Saturday, October 23, 2010

more strikes

On Thursday I went to class and realized that half of them weren´t there. I had heard earlier in the day that there was a bus strike but since I never take the bus in Ibarra I didn´t know how bad it was. A student explained what was going on and said that all the bus drivers were striking because they wanted to chage 25 cents per ride and the people in Ibarra wouldn´t pay. The people in Ibarra don´t want to pay 25 cents because the buses are bad and because Quito charges 25 cents and is much bigger and the transport is much better. The student also warned me that the taxis might strike as well to show their allegiance with the buses.

Then in my next class I only had 2 students and one told me that now the taxis were striking. I was like ¨hmm, oh crap, how am I going to get home?¨Shari, Natasha and I got a ride from the mother of one of my students. She took us to our Thursday night dinner and we had a good time together complaining about all of CECAMIs problems. Then we ended up finding a rogue taxi driver to take us home.

On Friday I had a make-up day because of the day we missed when the police were striking. I had my conversation class at a coffee shop and then went to visit SECAP with Natasha. SECAP is the other school in Ibarra that we might be able to teach at. It was really nice and offered us everything we needed. Kate says she will work on getting it set up. I really hope it works! I want to work somewhere that appreciates me, where I have students, and where the administration cares.

Then Friday night I had my classes. Because of the bus strike and because it was Friday I only had 2 students in my first class and none in my second. I decided to join Natasha´s class for the second and when we realized that everyone in the office had gone home for the night at 6:15 we decided to just take her class to a coffee shop. If the administration can leave early on Friday because they don´t want to be there then so can we...

The bus strike is still going on. There´s no telling when it will be over either. Schools are cancelled during the strike because no one can get to school. This means my host brother has had 2 free days with nothing to do and he doesn´t know when he will have to go back to school. Ecuador is crazy...

Today I´m making mac and cheese for my family. It should be good! I haven´t done anything all day and it feels so good. Except for my nail polish broke and won´t open :(. Other than that todo bien.

Tomorrow I have to plan for my classes. They are having an oral and written test this week. Then we have a super long weekend for the holidays and then they get their certificates on Thursday saying they passed. Then I have a break for a few days. I´m going to go to Baños with a friend. Then on the 15th I start another module at CECAMI. Hopefully I will have more students...

Love you!

No comments:

Post a Comment