I
have commented several times this week that I don’t know how elementary school
teachers are not all alcoholics. One week into summer camp and I’m considering
finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. (Kidding. I haven’t had a drink…
yet.)
I’ll
start with the good and then we can get to the bad and the ugly.
The
good: Last week I took a pre-stressful-summer vacation to Atacames, a beach
town known for delicious seafood and awesome nightlife. It was so much fun! The
highlights included: ceviche at all times of day, salsa dancing with a taller,
hotter version of Vin Diesel, piña coladas, naps in hammocks, jumping off the
balcony into the swimming pool, whale watching, and karaoke singing Selena, The
Beatles, and Coolio. It was just 2 short days, but exactly what I needed.
The
bad: is not really that bad. The summer camp is happening. It’s definitely
happening. Things were thrown together at the last minute (the lack of planning
was out of our control). And we are not as organized as I would prefer. But!
The kids are having a great time, which is the purpose of it all, and makes all
the work totally worth it. We start at 8:30 each morning and end at 1:00pm. We
have had recycled art, English class, music class, a conference on goals and
values for young people, a dental hygiene class, outdoor skills, and lots of
sports and games. We taught them Ultimate Frisbee, Steal the Bacon, and their favorite,
Capture the Flag. Usually by around noon, I am losing my mind and ready to go
to bed for the rest of the day. The kids range in age from 5 to 16 years-old
and we have 2 or 3 whom I can only describe as “little shits”. Excuse my
French, but it’s becoming harder and harder for me to express myself in
English, expletives help. 2 kids asked me if I was pregnant yesterday and an 8
year-old kid brought a lighter to camp today. Sigh. But there are also 3 little
girls who follow me around giving me hugs all day so the hugs balance out the
shits. I don’t think it’s the first time I’ve made that statement here…
The
ugly: Valentina, our beautiful blue-eyed cat had 3 babies last week. 1 was
stillborn so my host grandmother threw it in the trash. 6 days later a second
one died because Momma cat sat on it. The next day, Vale ate the last one. I’m
not a mom, but I think she’s doin’ it wrong.
So
that’s the news. Oh! Speaking of news, I was on the local news this week for my
summer camp, I was interviewed in Spanish! What the what! It was aired for the
whole province, I filmed the television using my digital camera- fancy
technology, right?
Me:
Being here means spending a lot of time alone means spending a lot of time in
my head means thinking about life too much and still not being able to express
those thoughts. So I found someone else to express them for me:
“Life moves so fast. An awkward moment is over before you
can fix it, just as a grand moment is over before you can retire in it.
This life, this infinite moment, this WTF and holy shit is a
series of beautiful accidents, far out explosions and small victories that led
us to this divine expression of what we call whatever we call this. and
who knows where we’re going, or how many of us will be hurt or die along the
way.
Oh wait, all of us will get hurt and all of us will die.
Never mind.
Therefore, let’s take down the signs and let everyone enjoy
the ride.” Jason Mraz
hammock nap
we made wallets out of milk cartons and then apparently put ourselves in order by height.
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