Tuesday, September 05, 2006
The Perpetual Headache
Livning here - teaching school here - is like a perpetual headache. I've known some people, Becky Hillenburg being one, who have lived with actual headaches that never go away. Those people must simply get used to having a headache, and in time, they most likely forget what it's like to feel healthy and normal. That's precisely how it is living and working here.
We thought we were getting the hang of living - and we are - but we were without water AGAIN yesterday and today. That means this morning we went to school dirty - YUCK!! Let me tell all you people who live in the USA: going a day without a shower here in the Caribbean is an entirely different thing than doing the same thing in the USA. In a previous post, I covered the issue of the thin layer of grime that covers everything here. On a human body, the grime is mixed with sweat - lots of sweat. I won't say more other than that a.m. and p.m. showers are absolutely necessary. Without water, we also could not flush the toilet for over 20 hours, and stuff gets really nasty really fast in this humidity.
As far as we're concerned, living here is not so bad. We've got a handle on the laundry, choosing groceries according to their weight and size, walking everywhere we go, calling the Colmado (little corner store) to ask for water in Spanish, sweeping and mopping every three days, making deals with taxi drivers BEFORE we get in the cab, etc. But school is a completely different story. We cannot begin to tell all of you teachers who read this blog how lucky you are.
At St. Michael's, all the copying is outsourced because there is no copy machine in the school. You must have your copies ready to go at least two days before you need the copies. If you decide to do something last minute - oh wait, you can't change your plans at the last minute, or even the day before. Simply having the copies ready to go two days ahead of time wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for this detail: everyone has to have their copy requests (the forms are in Spanish only by the way) signed by their supervisors. So, what ends up happening is that during the 45 minute prep period, you have to - if you're very lucky- find one of the five computers for the 55 teachers free in order to print the thing you need to copy. Then, fill out the copy request form that is entirely in Spanish. This is the part that is the biggest pain: you have to find your supervisor and have him or her sign your request form. We have both wasted large quantities of time wandering around the school trying to find our supervisors so that our copies can get out on time. WOW! All of you teachers who have copy machines at your fingertips, be thankful!
When it rains, it pours, literally. Today is Tuesday, and both yesterday and today, right when the clock struck 3:00, the sky opened up and it poured. Yesterday, we hung around for about ten extra minutes, and then ran home in the downpour. We were drenched when we got home. Today, it also began to pour at 3:00. Luckily, though, it stopped before we lost our patience. All evening and afternoon, it poured on and off. When it rains, the stairs in our apartment building become a bubbling brook. Alright, I'm exaggerating slightly, but basically, the water pours in from the roof and runs down the stairs all the way down to the first floor. Needless to say, the stairs become incredibly slippery.
We had a conversation today about how this is the hardest thing we've ever done, and when it's all said and done, we will be quite sad to leave. We know all of this inconvenience and the perpetual headache will make us into better people.
On a happy note, we LOVE the weekends here. In fact, we're planning a visit to an all-inclusive resort for John's birthday weekend. Woohoo! We'll take a four hour bus ride over the mountains in the middle of the island up to the North coast for two days.
We thought we were getting the hang of living - and we are - but we were without water AGAIN yesterday and today. That means this morning we went to school dirty - YUCK!! Let me tell all you people who live in the USA: going a day without a shower here in the Caribbean is an entirely different thing than doing the same thing in the USA. In a previous post, I covered the issue of the thin layer of grime that covers everything here. On a human body, the grime is mixed with sweat - lots of sweat. I won't say more other than that a.m. and p.m. showers are absolutely necessary. Without water, we also could not flush the toilet for over 20 hours, and stuff gets really nasty really fast in this humidity.
As far as we're concerned, living here is not so bad. We've got a handle on the laundry, choosing groceries according to their weight and size, walking everywhere we go, calling the Colmado (little corner store) to ask for water in Spanish, sweeping and mopping every three days, making deals with taxi drivers BEFORE we get in the cab, etc. But school is a completely different story. We cannot begin to tell all of you teachers who read this blog how lucky you are.
