From my journal: March 30, 2010
It’s really hard to think that in just two months, I’ll be leaving, that I’ll no longer spend the afternoons having hilarious conversations with Niriti, I won’t get to speak Marshallese, and worst of all, I won’t be a teacher at Ine Elementary. Time is going by unbelievably fast. I feel really busy and fear I’m not going to have enough time to do everything I want before June arrives.
I am tutoring the 8th graders almost every afternoon to get them ready for their high school entrance exam. I’m writing up all my lesson plans to make a teaching guide for next year’s volunteer, and I’m practicing Easter songs with the church’s youth group. Plus, I’m trying to run to stay in shape; I still have a lot of books I want to read, and I’m still not done with my elephant cross-stitch that I bought to take to Africa! On top of this, I must still do my daily tasks: teaching, laundry, socializing and letter writing. With all this to do, the weeks fly by.
I am pretty exhausted from teaching at the moment though, because all the kids are getting really rowdy as the end of the year approaches. I have discovered the importance of Spring Break. Students and teachers alike get tired and need a vacation this time of year. The Ministry of Education has unfortunately taken Spring Break off the calendar this year, probably because they figure most schools start late, have a lot of rain days, and miss school for funerals. But I feel like it is better to have fewer days consisting of quality education with well rested students and teachers than to have more days when everyone is burned out.
