School and Changes

Last Thursday, when the whole school had a planning day and I had my own planning period, their meeting was apparently very interesting. On Friday, during recreo, the teachers and principal were discussing the possible upcoming changes. The man who came to speak presented a pilot program for this school that included a schedule that looks much more like ours in the States. Classes would be from 8 to 5:30 with a lunch break in the middle. The goal is to provide food for the students. Of course it is not yet known if the food will be provided or sold, or if the students will just go home to eat and return. Also unknown is who will pay for the food, or who will sell it should either of those be the chosen option. The biggest change with this program, though, is a very similar thought in elementary schools right now. The morning block is reserved for the classroom teacher. That means that in this school, PE, English and computers would all be taught after 2pm. The issue for me of course is Casa Achoy, where I will be from 4-6. I would need to leave here at 3:30 absolute latest to get downtown on time. That would leave me time to teach two classes per day instead of 4 or 5 that I need to teach (depending on which day). In talking with the principal, he seemed to think the program might start next school year. On the bus on Friday, the 1st grade teacher says to me, "Laura (I just LOVE the way my name sounds in Spanish), I need to tell you about our meeting yesterday. Did anyone talk to you?" I told her yes it had been mentioned but that she could elaborate. One of those cultural things is to ask several people for answers. When asking directions, ask as many people as it takes to get teh same answer two or three times; it could be seven people! Mexican culture is to give an answer. Whether it is correct or not is not important. An example given in DC was about making an appointment with someone (like a boss or someone in the business world). Even if the person knows they can´t be there at 9 on Thursday, they agree to it so you know they want to have the meeting. If they say no, even if the no is just for that day, it gives the impression that they never want to meet with you. So they say yes, assuming you will call back and confirm the day before, when they can tell you they´re sorry, but they have a conflict; can they reschedule? Our culture tells us that yes is yes and no is no (more or less, at least relatively speaking), so we don´t need to confirm; we said 9 on Thursday, so we´ll be there. We show up and they´re not there and it´s obvious they knew they wouldn´t be there so we´re ticked wondering why they would say yes when they knew they´d be out of town all weekend. They don´t understand why we showed up without confirming. At any rate, this teacher goes into the details of the meeting, and it seemed to slign with what I had heard: my classes in the afternoon, a lunch break, changes. I told her I was aware of that and when did she think it would start...October. So interesting!
Of course, after buying my ticket to Tucson (TWOk-sone), I promptly emailed Maribel, told her of the situation and went on my way packing for the weekend. I received her response quickly: "Laura, don´t worry about it; we´ll figure it out later. Just enjoy your long weekend!"
Oh, goodness. I actually took her advice. It may not be my norm, but I´m learning that things just happen here, and they happen in their own time, so why bother worrying about it. Maybe I can take that philosophy home with me in July.