Curry first:
A word on eating the same thing for breakfast and dinner every single day . . . its not as bad as i thought. Given my twice daily rice, lentil soup, and curried vegetables, i am learning to appreciate the smaller things about a meal that make it savory and delicious. The excitement of my days has now turned to questions such as:
Is there pickle (kind of like a spicy chili sauce made with tomatoes) at this meal?
Is it chicken curry night?
Is it spinach curry this morning?
Is it bean curry this morning?
yea its pretty pathetic, but i am really starting to identify with the truth of not having the concept of always eating different things if that was not how you were brought up. A few weeks ago Richard, another volunteer, made a curry for the kids and although i thought it was delicious, half of the kids didn't eat it because although it was "good" . . . it wasn't "right" . . . whatever that means. God knows what would happen if we took them to America and had them eating every ethnicity of food all the time like we do.
Schoool:
yesterday when i went to pick the kids up from school the principal saw me and asked me if i would come to school today, and after i realized i had absolutely NO plans i said surely. I was kind of prepared from what previous volunteers had told me: you are put in a room with the kids with no teacher . .. BAM teach them english. The principal likes the volunteers to converse with the students to have them practice . . . only one problem . . . NONE OF THEM TALK . . . it was painstaking, torturous,
okay i kind of didnt have anything prepared, so it was kind of my fault, but i just dont know how much i can plainly "converse" with students with no sort of lesson plan, i really wish i could teach whatever the kids were learning in school, which would be so much easier. With the older kids i tried doing an overview of how research works and why we should test drugs on animals like rats and monkeys rather than ants and butterflies, but that took all of 5 minutes, and in my teacherly panic, i ended up playing hangman during the last 10 minutes of class . . . i find myself typing the word "whoops" a lot on this blog.
im going to go back tomorrow with more of a plan, and see what happens, but i duno i don't think i can keep up this "just have a conversation" kind of teaching without actually getting across any material that is on their exams or will help them. gaah.
SUBASH, the 5 year old, keeps pissing the damn bed, and im tired of it. Every morning we have to find clean clothes for him (he has none), put his sleeping bag outside to dry (and yes i said dry, not wash), and i have to shower him (and that has now changed from hot showers to cold showers, as punishment). I would feel kind of bad for the kid under normal circumstances, BUT. . . and this is a big BUT . . . almost everyone in the house is convinced that the reason he pees himself is because he is TOO GOD DAMN LAZY TO GET OUT OF BED DURING THE NIGHT AND USE THE PEE BUCKET THAT IS RIGHT NEXT TO HIS BED. We were told that when there are no volunteers here (aka no one to shower him, wash his clothes, and pamper him), he doesnt pee the bed, and that he didnt pee the bed before he came to the house here. WTF? Who is that lazy??? It doesnt help that he happens to be the most adorable, cutest kid there, but i just cant let that win me over anymore, please post ideas as comments if you know what to do!!!!!!! I feel aweful for the four other boys that sleep in the room that smells like a urinal minus that wonderfully smelling urinal cake.
Next week going on a 3ish day trek with views of Mount Everest!!!!!!!!
okay before you get too excited, i get to see the TOP of mount everest IF its clear out :) . . . i could have done a 14 day trek to basecamp, but i decided against it.
thats all for now
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Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI Read your latest posting "Curry & School" and not only sense some of you frustrations but can empathize with those frustrations over which you have little or no control. I applaud you for those issues over which you have learned to exercise personal control; all part of the character building that you've come to grip with through this real life experience. As for 5 year old Subash and his infectious smile, I don't have a solution to the problem only a suggestion, since I don't know how much of the situation is emotional or
physical. In place of "punishment" maybe a you can develop a system of "reward" for not peeing in the bed, and maybe over time things will change for the better. Like in school, children are given a "STAR" when they do well or perform well. Worth a try if you can think of something that is IMPORTANT to him so as to cause him to change.
In terms of teaching, in Honduras we played a whole bunch of games: "don't be the last one to touch the ", name random things (corner, floor, ear) and have them touch it either as a race or Simon says, pictionary, etc.
ReplyDeleteSubash needs some pavlovian conditioning--combined reward and punishment--the closer to the event, the better. also, sometime behavior like that is for attention, so give him attention outside of the issue. And if you have him make goals and tell everyone that he'll achieve them, it will also be more likely to work.
<3 and good luck!!!
lol @Subash. Tell him he gets 1 point for using the bucket between an hour before bed and an hour after waking up. 5 points gets him a prize. Wetting the bed loses 3 points.
ReplyDeleteOr tell him evil spirits come to those who pee where they sleep. Then make sounds at night to scare him! warning: this could leave a mental scar.