Risks,Rewards, and Serendipity

Nataghia has always said that I’m a good judge of character and that I can assess a situation with both speed and accuracy. Actually it is something that annoys her on those occasions when I tell her I’ve made judgment about someone or something she likes and I disagree. Nataghia’s day didn’t go any better than my first day and for the remainder of the week things never got any better. No supplies, no books, no students until fifteen minutes past the bell every morning. Changing schedules, very distracted and inattentive students and complete chaos seem to be the norm.

Actually by Thursday I was getting into the groove of things and was starting to get somewhat comfortable. On Friday I was having a great day teaching. The morning was pretty good and the afternoon was going even better. It felt like things were coming around and then at 1:15… BOOM DIGGITY, BOOM DIGGITY. The band starts practicing for a competition in Palmares right outside my classroom. I’ve got another one hour and twenty minutes to go with the grade one language and spelling class. So we’re dealing with it. Reading(SCREAMING) the words from the board and matching those that have the same sound. BOOM DIGGITY—UMBRELLA, BOOM DIGGITY—BUMP, BOOM DIGGITY—JUMP. The kids are having fun and so am I. I’m even shaking my butt to the beat as well. Then suddenly the Penguin appears. The Penguin is a teacher; the students have given her the moniker, she is very small, young, and serious. She knows how to control the kids by intimidating them, giving them seatwork, and of course notes and more notes. She stands next to me at the front of the class raises her hand in the air and counts off 1-2-3 with her fingers. The students stop and all eyes are on her. She looks at me and says pointing at the board, “Escribar.” I guess she was telling me I should be giving them notes while the band practices. Well, I go off! I tell her that the fact that the band is playing is not my problem, the student’s problem, and that the school band practice shouldn’t be interfering with my class and neither should she. She says that it is the choice of the Director and I tell her I’ll be speaking with the Director when I’m finished teaching. All of this was in Spanish and all yelling over the band. I’m sure I left some of the comments out but I think I’ve provided the general idea. We have officially given our notice at Sancti Spiritus. Nataghia’s last day is on Friday and I’m finished as of today.

Yes, it was a short lived experience. It wasn’t totally terrible; it was just not for us. As I had mentioned in previous entries, the school has everything a person could ask for. We were very hopeful that it would have what we were looking for. Ultimately I came to Costa Rica to teach. I wanted to be able to connect with a student without the usual encumbrances I might have as a principal. I wanted to use some of the teaching techniques I have written about in my Master’s program. I wanted to utilize some of the assessment tools I have learned about from my colleagues and attained from Pearson Education. What I didn’t come to Costa Rica for was to have anxiety and stress related illness. After Friday, and then arriving at work this Monday to more of the same nonsense as last week I was feeling terrible both physically and emotionally. We took the risk and gave a two week commitment to try it out and it took less than two weeks to play itself out.

The situation we are in affords us the luxury of being able to leave and start anew elsewhere. As it turns out we were at the Internet Café on Saturday afternoon posting the last blog and doing the e-mail thing. It was Nataghia’s turn on the computer and I was reading La Nacion, the national newspaper, looking for articles for my grade ten students to translate. I found one and I asked the owner of the café if I could tear out the article as it was from an older edition. He says of course you can. Then he asks me why I need it and I tell him that I’m a teacher. I was really glad to chat with the guy as he spoke great English and runs a great business. As we chat he tells me he has another job. Wouldn’t you know it he is the principal of Saint Patrick’s School a bi-lingual K-6 school that utilizes a Canadian based English curriculum. The school is located in Miquelito which is just outside of Puntarenas and about ten kilometers from Esparza. Of course the grade five/six English teacher has just left and they are stuck for a teacher. I went to the school yesterday and checked it out. Needless to say we’re being a little more cautious about committing to another school and the whole family is going to observe the school tomorrow. We will likely take the actual bus we would from our apartment and arrive to experience what a day would be like if we were to accept. Owen and Benjamin would be welcome to attend for free but there wouldn’t be a position for Nataghia until February. There is also a possibility that I may be able to teach English at the Internet Café in the evenings in the classroom they have upstairs. It seems to me like the opportunities related to teaching English here are countless for anyone who is a qualified teacher. I guess we’ll see what happens… manana ;-).

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