un dia loco

ok, so today wasn't so much crazy as it was completely random. today is tuesday, so it's a day i'm in pancho mateo all day. i begin with kids english classes and library time in the morning, and then adult english classes in the afternoon.

i arrived in pancho mateo this morning and went in search of my students. when i greeted them they said, "vengo ahora," which means they'll be there anywhere between now and 30 minutes from now. for them it usually means in about 5-10 minutes. but they never showed up. in an effort to teach them responsibility and not continually look for them, i sat and waited.

one girl finally showed up and asked if we were having class. i said yes, if the other students arrive, but first we need to clean the escuelita (it was unusually messy today). without an ounce of resistance, she began sweeping. later her sister showed up and began helping. a little bit after that, another girl showed up and also began helping. they continued cleaning for a long, long time. they threw out tons of trash, moved the benches to be able to sweep and mop near the walls and in the corners, and even cleaned up all the trash and leaves in the front yard. during this time, none of my other regular students had come for class. when it was all said and done, these 3 girls (plus a few other kids who stopped by sporadically) took 2 hours to thoroughly sweep, mop and clean out the trash of the escuelita. i don't know if it's ever been this clean. it's almost sparkling clean, if that's possible.

as a reward, i allowed them to take some old magazines that had been left in the school, as well as let them color during library time, while others were only allowed to read (not that reading is a bad thing!).

and then this afternoon we had a "special" visitor to my last adult English class. his name is Chino and he's probably in his late 50's or 60's. i've never seen him sober or without a bottle of rum in his hands. he proceeded to hit on every girl in the class (me, cristina [camille's aid] and elisa, who is about 14) while also keeping us from starting on time. since we were sitting outside on the porch, cristina was able to lean over to peak through the bushes at Nani, who lives across the road from the escuelita, and yell, "Nani, ayudanos!" "Nani, help us!" Nani saved the day by coming over and running Chino out of the schoolyard. but this did not happen before everybody got quite a good laugh at this poor, alcoholic man.

it's always an adventure in la republica dominicana.