Stepping Out of the Boat

What a farce school is! It's unbelievable what happens here during "Navidad," which literally means Christmas. Here, "Navidad" means the months of December and January. Everyone slacks off to the utmost. It's kind of frustrating when we are expected to get things done, but what can we do but roll with the punches?

This afternoon, I (Claire) had seven kids in my class.... and they all happened to be boys. Several students in the morning told me that they came to school today just for my class. Tomorrow is the last day before break, and one of my classes told me that NONE of them are coming to school tomorrow.

It doesn't help that tonight, there is a BIG EVENT: Shakira has come to Santo Domingo and is putting on a concert tonight at the baseball stadium. The concert will most likely go late into the night, and since fun wins hands down when it's up against education, everyone is using the concert as a great excuse not to come to school tomorrow. Everyone and their mother is going - including John. He just left. He has a ticket in the section where everyone stands and smashes up against each other to get closer to the stage - not my cup of tea. Expect a post on the crazy concert later.

So - you teachers back in Indiana whose principals think it's not good to show a movie on the last day of school before break because school time needs to be used for education, thank your lucky stars. We've been doing everything but educating for the past week and a half - really ever since the month of December started. How I long for the way we do school at home...