Well that’s it, school is over and I'm
pleased to say that we have had nine months of quiet, attentive, well behaved
children... well... not quite but that would have been very boring indeed!
School has been... challenging, rewarding and
pretty hilarious. These are some of the odd, bizarre and crazy things that have
happened over the past nine months:
Rain
reaction
Dominicans don't like rain. Full stop. When
ever it rains the ladies take their plastic bags out to cover their hair and
head for the nearest shelter. We experienced this early on when we went out for
a teacher’s meal in the park in Barahona. We ordered pizza and sat by the sea.
It started raining, well drizzling, pretty much as the pizza box was opened. As
soon as the first dark spot hit the cardboard there was a rustle of plastic and
almost every lady had wrapped their hair up in a plastic bag. We spent the next
three hours sitting in the rain surrounded by large, loud plastic bag-clad
Dominican ladies eating pizza and ice cream by the sea. Welcome to the Dominican Republic
So, if this is the example being set it is
no wonder that the kids take a hissy fit when ever it rains during school.
If it rains in the morning then there are
no classes which, if that was the case in Scotland
If
it rains during classes then they refuse to walk the three seconds in takes
them to get to Art without an umbrella or don’t turn up at all.
If it rains at the end of the day then
classes finish early and they are all sent home. This is always the most
dramatic. First there are the shouts of 'PROFE ESTA LLUVIENDO!!!' ('TEACHER, IT’S
RAINING') then the frantic sound of scraping chairs and the panicked shouts
from the teachers (as they strap the ever ready plastic bag to their head)
'CORRE, CORRE, DEJAN SUS MOCHILLAS, CORRE!' ('RUN, RUN, LEAVE YOUR BAGS JUST
RUN') anyone would think someone was being murdered! Then the screams of
delight and splashing of feet as the herds run home.
Creepy
crawlies
We haven’t encountered too many nasty
insects or snakes while we’ve been here, alive anyway. The kids soon deal with
the odd monster cockroach that appears in Artistica (not before running round
the class with its antennae clasped between two pinched fingers) and there have
been a few occasions where there has been a disembodied tarantula left in a
corner during fila in the morning. However the crowning glory has to be the
meter and a half long snake that turned up during break time one Wednesday. Unfortunately
the snake didn’t last long but it meant an extended break while the crowds were
dispersed and the snake removed from school.
Photos
Man, do they looove photos. It was Ruber’s
birthday (the head master) and to celebrate he wanted a picture with every
class which meant Ruth traipsing about school with him while he took each class outside individually to
have a picture taken with him regardless of what they were doing. Seventh
grade, for example, were in the middle of a national exam when his little
smiling face poked round the door frame and demanded that everyone go into the
playground to have a photo with him because 'es un día muy especial' ('its a
very special day'). The kids were delighted as you would imagine, especially
those who stayed in the classroom looking at everyone else's answers!
Maintenance
staff
The janitors and cleaning staff made us
laugh on a daily basis if only for their complete reluctance to do any work! On
more than one occasion we would walk round the side of the library to find the
janitor lying flat out on the wall being given a foot massage by a cleaner who
at the same time was screeching (Dominicans do an excellent line in screeching)
at a child to stop what ever naughtiness they were doing. This is the self same
janitor who, when the fifth grade teacher forgot her keys jumped on a motorbike
and drove the ten second walk to her classroom from the office to open the
door.
Kids
arriving at school
No early morning child minders or parents
walking herds of kids to school here regardless of whether they are in
perprimario (4 year olds) or eighth grade, all the kids make their own way to
and from school. Every school day there are little groups of four year olds
trotting along in their blue shirts and cream dresses or trousers, fifth
graders rocking up on dodgy, well loved, brakeless push bikes and seventh and
eighth graders zooming up on knackered passed down motorbikes. If they can’t get
to or from school on foot or by bike then they catch a 'bola' which is basically
hitching a lift on the side of the road. Kids ride to school squeezed into open
trucks filled with plantains or plastic chairs, or cram them selves five to a
motorbike. Health and safety isn’t really a concern here.
School has been pretty brilliant and I will
miss all the gorgeous, amazing kids so much, they are all fantastic!
