Chapter IX: Better or Worse?

Monday started off in a most inauspicious manner. Patti woke up at night with a mild case of what we later came to describe as “turista’ and basically spent the night in the bathroom – a reaction to microbes in some improperly handled food. The boys and I were more fortunate. She felt well enough to go to class in the morning but by end of classes she was really sapped out.

It was a routine day at school and that evening we had supper, plowed through the boys’ homework and attempted to phone home. Phoning home was a “crap-shoot” because MexTel was not the most reliable service back then. To cheer up the troops I made the 80 minute bus ride to Sanborn’s and picked up some English language American magazines and brought them home on an 80 minute ride back. We still had no television and our board games were starting to be not as exciting as they once were. Thus the magazines!

Tuesday we learned of our nephew’s serious car accident back home when our family was able to contact us at the school. It was a little bit unnerving to have the principal come into your class to take it over while you went to the office to take an important phone call from home. The car was a wreck but Joel was okay! 

Patti’s day was better and she was starting to get her “enthusiastic’ class down to a quieter and more manageable level. I was settling into a good routine with my students. So far the 4th period of the day was free for me and added on to my spare in period 3, I was getting a good chunk of time for lesson preparation and keeping up with a large amount of marking English papers. As it turned out I was called on to fill in as a supply teacher in period 4 only a handful of times through the whole school year. 

It was in these two periods that I started to have impromptu in-service sessions with individual and small groups of my fellow teachers who, while having degrees, had had no formal teacher training. I showed them how to organize and plan daily lessons and how to prepare whole units for presentation. Word of this got back to my administrators and I think it was for this reason that I had only to fill in as a supply teacher so rarely. They felt my time helping the other teachers before, during, and after school hours was of benefit to the school and to them. I also enjoyed helping the teachers as I got to know them better. Even some of the Mexican teachers who had formal teacher training started to sit in on some of these impromptu sessions.

David was getting used to his teacher, Dr. Bing, a teacher from California, who said he had come to Guadalajara with his family to, in his terms, “escape the racism that was so prevalent back home”. Nathan was still having trouble getting used to his “fire-breathing” teacher to the point where we thought about the possibility of having him transferred to another class.

We were starting to settle into a routine - work hard at the school for what seemed like volunteer wages, home for an early supper, wade through mounds of the boys’ homework with them, and drag ourselves off to bed. The boys were still struggling to keep up in the math because they were a year behind in some of the skills. But there was progress being made. Phone calls from home were starting to get easier to get through. It was good to connect with our families and get some news of home – families, Winnipeg, and Canada.

I had put in my name for after school tutoring in English outside of the school. The going rate at the time was about $7 U.S. per hour.  I said I was charging $15 U.S. The secretary laughed and said I probably wouldn’t get anyone! On Thursday I got my first bite. I got a tutoring assignment to work with a 14 year old boy from 3:30 to 5:00 every Tuesday and Thursday. His home was a short walk of 5 blocks from the school. I hoped it would work out because the extra money would come in handy. The secretary was surprised because after they went through the list and settled on me, it was because they thought I must be pretty good because I was charging double the going rate! Little did they know!

That evening Patti and I had a lot of homework, and for the first time, the boys not as much. Also a bonus – Nathan was actually starting to warm up to his fire-breathing teacher. Would wonders never cease?

Friday! Nearly completed 2 weeks of school and it felt like almost 50 for Patti and the boys. The elementary section was wanting test results soon as report cards were due to go out at the end of September. After school Nathan and David accompanied two of Nathan’s classmates to see a movie, Batman. The girls and Nathan lied about their ages and went to see a James Bond movie,” License to Kill”. David was not able to convince the ticket-seller that he was old enough so he actually ended up seeing the Batman movie. They all met at Giovanni’s not far from our place for pizza. Meanwhile I had to supervise a high school dance at the school. There were a lot of chaperones, both staff and parents.Mexican students seemed to mature quite early and what with all the sneaked necking and drinks happening on the grounds of the school, I could see why so many chaperones were needed. It was a fun evening, though!

Patti got the evening off from us and school and was able to head downtown with Brigitte, Matt, and Karen where she saw some of the celebrations for Mexican Independence day starting at the Plaza de Liberacion located near the fabulous Catedral de Guadalajara. She got to see some fabulous Mexican dancers doing their routines in beautiful ethnic costumes. This was followed by speeches, singing, and some mariachi bands. The evening was topped off by an awesome fireworks display – the Mexicans really really know how to DO fireworks. Karen Pace met them there. After the festivities they all went for a snack to an open-air restaurant. They and I quote, “did a lot of bitching about school” and then took a cab home. 

Later that evening around 11:15 there was a fireworks display just outside our window. More mariachi musicians appeared and a party started down the street from us. The music and festivities died down around 4:00 a.m. This city and its people really knew how to celebrate.  It gave us a very alive and wonderful feeling.