I was teaching my second first grade class (my angels) when I got a text from Maribel saying they would be coming to school again to tape again. Ugh. She didn't ask this time if I had a shirt.
I was not in the mood for it. I'm not really sure why. But I would have to deal. It occurred to me that it was already 10:00 and recess would be in 20-30 minutes, so I texted her telling her it was almost recess, that they shouldn't come for another hour- or maybe tomorrow? She was quick with the response saying no can do, Boss's orders. Bummer.
I enjoyed recreo as much as I could, trying to think of something else creative to do with the kids today. Nothing came to me, so I decided we'd just do the exact same thing we had done on Friday.
At 11 on the dot, Maribel (with an English button up in hand), Arturo and a camera man showed up. After greetings all around and popsicles for those who wouldn't be teaching, Arturo leaned over to Maribel and said, "It's after 11. Shouldn't recreo be over?" "Not at this school."
At 11:15, we made it to the 5th grade classroom. It went much more quickly this time since we all knew what we were doing. The students coached me and told me I shouldn't laugh this time. Also, this camera man (who had to come because he had a professional camera), in my opinion, wasn't very good. He would turn the camera on and off a lot instead of just capturing it all and then editing later. And oddly enough, Arturo was better at creative angles, etc. We did two takes and were out of there to the 2nd grade classroom only to find that less than half of the half of the kids who had bought books had them with them (1/4 of the class or less, you follow that?). It didn't matter. They decided they'd film mostly me anyway. Of course, due to the dress-meets-button-up combo, the filming was waist up. The kids did fine. We played the same game from before and they were much more comfortable with the game. Of course, the camera man missed the two rounds where the kids knew the answer without hesitation and only captured the rounds where they struggled. Arturo had noticed which kids knew something and which didn't and focused on them when he had the camera on kids.
Finally, we needed the first grade shout of, "We love English class!" They were all in PE, so we decided to do it out on the cancha. I somehow escaped the greeting kiss from Ramón, but I'm guessing he had given me one at some point that morning.
Again, this camera man was not as skilled. We practiced with the kids (since a- this wasn't something they said on a regular basis and b- this time we had both classes together) and the camera man would say in a quick rhythm, "Uno, dos tres." The kids would then shout their phrase. We practiced that way about 15 times. Then it came time to film. This time, he slowly drew out, "uuuuuunooooooo, doooooooos," and then just pointed for tres. You can't change the rhythm of the counting and expect the result to be the same. It was awful. It took forever and the kids were getting tired of it. I don't think it ended up how we wanted it, but we'll see.
It was noon by this time, so Maribel said they could take me home from there. Arturo (like the rest of Culiacán) is at a minimum an acquaintance of Alma and Shania, so he knew how to get to Alma's house. They dropped me off and that was that. Or so I thought!
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