The Day After!

We were still shaken over the murder incident last night and again this morning.   Last night went out to a meal in Tela and talked to our Italian friend who owns a pizza restaurant.   She said the police had talked to her and the killer was not a danger to the community.   It was an incident between 2 people, probably following a dispute or a drug incident.

The thing that shook Glenn up the most was that he was there within 1 or 2 minutes after the murder.   He rode his bike from the service station to the scene, not knowing that anything was amiss.   The only vehicle he saw in that time was a man dressed as a policeman riding a police bike.   When he arrived at the scene there was no policeman directing traffic or covering the body.  The police arrived nearly an hour later.    From those facts we can only make our own deductions.  

There are constant reports in the Prensa our nearest newspaper about murders with 3 or 4 graphic photos of the blood and gore of the murders.   This murder didn't even warrant a report.   It wasn't newsworthy!

We went on a shopping trip to El Progreso a 2 hour bus ride from Tela today to clear our mind and watched the childrens' movie, 'Alice in Wonderland.'   It was a wonderful release from the churned up feelings we'd had.

Please go back to the posting I did in Teaching in Tela.   There's a video of my students working and you can see why we love being here.

Teaching in Tela

I think this is the best year I've ever had in teaching. I know that's a very bold statement to be making at my age but it's true!

My students are delightful, stimulating and also challenging, making life very interesting for me. I have 3 boys who gave me heaps over the last 6 months but are now eating out of my lap. It just took 3 parent interviews to fix it and now the boys are doing as they are told and not yelling at each other when they feel like it.

The girls on the other hand could not be nicer. There are 6 intelligent girls who do not have hang-ups, love to work and love helping the slower children when they can not understand. It's like having 6 Teachers' aides who do exactly as I ask. All this in a big classroom, with only 16 children and a room that is cooled by 4 large fans. It's nicer than being inside out. To make it even better the weather is cool, in the low 20's and very pleasant apart from the rain and the puddles and wet paths leading to school.

We have an interesting parents' day coming up. It's very serious! We all have to teach the children while the parents hover around watching us work. I have to take 2 lessons and I've chosen Maths and Reading. Miss Calix, the school principal and a lovely lady, explained it all to me in Spanish. She does not like to work too hard and I do not blame her for that either. She works at another school, teaching Grade 2 from 7am to 12 noon and then rushes straight to our school to act as principal until 5 pm. It's good that she does not like a heavy load, Because she's arranged for us to have student free time on Friday from 3.00 till 5.00 to prepare the 2 lessons we are teaching on the open day. I 'm quite happy with that! I can hear you teachers out there complaining that we've got it too easy.

It is so much easier here than teaching in a first world country without the unnecessary stress and paperwork and so rewarding.

If you'd like to see some of my students working please have a look at this Youtube video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9K1NWzIZgs

Excitement in our street!

Glenn had gone off on his bike for the newspaper at 7am, I was catching up on sleep after a late night chatting with our visitors.   Suddenly, I was awoken by at least 12 large bangs.   I thought they were firecrackers, but they seemed louder than usual.  I heard a few words and then silence.  

Glenn came in a few minutes later and sat on the bed looking very shaken.   He'd had to ride past a body of a middle-aged man lying in the middle of the road with three large bullet wounds in his back, his bicycle dropped to the ground by his side, just a block from our house.  It was on the corner of a state school, the students had fortunately started at 7.00 am.   At that stage Glenn said, there were only a couple of taxis stopped nearby and a dozen people standing watching.  Even a mother came with her young child  to see the action.

The crowd gathered.

From our kitchen window, we could see the crowds coming from nowhere, people clambering to get a better view, others just standing watching.  Kids came from the school close by, the secretary and most of the early morning teachers from our school went to join the excitement.  An hour after the shots, the uncovered body was still lying on the ground, . The police finally arrived to divert the traffic.   Two hours later the body was finally removed and life was back to normal.

The nature strip outside our house.

While all this was going on, there was a rattle on our gate.   A scruffy looking man with a machete hanging loosely by his side, had seen our nature strip.   He offered to cut our grass, for a small fee of course!