A New Job

I can tell I am tired by my apathy over God’s beautiful creation here, lack of patience for things I used to enjoy, and rude answers to people I love. (Don’t worry, writing this has helped me feel better.) So why am I so tired? After all, I just finished the school year in late August. Shouldn’t I be well rested? A week after finishing, not knowing what I would do with myself exactly, but needing to do some things yet before I go home, I was offered a new job. It is a temporary one, and one I couldn’t turn down.

So I now work for the Casa de Esperanza! I am there from 8:30 to 5:30 every day Monday through Friday. The need came about in a roundabout way. There was an accident on Death Road (no one died). The person in charge of the town’s daycare was injured and needs time to recover. The Casa de Esperanza is in charge of the town’s daycare (I had no idea about that), and they couldn’t close it while they waited for the teacher to return. So the person in charge of most the schooling aspect for the kids (controlling homework, dealing with notebooks, computer research, and the library), had to go to work at the daycare, leaving the Casa without help with schooling. So, since I was available and already work under the same organization (the CEC and the Casa are under the same board of directors and have the same founders), it fell into my lap.

I spent this week figuring out who is who, which house each child lives in, what grade the kids are in, who are the others in the same grade, who the tias are in each house, what the schedule is each day, how to deal with and help in the library, how to do research on their computers, in what order to visit the houses. In addition, I am refiguring out how to have a normal day-job outside of the home. Teaching home school all year gave me a lot of freedom to do laundry in the daylight (I do it outside) before grading and planning, take my coffee to work with me, do the day’s dishes after each meal and not all in one shot at the end of the day, etc.

So far, it has been a blessing, but one of those blessings that comes in a character-building way. It was a lifelong dream of mine to work in such a capacity, and I am really grateful the opportunity fell into my lap at a time when I had no reason I couldn’t do it. I am getting to know the kids and tias better, enjoying Bolivian food at lunch, and starting to understand the Bolivian school system a little better. It isn’t easy work, but it is rewarding.

Six weeks. Well, just over five weeks now. That’s all I have left here. Then I go on a little trip and then my visa will be up. The time is ticking…not flying, but ticking away nonetheless.