Started pull-outs.
Evaluations in El Batey-disaster. The teacher didnt even know the name of one of her students.
Ran. With 30 kids. Raced. Walked. Did cartwheels. Did two push-ups as a joke and turned around to see about 30 kids doing them with me hahahaha SO GOOD.
These were my notes from yesterday. I didn't have time to complete them and now today, the 26th, I've got other things occupying my mind. But today my pull-outs went well. We followed through with an idea of mine to have a monthly meeting where the teachers can express what went well this month and what we can work on for next month. Then we picked one "Outstanding Student" from each grade and I'm making certificates and a mural to post their pictures to help with motivation and positivity. The teachers were honest and we've got a few things to work on for October so I'm excited. Things didn't work out in El Batey today (figures) but it's a work in progress-it'll get better. I then went running again (despite being exhausted and sore) with more little ones and it was a blast.
But when I arrived home, there were a ton of people at and around my neighbor's house. Come to find out, a man that lived down my street and around the corner was killed today. One story is that he was crossing the Duarte (the highway I cross to get to El Batey) and a tire flew off a truck and killed him. Another story is that it wasn't the tire, but they won't say what they think it was. He left behind a three year old little girl who just kept saying that her daddy was on his way home with soda and crackers like always... From 8 until 9:30pm, the people were waiting for the body to come; there had to have been at least 100 people, no exaggeration. They hung a canopy outside the house which will be taken down after nine days. When the truck arrived, they left the body and sped off. A woman began screaming. Sobbing on and off from the house. The people continued to arrive to just stand around and watch or listen. I pulled out my chairs because it was right near my house and many came to stand on my porch. The woman left the house screaming to the little three year old, "AY DIOS MIO, SE MURIÓ TU PAPI" (oh my god, your father died) over and over and over again... 101 people asked if I was scared and if I wanted someone to sleep here with me tonight.
I can't describe how I'm feeling... I just keep thinking about that little girl who once had a father who bought her a soda and crackers every day on his way home from work and slept with her every night will now have a completely different life and she won't understand why. And she will be fatherless like so many children here. And I keep thinking about the highway. Whether it was the tire or not, he was killed there, and we have little ones crossing that highway everyday, twice a day, for school. And how the people just watch it all happen here. And how I got sucked into it too. I don't know what to think or feel really... I just hope that man takes care of his girl from above.
It's now 11:30 and because I was unable to hide my yawns, the people on my porch left. I brought all my chairs in and am in bed but it's quite loud outside still. There's quite a few drunk people. Hopefully there will be no problems during this sleepless night. And hopefully the little one can sleep in blissful ignorance for now...
Buenas noches.
Update: Commence singing, chanting, and clapping at 12:15am.
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