Tuesday was back to normal school schedule. For me that meant up at 6am to meet the girls for desayuno and then crashing briefly at 7am. We had a boss meeting at 8:30am and then another of those darn workshops at 10am which lasted until 12:30pm again. The workshops are really not that bad. We do a lot of activities and get to know some of the other encargados and staff that we wouldn't normally have any time with. It's just really long and takes over half our break time Tuesday and Wednesday. With the other meeting on Tuesday that equaled no break time. So Tuesday was long. I spent the afternoon helping girls with homework, had another hour of English tutoring (this time with six boys and it went a little smoother), dinner, lecture time, and an awkward departure.
Post-dinner warrants a little more explanation. Apparently in school that day, two of my girls had an all out fight during English class in which blood was drawn. There was no sign that this had occurred when the girls got back from school and I learned about it only through bits and pieces over the course of the afternoon. For the group, this resulted in a serious conversation run by Ochoa about different crimes and their subsequent punishments, voted on by the girls. Towards the end of the night, Ochoa suddenly turned to me and said something that I didn't understand. I was really caught off guard as I had been pretending to listen and she never addresses me directly unless I initiate plus she's hard for me to understand normally so I tried to play it off as the room was completely silent and all the girls were all staring. That just inspired laughter. Finally, one of the girls took pity on me and explained that she was saying I could go ahead and leave since it was going to be a late night for them. One of the major female bosses was going to come by and give the girls a serious talking to. So I left. I was sooooo tired and really frustrated at my exit and wished I had requested to stay for the talk. It was one of my lowest points since coming here. My journal entry that night is pretty emotional. I was questioning what I was doing here, what I could actually give these girls, how embarrassed I was, etc. I had also been hearing a lot of crap all day about my group and was really pissed off about that too. This illustrated once again, the correlation between sleep and attitude. The more rested you are, the better you feel and the better your communication. The less sleep, the more easily upset. I passed out almost as soon as I got back and the next morning was definitely a little brighter.
Overall, though, reality is starting to set in. These girls are not innocent angels and I'm gradually starting to see their normal behavior and get to know their individual personalities. But I also realize it's going to take a LONG time to get to know any of them well. Little by little. That's become my personal motto while I'm here. Little by little. It's going to take a lot of patience on both sides for this to work. But I'm not giving up. I'll take it little by little too.
