13/05/10

I’m not really sure when or how it happened, but I am really busy. And I suppose that’s a good thing because it makes me feel like my time here is worthwhile, but sometimes I feel like I hardly have time to breathe. I teach every morning from 6:40-12:05. I have begun meeting with my student who can’t read and write for about 30 minutes every day after classes at 12:05pm. Then at 3pm the girls in the orphanage who have school in the mornings have two hours of study hall where I help with English and math homework. Then at 4pm (yep, the hours don’t quite line up, I am aware of that) I work with two of the girls-in-training who are studying for their GED in the subjects of math and English (and wow, have I forgotten all calculus I ever learned). Then 5pm: Tuesdays I have Portuguese tutoring, Wednesdays we have a REDES meeting, and Thursdays I give an English lesson to one of the sisters in the mission. Plus I plan to start Txitxopi lessons now, so on Mondays, I suppose. And all of that barely leaves times for lesson planning, guitar-playing, leisure reading in English and Portuguese (I am now reading Harry Potter e o Cálice de Fogo), journaling, peanut-butter making, etc. But like I said, at least I feel like I am doing worthwhile things here.
And of course, while I am walking from a study session to my English lesson, Margarita runs up to me and trips and scrapes herself up and starts crying, Alcinda is crying and in a cold sweat because one of the crazy German Shepherds at the mission chased her, Alice’s foot where she stepped on a nail last week is looking bad and that scares me, and Daniela has somehow taken a chunk out of the bottom of her foot so has to be carried to where we can clean and cover it up. But all this craziness is good somehow because I am still very happy here.