The Jungle Continues....

So day two was a little bit better. I was one kid short, which gave me a room with two girls who speak too much English and two boys who don't speak enough. This is going to make group work extremely difficult as I have to execute everything in English and my rather rudimentary espanol. Seven years does not necessarily make you fluent and those Dominican accents are a killer. But I guess my greatest asset is also my greatest problem: the loud-mouthed combative girl who shows her ass at school because she's the oldest at home and most likely gets no attention at all. I know the drill as I came up with enough of these girls. Hair never gets done. Same clothes for multiple days. That kind of a thing. So it becomes this test of wills. Luckily for me I have a list full of parent's phone numbers. That's kind of like the nuclear detonator that nobody wants me to touch.
I've got 15 weeks and two days left of this detail. I know that in the scene of things that isn't a whole lot of time ( as you can subtract a good two weeks for holidays and Spring break alone). I thought that the other teacher and I would be working together but she seems content to stay as far away from me as possible unless we're talking before and after class. I get the sense that she's got other things going on and the job is a distraction she needs. She also doesn't come out of her classes looking like she went to war. Being a guy adds another strike against me as I would guess that so many of these girls have questionable interactions with males as is. With the boys it's even worse. There's this little shrimp of a kid that looks like her might've been great for the Rock Steady crew 30s years ago who's always trying me because I kick him out of my room as he's not in the program. I know time is supposed to heal all wounds but I'm hoping I don't wake up in a Season Four of The Wire style classroom. I know my kids are going to private school.
But maybe that's the problem too. As those of us who have good sense and went through the public system ourselves know how little is there, we take ours and our interests elsewhere and hence the schools become worse because even fewer folks are fighting for reform. The last teacher only last for a semester before she went off to do something else. As these are 6th graders they'll be moving on anyway but I guess after a revolving door of instructors and confidantes, the idea for them is to dump you before you dump them. My Mom's stayed for her whole life and it's taken it's toll. She doesn't know how much respect I have for her because of that. But I know I ain't her.
I'm back to my sun salutations and pushups this week, which is making my midsection sore as hell. But there's a tranquility that comes with that 30 minutes at the beginning of each day that I can't deny, a sense of balance that makes all else I need to do somewhat easier. I'm reading this book called Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett and one of the main characters, a Thai Buddhist cop, says that the best way to unwind in Thailand is sleep. Boy do I miss the days when I closed my eyes and eight hours would pass so smoothly instead of the five to six and a half I've been getting lately. My latest imaginary vacation is to the rainforests in Puerto Rico and the highlands in the DR. I'm seeing myself up there is a backpack, bug repellent and a book, taking in the view and photographing beautiful bodies in natural poses. I am craving paella and a good beer, yellow sun and golden thighs. One day. One day.