HAO-DI and the micro game

I still can't hear anything. Communicating is hard enough, let alone with a disability. Now I am truely Helen Keller-ing. I don't understand half of what anyone says, not for the language but for the sand or whatever it is. Also I can't even hear myself talk well, which is an odd sensation because I don't have the ability to talk as normal. In other words, I guess what everyone says and respond with slurred words at a large volume. At least it's funny.

I love the micro game, the waiting and watching for the right micro to pass by on Avenida España, hoping it is not in lane 4 when I need it to be in lane 1, the only place where I am able to board. I am pretty good at the signal needed to flag down the micros. It´s kind of like the signal for hitchihhiking but only with your index finger. I always feel like I am flipping off the drivers, but they stop regardless of what it looks like I am doing. It´s a strong motion, you use your entire arm, if you want a micro at Avenida España that is, because those micros are barreling down the highway at double the velocidad máxima, remember? In order to get them to stop when they are going so fast, you have to mean it; they won´t always stop for your half-hearted hand gestures like in other slower-moving streets. Then there is the time factor. You have to signal with enough time for them to stop, but here´s the catch; if you are looking for any micro to a certain place, and not just a specific number micro, you generally have to read the 10 or so signs in the front window to see if it says the destination of your choice. So you have to read it as soon as it comes into the extreme end of your vision and then signal fast enough to catch it before it passes by. I am getting a lot better at this game, though I occasionally signal a micro I don´t need and miss some I could have taken. In other places it is way easier; at a stop for example, where the micro has obviously ceased motion and you have a bit more time. Also, if you have a specific and familar route to follow, you can just look for the correct number. I am probably the only person in the whole world that thinks it´s funny when five #201s pass in a twenty minute time period, but only one 205 passes, which of course is the one that I need.

I have a new outlook on the 8th grade at St. Luceo. If you split the class in equal halves, they are great to work with. They pay attention and ask questions and get a ton of work done, and they respond when I speak English to them (the only time today I used English, when I had to, and it was not even much, I promise.) Perfect. However, 5th grade is a logistical nightmare. I have a new theory that the chaos in this room is due to the lack of classroom management and accountability rather than being a result of some other deficite in school and Chileans school system policies. I have no idea how to get their attention, at all. If you sounded an airhorn in that room, it would not get their attention. They can sit wherever they want, so you have the boy group and two girl groups, one girl group that wants to learn and the other at the opposite end of the spectrum. The interaction between the groups is always the same; the same teasing. They throw things and run around screaming at eachother. It is just about impossible to teach in this particular classroom; I walked into a situation that is out of control. It is one thing to have a few kids talking or acting out in a classroom, but to have a class of 40 kids where 25 or more are totally out of control and the rest are trying to listen or have just given up, this is something quite different. I can´t make a noise loud enough to be heard. They know what work they have to do though. As soon as something is written on the board, they know they have to copy it in their notebook. When class ends, they know to move their seats back to the original positions and line up. Weird seeing such order after an hour and a half of mayhem. Constantly I work to make this situation better, but I am in no position to chance anything; it´s not my class, and I can´t change in one day a week the habits that have been in place the whole year. Nor can I change whatever authority-respect themes between the students and teacher exist here, and it is defintely not my place to do so. I don´t think this is a typical example of a Chilean classroom. But again, I have a lot more observing to do before I draw conclusions.

I don´t know what the ¨ç¨symbol means, but it is the key next to the backspace on the Chilean keyboard and I keep hitting it by accident. IfçI did not coçrect my çworkç it woçld looçk like ç this becçause I hit the ççç key so ofçten sincçe it çç is qçuite inconçvenitenly plççaced on theç sçpanish keyboardç next ç to çtçhe most çfrequentl uçsed key.

A bandaid salesman got on my micro today on the return trip. Yes, a vendor that sold only bandaids. A few minutes previously a different one boarded that was selling clay action figures, but the band aid guy was more interesting, for two reasons. 1. have you ever heard of anyone selling bandaids on the street before? just bandaids, nothing else. 2. they are HAO-DI brand, and all of the writing except for the name is in Chinese. I bought the strip of 14 bandaids for $100 [pesos; the dollar sign is used, but they were not $100 USD, more like 19 cents.] And I had intended on buying some anyway, as I constantly pick around my nails as a nervous habit. This is my first micro-vendor purchase, and I am oddly proud of it.

Jun: in response to my obnoxious sneezes as I am typing this; he is sitting at the computer next to me as I write this: ¨por favor [demaciado] tranquilísate!! As he translates his homework that is ¨demaciado difícil.¨ (half an hour later now, and he just got up, said ¨demaciado clase¨and headed off to his class).

A good time to segway into who Nelson is. Nelson is a teacher of English/professor/doctoral student at PUCV who I routinely run into in the PIIE office in Casa Central. He is Jun's private professor, for practice with a different accent. He is my only Columbian contact, and has convinced me that the country is safe enough to visit (much to the dismay of my family who is reading this I am sure.) Another friendly face that makes me feel more at home in PUCV :) He is indirectly responsible for my inability to do homework while at the PIIE office computers, because every time he is there I am just like oooo, tell me about Columbia and help me practice conversation.