what you want

i had to contemplate yesterday what exactly would happen if i threw a student out the window and into the leaf and banana peel filled pool 2 floors below. but yesterday would have been my last chance.

today they cleaned out the pool. they gathered all the 'compost' and put into the pre-dug trenches around all the trees and plants in the surrounding foliage. it rained a lot lately and water had collected in the deep end. i still wouldn't have wanted to swim in it. it was yellowish brown and smelled like rotting food. phineas and victor scooped it out with buckets. i am hoping now that if it rains again it will collect water and if it rains a lot we can go swimming...i think my hope is in vain though. they don't like to let the water sit, they say it attracts too many mosquitoes. i'm not gonna argue with that; the less mosquitoes, the better.

yesterday, the day i wanted to give one of my students flying lessons, was a trying day in english class. it took them a lot longer than i anticipated for them to learn the concept of 'should' and 'could' and i wasn't anticipating disciplinary problems from the 18 year old. i won't mention his name but it starts with a 'v' and ends with 'ictor'.

his desk is nearest the open veranda door. i started to realize only recently why he staked his claim on that desk from the very the beginning. it wasn't for the breeze. it was to catch glimpses of his friends walking below...specifically his 'girlfriend' who lives down the road from us. i don't mind his waving at her or going down to talk to her during our breaks. i really couldn't care less about his social life, but when he starts to get lazy about his english work...that's when i start to breath fire. the past week or so he started a trend of copying my examples from the board and using them as his sentences instead of coming up with new ones. i called him out on this yesterday. i had asked the class to write 3 short sentences using 'could' as a polite expression. everyone else seemed to get the concept. victor is a smart guy so i knew he understood. when class was over i asked to see his sentences. he wrote one. it was the one i had written earlier. not cool. i asked him to finish his work and give me three more. he got up and proceded to walk out. i told him he needed to finish and that i wasn't going to allow him to get away with the minimum any longer. we argued for 20 minutes, arlindo was caught in the middle trying to help with translating. i told him he couldn't eat lunch until he finished. victor said, "if i sit down and do my work, who is going to pay me." that's when i nearly lost it. (that is when i contemplated the afore mentioned flying lessons) i said, "victor, i am here teaching you english everyday and no one is paying me." he sat down and finished his sentences. he was done in 3 minutes. i told him thank you and that he could go eat now but his pride had been wounded so he decided to retreat his room, skip lunch and nurse his ego. today went a lot better. victor sat on the other side of the room.