Bummed-Better

So today is a really bummy day. Many reasons, but none I feel like writing about. So, I'll be real. I'm exhausted from the weekend and that's a bad way to start the week when I don't have time to catch up on sleep. Anyway, I'm in a John Denver melancholy mood, I've got it going on my ipod. Yesterday was a blast Dixie Chicks really loud day and sing at the top of my lungs in the shower.
So, qué pasa? This morning I had to go buy a new cellphone because mine broke again. Second time, it just stops working. And then I have to go to Orange and wait in a line like one you find at the DMV. This is the second time, and they should just give me a new phone. But, because this makes sense-I have to wait until it happens three times until they'll give me a new phone. GREAT. I'm not waiting, so I went and bought a whole new phone. Whatever. The lady almost didn't sell it to me bc she knew I wasn't going to use the new number.
What else, this weekend I went dancing Friday night, it was ok. I learned how to dance Salsa in Mexico last summer, and it's really fun. But here, I've heard that when a Salsa song comes on, all the Dominicans clear off the floor because they think it's so hard. I asked a guy that came with our friends if he knew how to dance Salsa, he said yes. He did NOT. We looked like a couple of idiots out on the floor. Then I tried dancing it with this other guy. He might as well have been dancing a totally different dance, not the Salsa I know. So, by the end of the dance he asked me if I learned Salsa in Nicaragua. I replied, no, in Mexico. Then he understood. You know a guy has decided that you don't know how to dance (the steps) when he decides to spin you for the whole song. Which, I prefer and it's more fun anyway, so woohoo!
Then Saturday I finished up homework and spent the day at Orange trying to get them to give me a new phone, which as you know, they did not. Saturday night I went to San Pedro and stayed till late Sunday. It was fun. This weekend is whale watching and next I'm hoping to go to S.P. again and see all the old friends, I still haven't gotten to do that!!
So onto better times. Last night I was really bummed and needed to make a call. I walked to a call center where you pay by the minute. It was closed! You can only laugh at the DR when you're that down and it makes you downer. But, the security guard befriended me. He went and bought me juice and a phone card and gave me his cell phone to use. He was so nice, and cheered me up. He's in his forties or fifties, so don't worry he wasn't some young dude hitting on me. He has the outlook of Papito, happy-go-lucky and just wanted to help and make a friend. So, I consider him my first real Dominican friend. Thanks!
So, at my internship I go every Monday and Friday morning for two hours and it takes an hour to get there. I've been waiting for them to tell me what to do, or give me direction. But, no. So, yesterday I showed my americanness that I've been suppressing and I took over. I asked for my group of boys to stay after class before they could go get their snacks. I sat them down and asked for silence (which is relative in this country, and something you never experience. They were quietER, which is all I can ask for). I told them I came here to teach them, my age, what I study and have studied, and that I WANT to be here. I asked them if they wanted to learn how to read and write. Some said yes very enthusiastically, which was encouraging. Then I just kept talking about respect and how I wanted to be their friend, but I was also going to be their teacher. yaydada, I babbled in an unprepared speech in Spanish. At least I'm not shy or scared, well I wouldn't be doing anything that I'm doing if I was. So, basically, things are going to be different from now on there, and I'm taking control. And I asked for another classroom to teach them in bc at this point we've got two groups of really rowdy boys in one room. That doesn't work.
How is it that my first real teaching experience is in Spanish, and teaching illiterate boys how to read when I don't know the first thing about that? I guess I like challenges? Nothing I do is ever easy. And I'm here for a reason, there's always a reason. To look at the big picture, this something so huge. And bigger than me. Teaching someone how to read? Even if I only get one boy to read, or none, and just lay the foundation, even that is something that they don't have. These boys can't even write their names or the date. Celia Whitler sings a song called "Great Love." It goes, "We can do no great thing alone, we can only do small things with great love. The truth is all of us are helpless, without heaven above, giving us the strength to do small things, with great love." So, bring on those crazy boys, and I pray for strength and wisdom in how to reach them.
I cannot thank all of you enough for your e-mails and calls. And memories that we share, because you can bet I have a lot of time to think on my public car rides. And although I'm enjoying myself here, many thoughts fly home to you: all the people I love and miss.