Make-Out Patrol

Every other week, I work nights. Meaning, instead of getting off at 8pm at dinner, I get off at 9:30pm on weekdays and 11pm on weekends because I put the kids to bed.
Between dinner and bedtime, the sun sets and darkness sets upon all the nooks and crannies. This means one thing for high schoolers: PRIME MAKE OUT TIME when they can hide. Thus, one of the my responsibilities for the night shift includes make-out control. On my nightly rounds, I have had the pleasure of finding many a couple engaging in the exploring their loved ones.

How fun it is to yell “Oye, vete” (Hey you, get out of here) when I find a couple and watch their guilty saunter back to the lighted patio. Only negative: walking to the garbage piles. A necessity, as kids who want to do the deed are rumored to do so amongst the trash. When I explore over there, the smell of the garbage is the least of my fears, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, my eyes and ears have not been scared by my voyages to the garbage pit. I pray it stays that way, for their sake as well as mine.

Cards, cards, cards

Since the summer, at least two days of every afternoon have been spent making mini-cards that you can attach to Christmas presents. It’s part of the Christmas card program fundraiser at NPH, which plays a big part in our budget.
The mini cards are made for the past years card catalog. We cut up the mini images, glue them to paper, let them dry, then cut them to form before punching a whole in each one and packaging. I say “we” but really it’s more the first and second year girls, whose finger gluing skills are far beyond mine.

Yesterday, the preparations concluded and the selling began at a presentation in downtown Cuernavaca. I never thought that I could hate Christmas cards before…but I am not sorry to say good bye to those red and green squares. The images sometimes flash before my eyes.

If though, you are interested in checking out the cards, go to www.nph.org, click on “Gift Shop” on the left tab, then go to “Greeting Cards -> Mexico.” My two second plug.

Picture on right of the second year tourism students who made and served appetizers for the card presentation.

Happy Birthday Daddy

Tribute to my dad. Who I have always been thankful for, but a little more here because I realize that I have been extremely blessed.

Birthdays

Today is Emi's birthday. She is one of the girls I have become closest with, and I could see that she depended on me to make her birthday special. For the month leading up to her birthday she reminded me almost everyday. And as it got closer, she asked me what would we do. Would we see a movie? Could we go out to eat? Could we have a party with the girls.

It broke my heart that all I could tell her was "we'll see" because, no matter how close I am with her, it would be unfair to give her something I couldn't give the rest of the girls on their birthdays.

I settled on taking her to a local store and having her pick out something to eat. Then we watched a movie later on my laptop. There's so much more I wanted to give her though. It upsets me I cannot give her more. It upsets me she doesn't have the figures in her life who, in "normal" circumstances, would give her more.

With Emi, as a girl who was abandoned by her father at a young age, and later by her mother who left the country, I couldn't even think of what to talk about. The normal birthday topics of "favorite birthday" and "best gift" I found inappropriate. Maybe they're not, but I was afraid of bringing up a sad memory on her birthday.

I'm still trying to figure out my place here.

Doors Closed

In high school, I had the formula down for the consequences of arriving late.
If you are more than 5 minutes late = 1 tardy
3 tardies = 1 absence
3 absences (or 9 tardies) = FAIL the class

Here, at NPH, they have a slightly stricter policy for arriving late, by even 1 second.

If you are 1 second late = LOCKED OUT OF SCHOOL (doors close) meaning…
You cannot enter a WHOLE DAY of classes (eight), which is:
8 absences from classes
8 sets of activities missed
8 zeros for participation

Today, 20 kids got locked out. They’re told to go back home. Five of them snuck into school another way, but got caught and talked to by the vice principal.

What? Punished for trying to snake into school?

Supposedly, it’s all to teach them responsibility. Teach them life lessons” for their future jobs. Teach them respect. A bit extreme? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Bronchitis

I’m just coming out of a slight lapse in health caused by acute bronchitis. Ironically, the two weeks I was sick, we were doing the “Health Unit” in English class. This included learning vocab such as vomiting, fever, dizzy, appointment, and injection. It also included examples of role play. Fortunately, I didn’t have to come up with anything to say. I just used my personal experience.

This is the following role-play between my teaching mentor, George, and me (vocab words bolded as emphasized during role-play):

Me: Hello, is this the doctor’s office?
George: Yes, how may I help you?
Me: Well, for a week now I have had a runny nose and productive cough.
George: That sounds horrible. Have you been taking any medicine?
Me: Yes, I went to the doctor last week and she gave me allergy medication (true story).
George: Oh, well I don’t think you have allergies. It looks like you have a cold. I’m going to give you a prescription for cough medicine.
Me: Ok, thank-you doctor.
George: If you don’t feel better, give me a call.

Somehow, the allergy medicine and cough syrup got me out of my acute bronchitis. Thank the lord because I’m uninsured ;)

Complete Sentences

When the kids learn a new grammar rule, they must write examples in complete sentences (I’m sure we all remember doing this in our foreign language classes). Here are some of the sentences my students came up with:

For present perfect:
Toño is dizzy because he has drank five beers.

For using “must” to express certainty:
Hugo must wear a thong to school.

For noun clauses followed by phrases with the impersonal “it”
It is quite obvious that Beto is gay.

It’s a little more lax, to say the least, in Mexican classrooms.

Romeo y Julieta

A European couple is coming the first two weeks of November to produce “Romeo and Juliet” with the kids. For the month of October, an acting coach has been working with the kids to teach them acting skills and read through the script.

On Monday, auditions were held. The process was a bit different than I imagined it would go. First off, the teacher opened the floor to nominations for parts. Then, each nominee had to read off from the script to the cheers or boos from his or her fellow pequeños.

The acting coach seemed to give the part to the more talented actor. But then, when the last role was given, someone said that the girl who received Juliet had an “ugly voice and looked bad” with who was chosen to play Romeo.

Instead of standing her ground, the acting coach took the comment to heart, and gave the girl with the “prettier voice” a second chance. Supposedly, this time around, pretty-voice-girl read better. Maggie became stripped of her part and the short period of happiness in which she thought she was going to play Juliet disappeared.

Life at NPH is brutal.

Fail at Updating. Hereby promise to never leave you for this long again.

Sorry for the lapse in updating. I got a bit out of the flow of things due to crazy kids and acute bronchitis. I'm back though in full force.

I promise blog entries for the next consecutive seven days.

Brace yourself.