Today was by far my toughest day of work so far. I started out with a pretty stressful morning. The bus driver told me yesterday that he would be at my stop to pick up me and 2 students at 8 AM. I was downstairs at 7:50 this morning and ended up waiting until 8:20. By 8:10 I knew that I most likely missed the bus…I just wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t seen the 2 other kids I usually see either. The bus pulled up eventually and the driver explained that he actually came by pretty early, around 7:45, but I wasn’t there. I’m glad he decided to come back though…even if it was really out of the way.
Today I taught the grade 7 boys first period. They were unusually rowdy today, but I have to say they’re my favorite kids. They’re absolutely adorable and are always so interested. I had second period off so I went down to the playground to go over some curriculum materials for the grade 6 boys and watch some kids play soccer for their gym class. They are quite entertaining running around in their bright orange mesh jerseys. You can definitely feel some ambition to make it to the World Cup up there…all complete with chants and high-fives and victory laps.
During the break I got to know another teacher who is actually related to me…small world. Her grandfather is my grandfather’s brother. I think that makes us relatives. Anyways, she’s only a few years older than me and it was pretty fun talking to someone that shares my blood but I have never seen in my life before. It’s always a really weird circumstance (oh, it’s happened several times this summer), but I definitely enjoyed it!
I taught the girls after the break. I’m usually good when it comes to patience but today was especially tough. There were a handful of girls that simply didn’t show up today and there were even more that weren’t paying attention. I feel like the biggest problem is that we’re only a few years apart so they feel like I’m more of a sister than a teacher. I know I’m no higher power, and I love them to death already…they’re such sweet, fun girls. But it’s been a little frustrating imposing some type of order in the classroom.
The kids taking summer school failed the subject during the school year. There’s a ton of explanations for why they failed—they came from really disadvantaged backgrounds and live literally in the slums. I imagine it’s a little hard to study when there’s no heater or air conditioning or when your parents aren’t especially encouraging you to focus on your education. Some students are orphans. Others have sisters who dropped out of school or college because they met a guy who is making sufficient money to support a family and so they found little use to invest in an education anyways. For this reason, I’m especially sympathetic to the girls. I don’t know, it just makes me so sad that this is a really common trend amongst a lot of the lower socioeconomic classes of Lebanon.
My last class was grade 6 boys. The grade 4 and 5 boys teacher didn’t show up for some reason, so I had to take her class too. So there were a bunch of really, really crazy kids. It was their last period of the day. I couldn’t teach the 6th grade curriculum to the 4/5 boys and the 6 grade boys started to look really bored and really chatty when I went back to the 4/5 curriculum. I don’t really know how I made it through the hour. It was really, really tough.
I went back downstairs to catch the bus, completely exhausted and not in the mood to really talk much. The girl who I met earlier today who’s related to me invited me to lunch, but I had to decline because I’m getting together with my dad this afternoon. It was a really kind gesture of her though and she really seemed like she wanted to get to know me. I’m always up to socializing with long-lost cousins.
I got on the bus with a stack of curriculum materials and sat in the very back with some of the girls who live in the same district. They are always hugging and kissing me…they make the entire day’s pain and exhaustion disappear in a flash. The gym teacher, Hussein, usually rides the bus with me too. Today he asked if I minded if he sat with me. I said no and we started talking. I found out that he too is an American, as in he holds an American passport, but he didn’t live in the US for very long. He studied French in school and he also just finished his first year of college at LIU, but is transferring to LAU in the fall, a much better university.
Alright, update. I’m writing this in the salon at my cousin’s house and we’re watching TV together. I was telling her all of this while I was writing and I found out that she actually knows him. Really, what a small world. I feel like all of Lebanon knows each other and won’t mind having coffee with a stranger because there’s a mutual friend in between, but will strain their lungs if the same person is in the way during rush hour.
My dad was right when he calls Lebanon an “odd country”.
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