Last week one of my best friend's challenged me to record a day in my life here in Dhaka. So here it goes:
Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and hit snooze several times until I realize that I am probably going to be late, quick shower, dressed and ready for the school van at 7:25 a.m. to take us from the teacher apartments to school.
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| This van is dented because we have one crazy driver who likes to drive to fast and crash into things and he looks about 14 years old. |
Didn't have time for breakfast so make some toast with PB and J that my room mate and I have cleverly purchased and left at school for such days, I have a solid 45 minutes before class starts, lots of time for prep work and breakfast.
First class is English with Grade 7, my favorite class of the year. For the last month, Mrs, Charlebois and I have combined our Grade 7 and 8 English classes once a week to do drama, this has been a blast!
Next class is either a prep, 7/8 Music, or Pre-K music-this is obviously my favorite because they are so cute! This is where all of the songs I learned working at the daycare have definitely come in handy!
Third class is a prep, 5/6, or Social Studies-this being my favorite because I get to teach my students about Empowerment and most recently we watched "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" because they wanted to learn more about World War 2. We had an incredible discussion afterwards and I forgot what it's like to hear about the events of the holocaust
for the first time. I've stopped reacting to it, but when I saw their faces at the end of the movie and their reaction when I told them that stuff like that really happened, I remembered how I felt when I first learned about it. That's how we should react, like how in the world is it possible for humans to do that to each other? How is it possible to hate one group of people that much? I don't have an answer for them, because there isn't one. It just shouldn't happen.
Lunch time is only 30 minutes. I forgot to pack something, so I could purchase cafeteria food and risk Dhaka belly for the rest of the afternoon, or I can snack on the pack of cookies in my backpack from my friend's cookie factory (what a lifesaver those cookies have been all year!).
After lunch I teach music to K-4 (On different days) and this is when the power is usually out. No power means no air conditioning in 40 degree heat with humidity which means me and 20 little bodies dripping with sweat and wanting nothing more but to lie on the ground and whine about how hot we are. But I must teach! So with sweat stinging in my eyes we learn about quarter notes and sing about raindrops being gumdrops and itsy bitsy spiders.
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| My "Music" Room |
By last period the power is back on! Finally! This is when I teach the big kids, Grade 9 and 10. Yikes!
Then it's home room time with my Grade 7's and we are doing the 100 days of happiness challenge! So every day we have to write at least one happy thought!
I decide to walk home after school and this is what I see:
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| This is the rickshaw wallah I usually take home, he's very trustworthy and friendly |
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| I usually walk on the street because the sidewalk is full of random things like...rocks and sand? |
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| Some power lines |
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| Open sewers...don't fall in!!! |
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| Construction zone...safety first? |
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| Plug your nose, try and hold your breath around this corner |
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| Watch out for the live wires on the ground |
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| Carpet wash in the slum by the main road |
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| In the background a man cleans up his "barber shop" |
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| Specific advertising much? |
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| Oh, don't mind the random pile of bricks on the sidewalk |
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| Or the refuse... |
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| Or the broken tiles with sewage below |
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| See all those children in that cart? That's how they get to school. |
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| Banani "Mall" close to my apartment |
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| My apartment, first floor, there's the school van pulling up, I made it alive...this time. |
