Americans celebrate with turkey. Which holiday you ask? Why Columbus Day, of course!

This is the Peace Corps and upon reaching your site your job description means nothing.

-Zack