June, 29th, 2011

June 29th, 2011


Yesterday we spent most of the day cutting down trees with machetes. It was interesting. I think people here would benefit from a lot from a chain saw, but thats just me. We had to cut them down so we could have enough room to run the barb wire along a certain section of the fence. These trees were no ordinary trees though. I’m not sure what they are scientifically called, but I am calling them glue trees because they literally oozed this glue like substance every time you cut the bark. This white stuff turned out to be pretty dangerous to deal with. Not only was it sticky and annoying, but also could make you go blind if you got it in your eye. Not something I’m really down to experience. Sunglasses here not only make you look cool, but they double as safety goggles as well, so that’s what we used. Luckily the stuff only stuck to your skin. It only provided a burning sensation if it got in your eyes or you ingested it. And of course, Bryan wanted to try it because everyone told us not to. He took a little drop and placed it on his tongue. Apparently it was identical tasting to Elmer’s Glue but it also provided the spicy feeling of a super hot pepper. Overall the day went well with a lot of chopping with machetes and a new blister to show for it. Lucky blindness wasn’t another thing I had to show for the days work.

Today we got to run the two rows of wire which weren’t very long, but it still took awhile. After lunch I wanted to take a nap but got recruited to paint primer on the doors and windows of the volunteer and office building. No one could reach the top of the windows and Brenda was too scared to go very high on the ladder (which was kind of valid because of the way they make ladders here and for the fact that she nailed her tail bone falling off a chair earlier, which I thought was hilarious). I ended up standing on the window sill with one food and used the other to stand on the ladder, which was too big and awkward to allow for any easy painting. Once I found a smaller one things went a lot smoother.

After painting I had a chance to tutor this girl named Prossy. She is in P 4 which is basically similar to 4th grade in American schools. She struggled most with English so I got to go through her last exam and work through some of the things she got wrong. It took a little while for her to warm up to me but eventually she did and I think we made some progress. After helping her a little she started catching on. I feel it is difficult for the kids to learn English, especially when the teachers are speaking it as their second language as well. I actually noticed a few mistakes that the test even had in it. It didn’t seem fare to mark a kid wrong for something that wasn’t right in the first place, but at least they are getting the basic concepts down for a start. If I were an English teacher here I would certainly give weekly spelling tests and reading quizzes. Taking English tests seem to go better when the kid can actually read the questions on the test. Again, just my opinion ha. Maybe someday I will be teaching kids English in a far away country. Spending years of my life doing that doesn’t seem too bad at all......someday.....someday