Stepping Out of the Boat

All you teachers who are reading this blog - heed these words!!!! Appreciate the supplies you have at school no matter how meager they are! After today, Edgewood Junior High's supply closet is looking pretty good.
John is pictured here holding the standard supply issue for teachers at St. Michael's. We each received them today at school wrapped in a black and clear striped plastic bag - taped shut. The contents of the bag follow:
one box of chalk
one legal pad
one roll of masking tape
three cheap-o pens (black, blue, red)
We never knew how good we had it in B-town. We also found out today that I (Claire) do not have a classroom, but I have to travel between different classrooms, none of which are my own, to teach my classes. That was quite a disappointment for me, but I'll have to learn to live with it. John has his own classroom, so depending on our schedules, I may spend what prep time I have in his classroom.

Today, we also found out that we have a TON of work to do. Teachers in the USA have it so easy!! We have to make a curriculum map of our whole year before school even starts, and then we have to make very specific "Unit Plans" (in a particular complicated format) to cover all the time in the first quarter. Then, we have to turn in weekly lesson plans to the head of our department. WOW!!! We're going to be working our tails off.


Our biggest adventure today consisted of trying to get another jug of water. We were almost out of water today, and we decided we needed to figure out how to get more since the weekend is on its way and we'll be on our own. This picture to the right was taken just after we successfully ordered a jug of water over the phone in Spanish, directed it to be delivered to our apartment, paid for it, etc. It sounds like such an easy process, but let me tell you that talking on the phone in another language is NOT EASY!! It's especially difficult when the person on the other end is asking questions rapid fire in Spanish. That's when all my Spanish vocabulary must exit my brain through my ears post haste. We didn't have any idea if it would actually arrive because after I hung up the phone, thinking I had ordered successfully, the guy from the store called back and started the rapid fire questioning. I think he didn't know what street I was referring to - so I said our street name and then I think I said that it is near St. Michael's School. Then, the guy on the other end promptly hung up on me. Ten minutes later, there was a guy knocking on the door.
One jug costs 50 pesos (about $1.50 US), but we only had 1000 peso bills. That's the reason I'm holding money in the picture. That's our change. It was not easy to get. The guy who delivered the water was very nice, and I think he was trying to teach us how to live here. He gave me the change and asked me to count it, showing me that I should always count change when it's handed to me. He asked me how much it was, and that's when all my knowlege of numbers above 30 in Spanish exited through my ears. I had no idea how to say nine hundred and fifty. We ended up laughing a lot, he taught me how to say it, and I now know that I need a quick review on numbers. By the end of the ordeal, we found out that the water guy knew the teacher (Mike) who used to live in the apartment next door to us, and we informed him that Mike had gone and been replaced by two "muchachas de los Estados Unidos" (two girls from the US) which is not entirely true, but I didn't know how to say Canada in Spanish. I hope we see the water guy next time we order water. He was very personable.


This is a picture of our nightly visitor who likes to sit on the ceiling while we try to relax by doing "normal" things like watching TV and playing cards. We wonder what would happen if he lost his grip and landed on our heads.

PS Mom Roth, we found a Swiss Fondu restaraunt here in Santo Domingo, and it's close by! We'll have to give it a try.