Professor Molina

I now have a much more powerful sense of respect for all teachers. I have always believed that teachers are a vital component of a civilization, but never would I have guessed at the stress and rigor that is maintaining and leading a classroom. The challenge of thinking up of courses that are rigorous but achievable, the quasi-impossible task of maintaining order in the room. All of these pile up to add to the difficulty of teaching. It also doesn't help that my students don't understand every other word I say. From this, It may seem that these past few days have been hell/hades/an abyss shredding a hole through the elemental chaos on earth, but in truth, they have been some of the most fulfilling days of my life.

The place that I'm working at is not exactly the most exciting of places: situated in an extremely rural part of China, there is little more than rice fields, a few very small villages, and streams, mountains and forests as far as the eye can see. As there is precious little to do here outside of school, in order to maintain our sanity the creation of a daily schedule was necessary. here it is for all of you:

7:30: Get up

8:00-8:30: Breakfast

8:30-8:50: Work group begins work

9:00-9:45: 1'st period

9:45-9:55: Break

9:55-10:40: 2'nd period

10:40-10:55: Break

10:55-11:40: 3'rd period

12:00-12:30: Lunch

12:30-2:30: Siesta

2:30-3:15: 4th Period

3:15-3:25: Break

3:25-4:10: 5th period

5:30-6:00: Supper

6:30: Lesson Planning

8:00: Rest + Group activities

10:30: Lights Out

You can see here the general gist of what goes on every day. The morning starts with breakfast, and is then divided into 3 periods with small breaks between each of them. Then we have lunch and have and extended "siesta", a time to rest and nap in preparation to the final two periods. Then we have dinner, rest a while longer, and finally go to bed. Seems simple, but hidden behind all of that are a bunch of little things we all like to do. First let me talk about the classes.

I was assigned to the oldest group of students, children aged 12-15. It would seem that, from their age, that they would have a pretty decent grasp of the English language. Unfortunately, their English is very basic in nature, and it is quite a challenge to find what exactly they need to learn. Fortunately, I am glad to say that my class is very hardworking and learns quickly, if it is a bit rowdy at times. Whatever we teach them, they will assimilate quite easily, so I'm confident we'll be able to make great advancements in their knowledge. Just today we taught them emotion vocabulary, and already they are capable of forming dialogue with it. I am very proud of them.

Life in the school is very different from anything else I have ever lived through. You may have noticed that the schedule references a "work group". You see, there are quite a number of chores that must be completed throughout the day: washing clothes, cleaning the dorms, mopping the 'shudder' bathrooms. So every day, a select group of volunteers must complete all of these chores, and the group changes from day to day. I was assigned chore duties on the first day, so I don't have to worry about that for quite some time. To pass the time, we do a lot of things in the school: we hang out in the dorms, talking about our classes and lesson plans. We read, play games, and if it's not too hot play badminton or basketball. A good number of volunteers, including myself, have actually started running in the morning: we wake up at around 6, get dressed and run for quite some time, until 7! It's a great way to stay fit.

Some things are still plenty hard to deal with, especially regarding our clothes: we have to but our clothes up to dry, but at night the wind can sometimes blow our stuff off the line. I've already lost a pair of socks that way. But I'm actually getting used to living here: I'm starting to be able to tolerate all the heat, and I'm sleeping comfortably at night. It's actually nice to clean up in the river, although if a breeze picks up it can get freezing. There are really only two things that I have yet to get used to: the smell and the food. It seems that almost every part of this area smells in some way like a very dirty toilet, and the stench can be crippling at times. The bathrooms smell like some ancient, dark god of pestilence perished in a primordial duel and built himself a tomb out of his once living flesh and feces, guarded my zealots and acolytes who cover the putrid walls with magical runes that force all ignorant traveler to puke themselves to death. In other words, pretty freaking bad! As for the food, I personally love Chinese food, but unfortunately, what they are giving us doesn't really feel nourishing. There's plenty of it, but very little protein and fats, almost all carbs, and none of it is really appetizing. I fear that, by the end of this trip, I will have lost a lot of weight I really cannot afford to lose.

Regardless, I really enjoying myself here, and I'm sure that it will continue to go well. Hopefully, I can grow accustomed to the meager foodstuff and smell, and wholly be able to be comfortable. That's it for today, see you all next time!

He who braved the black odor of the dark, stygian depths of the stalls.

Diego Molina