DAY 2
Wednesday 7th June 2007

This was already my second day at school, so I felt very experienced and confident with everything. I took it easy in the morning and slept rather late. Jocelyn and Willy had left the building, and I was not at all in a hurry. I had coffee and read the news while I prepared the last things.

My first lesson was at 10 am and everything was under control.
That's what I thought.

Suddenly I had a call on my phone. It was Willy, who wanted to know, what I was doing there. He had had a call from the school. They missed me.
I panicked a bit, but later on I realized what was wrong. No matter what time the lessons start the teachers go there at 8 am.
That's not what we do in Denmark, and no one had informed me about that.

I hired a tricycle to the school, which definitely is inside a walking distance, but the problem is the heat, which is extreme these days. As a matter of fact its not the heat, but the heat makes me sweat like a pig; thats the problem.
But even if I went there by tricycle I was still sweating. Like a pig.

There seems to be an inconsistency between my clock on the phone and the chronology they refer to at the school because I had to go to the class with 4th year right away.

First of all I talked about the papers they had given me the day before. I pointed out to them what I had found interesting.
One student had written the word "huge", and that gave me an idea to an exercise with synonyms to that word.
We sang "Mester Jakob" in Danish. (Are you sleeping Brother John). I think they liked that a lot.The Danish letters æ, ø and å are always making people laugh in this part of the world.
My next exercise was the making of a list with human qualities.

I have invented something smart here, when the words are to be written on the blackboard. It can be a bit difficult for me to understand what the students say to me, but when I hire a "helper" to write on the blackboard, everything is easy.
Hmmm. I have to point out that it is a very good idea to find someone, who is extremely good at spelling.

I started talking about how to write letters. I explained to the students, that I will bring the letters they write to Denmark, and I was just about to write a list of important things on how to write a good letter, when they were saved by the bell.

But before that happened I had made my smart move.
Homework.
Their assigment for next day was to write 5 questions for me or for a fictious Danish student.

Soaking wet I moved to the canteen, where I swallowed 2 glasses of coke. When they were history I placed myself under a fan and looked at how life is in a Philippine staff room.
They have no walls, windows or doors, but apart from that they more or less talk about the same things, that Danish teachers talk about
Noone seems to look after the students during the breakes, and apparantly there is no need for that. So far I have not witnessed any fights between students here.
The school has about 1100 students but no teachers on playground duty.
That's thought provoking  

At 1 am I had a lesson in 1st year.

I stayed under the fan while I waited and grew more and more dry, so I would not drag a path of water after myself when I walked to the class room.
I kept having problems with the time, so once again it was a surprise to me when I was told it was time.

All lessons start with a common greeting, the purpose of which is to welcome the teacher and after the lesson they say good bye to the teacher.
A nice tradition in my opinion.
How nice to feel welcome.

We talked a little about the animals. I had now found out that a roadrunner moves at the speed of up to 27 km per hour, so the fastest animal is absolutely the cheetah
It was a bit more difficult to find out what animal was the most dangerous, but most students realized they should not mess around with a crocodile.

We also found out its a good idea to be careful with lions, tigers and snakes.
Sweet animals were cats, dogs and a lonely hamster. One outsider students claimed that a snail was a sweet animal.
We cannot discuss if an animal is sweet or not. From now on its common knowledge that a snail may very well be an e xtremely sweet animal.
We talked about their highest wishes and they wanted to be doctors, nurses, businesspeople and bankers.
Many students wanted most of all a long and happy life and I must same I understand them.
We sang a round. We started with "Are you sleping, Brother John", a song they already knew. I must say it sounded very impressive with a round, sung by 45 students, and especially when the room has no doors and windows.
The group with boys was a little smaller than the group with girls, but they were really able to sing well. And loud.
I spotted the principal outside listening to the performance and I hope it pleased her to listen to the very nice song.
Now it was time to sing in Danish, but first I had to tell them about the Danish letters æ, ø og å. I had begged them not to laugh, if they found it funny. Of course they laughed and when I pretended to be offended some of the girls got quite scared.
We played a game where we moved the letters in animal names. Cow was now woc and a goat was a toga. I told them about the Danish animal woc with 6 legs and the toga which even had two heads.
Quite soon one of the students saw through the stunt.
We also played "The vicar's cat", where two persons alternately give the stupid cat a quality.
The vicar’s cat is a blue cat.
The vicar’s cat is a stupid cat
The vicar’s cat is a .....
Sooner or later the participants run out of adjectives, and then the game automatically comes to an end.

Finally I started explained them about the writing of a letter. My plan is to bring with me a great number of wonderful letters when I have finished my job at Puerto Galera High School.
Back in Denmark I will try to ind penfriends for them.

The lesson was not bad at all, though I say it myself.
After all I have the right to do that, haven't I?