Tuesday one of my M4 girls came in to class tied to two M1 boys.  One tied to each of her wrists.  The boy on her right had to write in the answers to the exam she was taking.  The other one just sat there.  No one batted an eye as if this was a normal thing.  True, I have seen two students tied together before, but it doesn’t seem normal to me yet.  I wondered who was being punished – her, the boys or all three of them?  What action warrants being tied together?  Does it work?  None of them seemed shamed, upset or in any way punished.  What classes were the boys missing?  If this works, I like it better than hitting students.  That happened again.  After two of my classes this week, I was asked to wait outside.  You can ask me to wait outside if you think I disapprove, but I can still hear the crack of the stick.  Or maybe having me wait outside was to spare me being uncomfortable, but now it was uncomfortable and awkward.

I have to mail some boxes home because I have too much stuff.  Noi helped me by finding boxes for me.  Then she showed me where to buy the brown paper and string.  Then she showed me how to wrap the boxes in brown paper since I don’t know how to wrap a box in paper.  It involved a lot of glue and tape so that paper should be good.  Then she wrapped string around the box and had me tape the string to the box.  I thought the string was to make a handle, but she said it made the paper stronger.  I told her we were not allowed to use string in America, but she didn’t care.  It has to be done this way.  I hope the packages make it ok to America.  They were ridiculously expensive to mail.

I went over to Tip’s.  I thought it was for dinner, but she wasn’t eating.  I ran quickly to the market and got a salad for dinner.  Ging came over and we played crosswords (generic scrabble).  It was fun.  Ging won!  Tip’s son, Dam asked me to come over again so he can play crosswords with me.

Pat was real nice on Wednesday.  I asked her to help me buy a bus ticket.  She sent the school driver to get it.  I got my change from the ticket, but no ticket.  I texted her to see if she could check on where the ticket went.  She replied where to pick it up.  I was confused why I still had to pick it up.  How did he buy a ticket for me without getting a ticket?  I was confused when to pick it up and how they would know I was the one that paid for it.  I also have no idea when the bus arrives.  One of her answers was Saturday 1.  Saturday the 1st of October, or Saturday at 1:00?  If it’s Saturday at 1:00 is that the time I need to be there or the time the bus will arrive?  She wouldn’t be clear and then today when I tried to talk to her in person she said “I told you, but you don’t want to understand”.  I give up. I don’t know what to do.  Anything I do or say is wrong.  I try to take a deep breath and not be frustrated, but I’m frustrated.  I wonder where my patience and compassion have run off to.  I can’t seem to find them.

I gave tests to 6 different classes.  Almost every student failed.  Why am I here?

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore