7:20am – I wake up to the sound of children playing in the
school yard before their first class and decide that since the bells will start
ringing soon, there’s probably no point in trying to go back to sleep. I have breakfast while catching up on e-mails
and reading the news.
8:30am – I get up, clean my room, make my bed, and make a CD
for one of my students. Then I make a To
Do list for all my errands.
9am – I head out on the town to get some errands done, stopping
into a few Chinese lojas to try to get ahold of some materials for our wallet
project. I pass by the youth center to
print my planificações for this
trimester (since the internet café was having problems). I stop in and ask the director about his
vacation and reiterate how much we loved Santo Antão (but assure him that São
Nicolau is mas sabe). Then, I pop by the papeleria to buy an envelope
but it’s much bigger than necessary for the card I’m sending so I decide to
wait and print some pictures before taking it to the post office.
students playing outside the school
10am - I come home to put together planificações, finish preparing for today’s classes, and make sure
all the recycled wallet materials are ready for tomorrow. Then I make some coffee and an Earth Day
playlist to take to class while we make wallets.
12 noon – I eat lunch and prepare to go to class.
1pm – My day of class begins. Today I teach three turmas – 2 turmas of 9th
grade level 3 and one of 10th grade level 2. We do a modified version of the “Protecting
Our Planet” lesson I taught my level 4s yesterday. Turns out it will line up nicely with the
grammar units in all my levels.
4pm – I’m done with classes, so I decide to stop by the
tailor’s to see if he’s finished the skirt I asked him to make me well over a
month ago. He says corpo ka ta bom (body isn’t well, i.e. he’s been sick) which I can
almost gusrantee is an excuse but I let it go and tell him to feel better and I’ll
come back in a few days. I come home to
relax for the rest of the evening and our neighbor Tânia stops by to ask us
about helping her husband with the English homework he has to do for the formação in Vila. I tell her to have him stop by anytime and I’ll
give him a hand. Alexandra shows us the
pictures she took last weekend at the festa
we went to in Estancia d’Bras. We stayed
with Tânia in her famiy’s house there Saturday night. We talk about doing another weekend together
at her mom’s house in Praia Branca.
5pm – I take down my laundry and go through some pictures I
want to get printed tomorrow. Then I make
some delicious goiaba iced tea
6pm – I feel like I should be doing something more
productive, but am pretty worn out so I eat some dinner and relax.
Alexandra and I with Tânia's friends and family in Estancia d'Bras last weekend
7:15pm – I contemplate just going to bed and watching WEEDS until I fall asleep, but then the doorbell rings and it’s Tânia’s kids. Their uncle is out of town and their mom is going to gimnástica* so they need a place to hang out instead of staying in their home alone (they’re 10, 7, and 1 ½ ). I groan a bit internally, knowing that my evening of relaxation is long gone. Then I remind myself that I really have nothing to do and they are the sweetest, most well-behaved kids, so I decide to think of it as a nice way to spend a couple hours and practice my creole. I offer them some juice and we talk about the photos on our refrigerator (for about the 9th time – and the photos haven’t changed). Then Julio informs me that he brought materials so that we can color together. I debate prepping my lessons for tomorrow while they play, but instead I decide to just be a kid again and color with them. While they start coloring, I answer the doorbell. It’s my neighbor and dear friend, Vanusa, who I haven’t seen in a few days. We talk through the window (she just came by to tell me she missed us and wanted to see how we were). I promise to invite her along the next time I go running and also to drop by her house after school tomorrow. Julio, Rodrigo, Raquel, and I pass a fun hour and a half just chatting and coloring, talking about grades and school children and fishing and Julio’s potential trip to Italy this summer to live with his father. Alexandra comes home and we cut and casca some sugar cane to suck on.
Tânia and her kids
8:45pm – Tânia comes to get the kids after gimnástica. We end the night with a new picture on our
wall-of-fame (drawn by Rodrigo) and a promise from Julio that he’ll give us the
picture he’s working on when he’s done, too.
I give them the picture I drew and everyone goes home happy.
9pm – I finish prepping tomorrow’s recycled wallets lesson
plan and make a list of errands to run in the morning
9:30pm – I eat a snack and climb into bed to Gchat and watch
WEEDS until I fall asleep. I need a few
more nights of a solid 8 hours so that I can recuperate.
*we used to go to gimnastica almost every day. Since
vacation I haven’t been, because recently every time I go my shins and knees
hurt badly later from the impact. My
running is taking the place of the aerobics.
I leave you with another of my favorite songs: "Maná" by Mayra Andrade
I leave you with another of my favorite songs: "Maná" by Mayra Andrade
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