First of all, my sense of time is all messed-up. Why isn't it September? Why aren't the days interminable, and the air tinged with youthful disappointment that summer has failed to, yet again, last forever?
Oh that's right, because I'm in Haiti. At 19 degrees north of the Equator, we may as well be sitting on it, the heat and humidity are so intense. The days begin at 6am and end at roughly 7pm. There are no leaves to watch change colour and the air will never crisp up, as winter encroaches on balmy fall evenings. And yet, here we are, the first day of school, August 22, 2012. A definite record for me!
This morning, I was up before dawn. Because traffic in Port-au-Prince is atrocious, we tend to leave a good 30-45 minutes before we're scheduled to be anywhere, and since opening assembly started at 7:45 this morning, it made for a really early wake-up call. As I was hustling out the door, I couldn't remember if I had brushed my teeth or not...so I grabbed what I needed and took my (gong) show on the road. Fortunately, we arrived at school with plenty of time to spare -enough in fact, for me to (brush my teeth AND) learn how to tie my roommates' bow tie from a youtube video. Some might say i'm a woman of many obscure talents....I digress.
I had a few last minute things to take care of in my classroom, before heading downstairs to greet parents and students. As the number of people bussing cheeks became overwhelming, I hid behind the table full of croissants and made friends with the ladies who run the PTA. I was recruited, introduced, and thoroughly questioned. These women, as it turns out, are the true movers and shakers at the school, and I was in total awe.
At 7:45 we rounded up what I hoped were our students and proceeded to settle into our seats at assembly. What I expected to be a staid affair, quickly turned into quite the party.
Obviously, if I don't complete a blog post, it never gets done!
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