30th May, 2011

Last week, I ended up only working 2 days, which was unexpected, but nice. ☺ I was really exhausted needed the time off. The reason school was cancelled is because where I teach, there are mountains and it rains quite heavily sometimes and when it does, school is often canceled due to flooding.

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day…. I was trying to do good by mowing the grass. However, the grass was over a foot tall, so I had to push the mower while making it do a wheelie the whole time, it was a bit much and of course, I broke it. Then Dave tried to jump-start the tractor to try getting that thing working so we could mow some of the grass that was out of control. Everything was fine, but then the handles on the jumper cables started melting. Shit! So, we drove into town to buy some new ones because they didn’t belong to us, they were Dave’s step-dad, Matt. Oiiii. The day ended with a nice dinner though. Kathy made a nice pork roast, which was then fried up carnitas style. Yum! Dave and I made guac, homemade tortillas and refried beans. It all was really delicious.

Today, was a grueling day and by the end of it, I was completely gutted. (An expression out here, meaning upset.) The kids were really pushing me, and the day ended with me dismissing them to catch the bus, then I went into the classroom to be alone and shed a few tears. Uhhhhh. They were at the end of their rope by the end of the day, being completely disrespectful. Before dismissing the students, I couldn’t get them to do Karakia, which is the Maori prayer they finish off with. I was trying to get the students to listen and do what I asked, repeatedly, (which is my mistake). Then, the staff members who were having a meeting stepped outside and all the students started doing Karakia. It made me feel so small. All these people have to do is walk and the kids listen. On the other side is me, I put in so much effort, with no avail. I went into the class and the Principal, Doug came in a few minutes later to see how my day went and I couldn’t help but tell him I felt like crying, which I did a little. Oh well. Today is over.

Doug invited me to dinner at their house and his wife cooked up a lovely mutton leg, potatoes, pumpkin, peas, gravy plum sauce and a rhubarb baked custard. Delicious. I’m gonna try to let today go and have a better day tomorrow.