Well I made it through my first month of service – now just 23 to go. Hah. Holland has been an interesting place to work (albeit only sort of in my area of interest). The people are all very attentive, and they all respect my opinion (sometimes maybe too much?). The one qualm I have with the situation here is that 90% of the day I am left to my own devices while the guidance counselors are teaching their classes. This means a lot of down time or more so, a lot of busy work. The guidance program we (I) wrote was submitted to the ministry of education on wednesday, and we are praying for good things. Oh look, I said praying. This culture is taking a toll on me. We are hoping for good things.
As the school year moves forward, I have started arriving at Holland closer and closer to 7:55. During the first week, I was arriving here at 7:30 or earlier, and since then I have pushed it back. Or rather, pushed the snooze button on my phone alarm more and more times. This means that as opposed to leaving my house a little after 7:00, I am leaving more generally around 7:20. And what a difference that time makes. When leaving at 7:00, I don’t ever really see anyone on the walk from my house to the main road. When I leave at 7:20, I consistently see two pre-teen kids taking bucket baths outside right next to the road I walk down. And just to clarify, they are completely butt-naked. Like, wiener flopping about and such. Incidentally, these are the same kids that I go running with, and the same ones who followed me that day back in July. And they aren’t shy either. The little boy and little girl both scream, “Hi Tom!” as I walk by, and I say something like “Morning, morning!” (I have deduced that this is an acceptable thing to say, though I feel silly saying it). I try to avert my eyes, but really? I guess that is just a culture thing – people aren’t that worried about public exposure.
After I got dropped off in Martha Brae (near my school) this morning, I was (thankfully) given a ride down the dirt road to my school. I have a feeling like my shoes (the loafers I wore a lot in the snow at Williams) aren’t going to last much longer. Anyways, while I was mid-ride to the school, “We are the Champions” came on the radio. But Queen wasn’t performing it. Imagine a reggae remix. Now imagine putting one of those irritating, never-ending base lines on it. Think Collie Buddz style – B flat, B flat, B flat, B flat… repeats till infinity. It was comical. They do a lot of that sort of thing here – the best ones are the Celine Dion-esque remixes with gunshot sounds or laser noises in the background of an otherwise powerful and heartfelt mid-90’s ballad.
The past two Thursdays, I have been privy to a ‘Welcome Ceremony’ in my honor and a PTA meeting at which I was a guest speaker. The former was awesome. Essentially, the faculty at Holland hazed me by making me run around campus looking for things. But it gets worse. They made me try to do Jamaican dancing (Nuh Linga! Except not Nuh Linga). I had to try the Gully Creeper. I should have done some daggarin’. Well, o.k. the food was amazing. Eskovich fish, curry chicken, ackee and saltfish, mackerel rundown, bammy, yam, rice and peas. I think that was the meal. It was awesome. The PTA meeting was a little less interesting, but full of interesting lessons to learn about Jamaican parents. One parent complained that the lines her child were told to write were too much, and that the teachers should implement punishments that the children want to perform. I don’t think she really got the point. That one started a huge debate over what is an effective and what is an ineffective form of punishment. General conclusion? Don’t hit kids, but lines are fair game.
So yeah. I have started MCAT studying -- that consumes a fair chunk of my time and will until the end of March. I am also trying to buy a guitar here, but the task has proven difficult. Yeah. Mood goes up and down these days, but the chill idea of Jordan and Will visiting sometime early in 2009 is a good cheer-me-up. It would be plain out silly.
Sort of spacing out this morning so not that much more to report. Happy weekend! Oh, I am writing this from an internet connection in my office. Very very cool. Though I won't really have it for too long. Not so cool.
-TG
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