I thought I was going to be completely nonfunctional on Monday morning. I ended up getting up with enough time to eat breakfast and get ready to go to school. The two girls from Wellesley had been bothering both Doane and I and I don’t know if the other two volunteers from Sweden were just too sweet to say they were bothered by them. It had started in the jungle. Leslie told me today that she has never encountered anyone so negative before. They both had been swearing and wondering aloud why the f--- they were in the jungle. I was hoping to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they kept on coming up with incredibly stupid comments, acting spoiled, or just being plain disrespectful. Monday morning was no exception.
Mabel, Doane, Simon, Nora and I walked to the school and got there on time. It was raining a bit so we had to wait as more students trickled in. Cassie finally showed up at the school when we only had about fifteen minutes left of class. She came into my class only to take pictures and distract my students. I wasn’t impressed by her behavior. I just had to take a deep breath and remind myself that they would only be there for one more day.
After lunch I went up onto the roof to wash my clothes. Mari came up and talked to me for a bit while I washed. She told me that I was the only girl volunteer who has ever washed my clothes properly. :) She said there were two guys who got their clothes to be gleaming white and she wondered why she couldn’t get her clothes to be that white. As I was wringing out the jacket I had been wearing to school, I realized that I had forgotten to take out my notes and my little clock from my pockets. I had written all the names of my students in the morning and afternoon on a piece of paper and keep it in my pocket as a reference while I learn names. There have been more new students showing up the past few weeks, so I had to keep adding to my list. I was sad that my little clock was sogged. I had gotten it just so I wouldn’t have to carry around my little alarm clock. Now it has somewhat revived, but the display is messed up. Sigh...
When I finished with my laundry it was already time to leave. I hadn’t realized that it was so late, especially since Charlene started to wash her clothes right after me. But I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since they had started their theme of disrespect. They showed up at the school at least twenty or thirty minutes after the rest of us. Mabel said they went into Simon’s classroom and took a few kids just because they had worked with them on Friday. Mabel was really upset because they had not only disrupted Simon but thought they could just do whatever they wanted without asking her or the other volunteers. I was just happy that they didn’t come into my classroom again and disrupt my students.
Doane had been talking about getting a haircut and when we passed by the “hair salon” on the way home, I teased him that he should get his hair cut today. He had been wary of the place since they only charged 3 soles for a haircut, which is roughly a dollar. Simon spoke up and said that he had wanted to get a haircut. Doane said he would get his hair cut after Simon, just to make sure the woman did a proper job. She showed them a booklet and asked them which style they wanted. I helped them to tell her how they wanted their hair cut and she did a superb job. She did all the cutting with scissors and then shaved the stray hairs on the back of their necks with a straight razor. They were pleased with their haircut and Doane even said he felt really bad giving her so little money since it was a proper haircut. He had even given her a bit more. She was beaming when he gave her more than 3 soles.
It was raining as we walked home, so it was nice to have a hot dinner waiting for us at home. I had convinced Mabel to walk with me into town to run some errands. I needed to go to the ATM, buy some notebooks for some of my students who were new or had finished up their old notebooks, and check Radio Shack to see if they had a replacement for the clock I had washed that afternoon. I accomplished them all except for getting my clock.
Afterwards we went to La Rustica for karaoke. We had told the Wellesley girls that they could meet us there since they wanted to go out on their last night in Huancayo. I don’t know why I kept on thinking they would prove me wrong about them, but when they came to join us, it didn’t take long before they embarrassed Mabel and I. First they were screaming at people in Spanish to sing louder. Then they were yelling that they wanted to sing their songs. Mabel and I had put in songs already, but for some reason the DJ lost them and so the girls’ songs came on before ours. Mabel and I were getting really angry because they were getting their way and we hadn’t gotten to sing our songs. We asked our waiter to help us out because I wanted to go home, and so I got to sing my song. But since the girls had already sang their songs, they wanted to go home too. I didn’t want to stay any longer since it was already midnight, so Mabel left annoyed at them because she didn’t get to sing her song. They also left a really small tip for our waiter. I was thinking I should have left him a twenty soles tip just because he had to put up with them.
Once we got home, they still continued to be inconsiderate, talking loudly as if it weren’t midnight and other people weren’t asleep already. I had to take another deep breath and remind myself that there was only one more day...
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