Day 34 - Alone Among Wolves

Professor Gloria had an important appointment today. In such cases, the volunteers take over the teaching. She made some copies of worksheets for us to work on with the children. Gloria is incredibly loving with the kids, but she hardly speaks to us. She's a bit strange that way. That's why we don't get any further instructions. At the moment, there are a total of 20 volunteers in the project, so there were four of us in the "Tigers" class. We divided ourselves up, each had a small group. The children always manage to disrupt this order. They just don't follow the rules, they run to any one of us. And eventually, you give up on sending them back to their group. You answer their question, because the next ones are already calling or tugging at you. No matter how many times you say, "I can only listen to one person!". Often, they just want to show you what they've already accomplished. You can't be mad at them, but it's incredibly exhausting.

Professor (Spanish for "teacher", so it's not a sign of spelling mistakes) Luis had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. So we had to step in here as well. It's the "Cats" class, the one with the scolding. Teodoro made good on his announcement (I'm going to play!) and didn't show up. That was just a joke, maybe he's sick. The public schools already started their holidays last week, you can tell that the kids are not interested anymore. But the cats are a bit older, they stay in their seats and participate obediently. When you have to guide the children themselves, you can see how dependent they are. I would like to change a thousand things, but what do I know? Luis gives them a lot of help, too much, in my opinion. But who am I to criticize him? They don't learn that in public schools. If you don't have self-motivation or if you can't keep up because you're intelligent enough, tough luck (statement from a former teacher). Oh man, terrible conditions here.

Wow, there's fireworks and firecrackers outside again in honor of the Virgin Mary. I basically live right behind the cathedral. There are fireworks going off all day and at night too. The celebrations will end the day after tomorrow. No offense, Mary, but thank goodness!

Lots of rain today, humid 30 degrees, windy.