At St. Michael's, all the copying is outsourced because there is no copy machine in the school. You must have your copies ready to go at least two days before you need the copies. If you decide to do something last minute - oh wait, you can't change your plans at the last minute, or even the day before. Simply having the copies ready to go two days ahead of time wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for this detail: everyone has to have their copy requests (the forms are in Spanish only by the way) signed by their supervisors. So, what ends up happening is that during the 45 minute prep period, you have to - if you're very lucky- find one of the five computers for the 55 teachers free in order to print the thing you need to copy. Then, fill out the copy request form that is entirely in Spanish. This is the part that is the biggest pain: you have to find your supervisor and have him or her sign your request form. We have both wasted large quantities of time wandering around the school trying to find our supervisors so that our copies can get out on time. WOW! All of you teachers who have copy machines at your fingertips, be thankful!
When it rains, it pours, literally. Today is Tuesday, and both yesterday and today, right when the clock struck 3:00, the sky opened up and it poured. Yesterday, we hung around for about ten extra minutes, and then ran home in the downpour. We were drenched when we got home. Today, it also began to pour at 3:00. Luckily, though, it stopped before we lost our patience. All evening and afternoon, it poured on and off. When it rains, the stairs in our apartment building become a bubbling brook. Alright, I'm exaggerating slightly, but basically, the water pours in from the roof and runs down the stairs all the way down to the first floor. Needless to say, the stairs become incredibly slippery.
We had a conversation today about how this is the hardest thing we've ever done, and when it's all said and done, we will be quite sad to leave. We know all of this inconvenience and the perpetual headache will make us into better people.
On a happy note, we LOVE the weekends here. In fact, we're planning a visit to an all-inclusive resort for John's birthday weekend. Woohoo! We'll take a four hour bus ride over the mountains in the middle of the island up to the North coast for two days.
// posted by The Roths @ 7:15 PM 
Comments:
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John and Claire,
Yep, you're being stretched way outside of your comfort zone, but think of all the neat details and descriptions, including interesting characters, that you can include in your novel!
Love,
momp
Yep, you're being stretched way outside of your comfort zone, but think of all the neat details and descriptions, including interesting characters, that you can include in your novel!
Love,
momp
# posted by 
: 10:47 PM, September 05, 2006
: 10:47 PM, September 05, 2006
John and Claire,
This is Beverly, your mother's office mate.
All this sounds so familiar after my many years living in the tropics. You need to get out and buy yourselves not one but two large plastic garbage cans and find a place to put one in your kitchen and one in your bathroom.
Fill these with water when you have a chance and use that water when you don't have running water. Keep a bucket in your bathroom to dip the water out for pouring into the toilet.
This bucket is also useful when you are sick to death of cold baths. You can heat a small pan of water and pour it into half a bucket of the cold water. You can then dip this water out with a drinking glass and pour it over yourself while standing in the shower. It will never be the same as a real shower, but at least your skin will feel clean again when you are finished.
One caution. I strongly suggest that you never use more than half the water you have at the beginning of a day. There may be times when you actually pass more than one day without water. When these times happened, we used to leave the trashcans under the shower and turn it on full force so that we would be awakened in the middle of the night when the water arrived. Then we could race around filling up kitchen pots and pans, too.
It's shocking to realize that what to us is the hardest thing we've had to live through is just the normal way of life for more than half the world. This experience is a real eye-opener for you.
Good luck!
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This is Beverly, your mother's office mate.
All this sounds so familiar after my many years living in the tropics. You need to get out and buy yourselves not one but two large plastic garbage cans and find a place to put one in your kitchen and one in your bathroom.
Fill these with water when you have a chance and use that water when you don't have running water. Keep a bucket in your bathroom to dip the water out for pouring into the toilet.
This bucket is also useful when you are sick to death of cold baths. You can heat a small pan of water and pour it into half a bucket of the cold water. You can then dip this water out with a drinking glass and pour it over yourself while standing in the shower. It will never be the same as a real shower, but at least your skin will feel clean again when you are finished.
One caution. I strongly suggest that you never use more than half the water you have at the beginning of a day. There may be times when you actually pass more than one day without water. When these times happened, we used to leave the trashcans under the shower and turn it on full force so that we would be awakened in the middle of the night when the water arrived. Then we could race around filling up kitchen pots and pans, too.
It's shocking to realize that what to us is the hardest thing we've had to live through is just the normal way of life for more than half the world. This experience is a real eye-opener for you.
Good luck!
# posted by : 12:38 PM, September 09, 2006
: 12:38 PM, September 09, 2006 << Home
