The Good, the Bad, and the Creepy Crawly

Day 43 in Mexico

Happy October to all! September has come and gone, and now we’re into one of my favorite months – the month of Halloween, my birthday, and cooler temperatures in Tucson. However, this October will surely be different than those back home, for obvious reasons. As for my favorite highlights of the month, I do think they celebrate Halloween, though it’s not nearly as big a deal as Dia de los Muertos, which I am looking forward to. My birthday is only days away, and I’m not too freaked out about celebrating it away from home, since I turned 21 while studying abroad in Argentina; I’m more worried about being 23. I seem to be getting older very, very quickly. Everyone in my group is a good six months to a year and six months younger than me, so that doesn’t help much. And as for the weather, it seems to be getting warmer instead of cooler now that the rainy season is coming to a close. I guess I’ll have to modify my ideas about the month.

I’ve had some interesting moments in the past week, both good and not so good. Work has still proven to be challenging in several respects. As much as I do enjoy teaching my English classes in the kinder, the kids are often a handful, and it’s hard to garner a lot of authority with five year olds when I don’t speak the language as well as a five year old. I’m still searching for the balance between having good activities that get them actively learning and activities that are calm enough that I can keep some semblance of control. My last blog was about the lessons that I’ve learned, but I think I forgot the most important one: Kids are hard work. At the same time, I get frustrated with myself when I feel I haven’t progressed as much as I should have; that I don’t know the women of the center like I should, the kids don’t know their colors as well as they should, I don’t feel as useful as I should. I get hung up easily on how things “should” be, which is a complete figment of my imagination, rather than how they are. However, I had a breakthrough moment this past week (I love those). A group of study abroad students from NAU (fellow Arizonans!) has started to come on Wednesday afternoons to give an English class in the community center. This last Wednesday was their first session, and it falls under my job to the facilitator for their sessions, observing, making sure they have all the materials they need, etc. When I welcomed them to the center, after introducing myself, I gave them a brief introduction to the community center. I shared about the center itself, who sponsors the project, a little about the community that it serves how the kids and their families come to be involved, and so on. When the kids came to the class, I knew their names from the kinder, I knew the moms that dropped them off, I knew how much English they could be expected to know, I knew which colors they would be able to correctly identify… I realized that I know a lot more about my job than I think I know. It took another group of outsiders to make me realize that I’m not as much of an outsider as I used to be. Slowly but surely (or, poco a poco, a phrase I use a lot here) I am becoming part of a community, and that realization was one of the most reassuring moments that I’ve had to date.

My time with my host family is still proving to be very enjoyable; however, I seem to be attracting the attention of some less favorable residents of the house: the bug population. After my first encounter with the whopper of a spider in my bathroom, word must have spread amongst them that I’m afraid, and they’ve decided to join together and take advantage of that fact. I’ve seen a couple in the past weeks on the stairs; I’m the only one who lives upstairs, so they must get a kick out of me being too scared to pass by them to get to my room. However, they’ve taken things to a new level. This past week, on my way to brush my teeth before bed, I flicked on the light in my bathroom and there was a centipede on the wall. If there is a bug that rivals a spider for the fearful reaction elicited from me, it’s the centipede. I yelped and called for Angeles and Fernando to come kill it. It wasn’t super huge, but it was a good couple inches long. It made me feel kind of jumpy as I headed to bed, but I didn’t see anything else. I got into bed, turned off the light, and was on my way to falling asleep when I heard a very faint scratching sound. I debated for a few seconds whether or not to turn on the light and find out what it was, figuring I might regret it if I did, or try to forget about it and fall asleep. Long story short, I turned on the light and there was a centipede, at least twice as big, on the ceiling above my bed. I flipped out, ran yelling for Angeles and Fernando to “Come! Come! Kill it! Kill it!” They came, and, because they didn’t want it to fall in my bed, scraped it into a jar to get rid of it. It took me a looong time to fall asleep after that dual encounter. The next morning, I wake up, and sure enough, there’s a big, black spider hanging on the wall over my bed. I told Angeles, so she could come kill it, and she said, “I don’t even believe you.” But it’s true. They know I’m afraid, they think it’s funny, and they’re stalking me. Today another spider was on the wall directly behind my pillow. The suckers are getting bolder. I wish they would figure out that it’s not worth the risk; they might get a good scare out of me, but it’s a suicide mission. They always end up on the bottom side of a shoe.

On the brighter side, we had our first monthly volunteer meeting. Every month, the five of us meet at our country coordinator’s house for an evening of food, conversation, and relaxing. It’s a very informal meeting, where we can just hang out or watch a movie or whatever. This Sunday, we all brought an appetizer and sat around the table talking a long time about our experiences so far. It’s really cool to hear how everyone else is doing, especially the two girls who don’t work in Cuernavaca, because we don’t get to see them as often. It’s also reassuring to hear that everyone has struggles; they might not be the same as mine, but it’s reassuring to hear that it’s common theme (it’s not just me!). I like that we have a good group where we can share those struggles, as well as our successes, and get support from each other. My country coordinator and her husband will actually be in Tucson over my birthday (lucky devils; I would stow away in their suitcases if I thought I could pull it off) so they had a mini celebration, made me spinach artichoke dip and delicious birthday cupcakes, and sang Happy Birthday to me (in English; the Mexican Happy Birthday song is called Las Mañanitas, which is actually a very complicated song with multiple verses that are not repetitive). It was very enjoyable. I think those monthly meetings will be some of the times I look forward to most; it’s not often that we all get to be together as a group.

I think that about sums up the big events of the week. This coming week may prove to be an eventful one as well: there’s another American volunteer (from Madison, go figure) coming to shadow me at work, my actual birthday, and a much anticipated visit at the community center from their sponsoring organization. Here’s hoping it all goes smoothly!