My week 15 of 2019

Sometimes things happen just to remember you that you can help someone to think different. We are done with the Performance assessments of the 4th year students. This week we started with visits to the 3rd year students; hopefully, they will be better prepared for the assessment in year 4.

On Tuesday I went to a part of Curacao I love, Bandabou. The school ‘San Hose’ is situated in Barber. A house I build 18 years ago is nearby. A lot of things happened and unfortunately, I am not living there anymore.

In one of the classes (grade 1), there was a boy who was a pain for the teacher. So he was punished and had to stay in during recess. No problem for him. He asked if he could do math. I couldn’t believe my ears. He liked it and he was good at it; although a little chaotic. I asked him what he would like to become later. He answered that he would like to become a bricklayer or a maker of charcoal. Probably his father and grandfather have those jobs. I asked him about becoming a math teacher. He asked what school he should go to.

Later, during the math class, he got a more difficult exercise. He struggled with the first and then he finished first. Even before the ones that had an easier exercise. Then my student decided to make him an assistant teacher. He was proud and he helped some of the other children. This was the highlight of my day!

Unfortunately, I could not take a photo of him, because of all the privacy precautions. I asked my student to ask his teacher, principal, and parents if I could have a picture of him. But the chain is long.

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On Wednesday I Skyped with the screening commission about the thesis of my students. So frustrated. One of them did good but because she changed some things in the end, the beginning needs some changes. I think we can do this in a short time. The other thesis is another thing. I have been working for almost a year with this student. It is like she doesn’t understand what I am telling her. She thinks that I am the one holding her back and not wanting her to finish or something like that. But now the screening commission says what I have been telling her and more. There is work to be done. This is difficult for me. I have tried so many things and with different people. We will see.

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To make table tennis more popular one of the members of Table Tennis Federation of Curacao, Stanley Montroos, organized with the school where he used to teach, a table tennis tournament in Sambil Shopping Mall. The floors were slippery, different shades of light came in from different directions, there were mirrors on the wall and there was some awful noise they called music. There were players present that I know from the federation but also a lot of players that just came to see what it was about. There were also some youth players. My parents got some new children to train now.

I was the only female player and I won all of my matches. I was able to concentrate and focus on the game and find a way to cope with the light. I was surprised I could do that.

Raul thinks that if I start to train Karate, I will become better. Although all my life I have been exercising, my breathing is still a problem. Raul says that Karate is also the solution to that. Next month he will start with Karate classes.

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Finally, I dedicated some time to my proposal. I was tired and the proposal is still a little chaotic. Hopefully next week I can have more work done.

I worked this week on and off. Some days I was so tired I couldn’t complete the day. I forget things and make mistakes. I do not like that. I went to the medical doctor and she told me to try to rest the coming week.

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