Don't go too far
A phosphorescent wave on a tropical sea is a cold fire
Don't cross the line
The pattern of moonlight on the bedroom floor is a cold fire
Have you ever heard a horse fart? Well, I did for the first time last week.
I was peacefully walking to my house with some eggs in my hand and there was a horse about 150 feet away. I saw it sit down, and then it let out such a rip-roaring fart that several of the neighbors also heard it and began to squeal with laughter. That horse didn't just fart once. It let out a whole series of warple juicies. And they were loud! I mean, here I was a full 150 feet away and I heard it loud and clear. O.K., you're probably disgusted, so I'll change the subject.
I've been teaching at the local high school and elementary school. I teach English 4 hours a week at the high school, and computers 4 hours a week at the elementary school.
The high school is huge. There are forty students in the entire school. I teach English to the 10th graders. There are five of them. It is like a private school because there are so few students. A lot of students in the village travel 45 minutes to the county capital to study. They are crammed with up to 40 students per classroom. Supposedly the education is better in the county capital, but every time I walk by those high schools in the capital all I hear is total chaos.
Of course the high school I teach at isn't exactly your Harvard prep school. In fact, the education is questionable there because school is only in session an average of about 3 days a week, and they nearly always let the students out early. The reasons for all of this are any of the following: the teachers often have meetings, there is some holiday however obscure it might be (National Cow-Milking Day, for example), they'll hold a "minga" (a community clean-up project), some of the teachers won't show up for work cuz they're out getting drunk or at the whorehouse, the teachers have to go to the bank to pick up their monthly salary (all $240 of it!), there's some sports competetion, one of the student's relatives will die so the entire student body will go to the funeral, there's no electricity that day, there's no water that day, or whatever other excuse to call off classes for the day. I can't tell you how many times I've been told by the Principal not to teach English that day cuz classes were cancelled.
At least the high school students can focus on class when they do have it. The elementary school students are an entirely different bunch. I have around 50 students I give computer class to. There are only 4 computers, so I have to split them up into groups of 4 per computer. Some of the kids are on top of things and understand my computer class. But there are a lot of kids that come to class and look so hungry that they just can't focus.
A couple of them are real scrawny and pale, and work really slow. I suspect they're not getting the proper nutrition at home.
Speaking of food, my "payment" for teaching at the elementary school is a free lunch with the teachers. I never told them they have to give me anything, considering I'm a Peace Corps volunteer, but they insist on giving me lunch. Luckily we eat lunch in a private room where all the hungry kids can't see us.
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