Something Else

One of the aspects of my job that I like the most is the amount of freedom that I have. For example, I saw my boss for the first time in three months the other day. Yet, it should be no surprise that I am working just as much as if I was in the typical U.S. 9-5 job, and perhaps more depending on what you count as work. The point is that I can take hobbies and turn them into my job without much concern as long as they pass the test of my own conscience. For example, while visiting one of the primary schools I am assigned to I noticed that there were a lot of broken tables and benches (all the students here share tables and use benches not chairs). In passing I mentioned that I could probably repair them all. The director of the school happened to like that idea very much and long story short, two weeks, one black and blue thumb, two tubs of glue, one broken hammer, five cuts on my left hand, 60 rounds of tea, 3 kilos of nails, and 2,500 UM (~$13) from the parents association for materials later, 15 tables and 16 benches are now repaired. That’s enough seating for over 100 students which means there are no longer kids sitting on the floor at that school. Again, not exactly environmental education work, but its hard not to feel good about it. Plus, the school director and the inspector are pretty happy with me now and that should make my other projects go more smoothly.

While I was spending the two weeks repairing tables I felt bad that I was only at the one school and not doing environmental work because the director of the other school is really into it. About half way through I saw the other director and apologized for not being around to do environmental projects. When I explained what I was spending my time doing, he said “Really? That’s great! We have a whole bunch of broken tables at my school too!” I went over to check them out the other day, and let’s just say that there wasn’t the space to store all of the broken tables in one room so they had to split them up between three. There are more students sitting on the floor than there are at tables but there are enough tables for everyone if they all were repaired. I could easily spend two months just fixing tables there, which I will eventually do, but just one day a week at a time. Of course this project fails under the category of aid and not development by my previous definition, but when it costs next to nothing to give desks to hundreds of students, it’s hard to let the broken tables just sit there. However, I am looking for a parent who knows carpentry to help me out though.

Pictures of the two schools in which I work here: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/PrimarySchools#