Crazy Day in El Salvador
I have been a bit crazy lately. It's normal in the Peace Corps. Life is seriously a roller coaster of a emotions. I can be in love here one minute, understanding how people want to do more than 2 years and then wondering the next why I am not in Austin thinking about a weekend on the lake. Nothing beats a rollercoaster like today:
I played BINGO with my English vocab this morning with my 9th graders. I read then workds in Spanish and they had to find them in English on their cards. They loved it! I haven't gotten them to love anything yet but man was it a hit. Maybe its bc they were all eager to win the prize (anything they wanted from the school store...all the winners chose gatorade). They even wanted to play during their break...a minor miracle if you knew these kids. Then, I bought a new marker bc mine are running a bit dry. I have been making guest appearances at random classes to teach "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes"- it's always a hit bc its interactive and they get to learn English--but anyways I put it down and when I came back it was gone...I seriously almost cried. I was really upset to have spent the money..they aren't cheap by Salve standards.
Then, this afternoon a kid fell through the roof. Yes, THROUGH the roof. He was apparently going to get a ball and failed to remember that the year before another student had fallen through that exact same roof, 5 feet to the left. He broke his arm in 2 places. I took pictures..not of him. I missed him. They told me he had been taken to the hospital. Only later, when I was eating dinner with my family, did one of the girls tell me that they took him to the equivalent of a witch doctor. I asked her why not a doctor and she said bc the doctors can't do anything about. Bc I am so crazy right now, I nearly lost it. Culturally, this is one of the harder things for me to accept. The fact that people still believe in going to non-medical professionals. I sat the girl down and forced her to listen to me while I said, "Doctors are ALWAYS the better choice. They have years of schooling. If you ever need anything, thats where you should go." Its scary to think that people think like that. Even some of the more educated people have crazy ideas about medical care...out-dated if you will. It's part education and part money. I totally understand but doesn't make it any easier to swallow. I just imagine this poor kid with his arm permanently damaged because some guy decided a "massage" was the best way to heal two bones sticking out of this kids arm.
Anyways, I'm home and tomorrow I will wake up and do it all over again. Crazy.
I played BINGO with my English vocab this morning with my 9th graders. I read then workds in Spanish and they had to find them in English on their cards. They loved it! I haven't gotten them to love anything yet but man was it a hit. Maybe its bc they were all eager to win the prize (anything they wanted from the school store...all the winners chose gatorade). They even wanted to play during their break...a minor miracle if you knew these kids. Then, I bought a new marker bc mine are running a bit dry. I have been making guest appearances at random classes to teach "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes"- it's always a hit bc its interactive and they get to learn English--but anyways I put it down and when I came back it was gone...I seriously almost cried. I was really upset to have spent the money..they aren't cheap by Salve standards.
Then, this afternoon a kid fell through the roof. Yes, THROUGH the roof. He was apparently going to get a ball and failed to remember that the year before another student had fallen through that exact same roof, 5 feet to the left. He broke his arm in 2 places. I took pictures..not of him. I missed him. They told me he had been taken to the hospital. Only later, when I was eating dinner with my family, did one of the girls tell me that they took him to the equivalent of a witch doctor. I asked her why not a doctor and she said bc the doctors can't do anything about. Bc I am so crazy right now, I nearly lost it. Culturally, this is one of the harder things for me to accept. The fact that people still believe in going to non-medical professionals. I sat the girl down and forced her to listen to me while I said, "Doctors are ALWAYS the better choice. They have years of schooling. If you ever need anything, thats where you should go." Its scary to think that people think like that. Even some of the more educated people have crazy ideas about medical care...out-dated if you will. It's part education and part money. I totally understand but doesn't make it any easier to swallow. I just imagine this poor kid with his arm permanently damaged because some guy decided a "massage" was the best way to heal two bones sticking out of this kids arm.
Anyways, I'm home and tomorrow I will wake up and do it all over again. Crazy.
Comments