July 26: Meet the Teachers

This day began with me and Ben leaving Talia at the apartment with Mama, Chel and Blanca. We had breakfast at a place with “Palace” in the name. I had some excellent pancakes with blueberries on top. Mmmmmm. Here we were able to meet with the other teachers who flew in this year. Let me introduce you:

Ms. H: 25(+-) From Georgia and is going to be teaching Middle School World History. She is threatening Mr. M that he will have no geography left to teach them by the time her students get to him.

Ms. K: 23 Cousin to Mr. M coming from the Wisconsin area. She is going to be teaching Kindergarten (and do a fabulous job, she has the perfect personality for it.) She has brought a pirate costume as part of her teaching wardrobe.

Mr. M: 26 Is going to be teaching High School History/Geography. He has a wonderful sense of humor and easy going nature essential to Guatemalan survival.

Mr. A: Gentleman from Ukraine originally and I think currently from Canada, here to teach High School Geometry. He can speak Ukrainian, Hebrew, French, Russian passable English and probably several other languages I’ve never heard of. He has a doctorate in some sort of technology.

Mr. D: Gentleman from Boston area who has experience at many, many International schools. He will be teaching High School physics. Excellent at knowing about everything and sharing that knowledge without making the listener feel inferior.

Mr. C: 25-30 Hired to be the Assistant Principal for the middle school, he traveled here from an International school in Beijing with his wife and 10 month old darling daughter. Originally from Canada, he is interested in sparking interest in rugby in Guatemala City.

Ms. L: 26 Wife to Mr. C., she will be teaching Kindergarten. Originally from Australia, she gets “annoyed” when we insist on calling the rubbish bin a “trash can.” They currently reside in a nice house with four bathrooms, one which, because of interesting neighbors and venting systems, is called the “pot” room.

After meeting all of the new teachers and being impressed with how well we all got along (and very grateful for that) we went to the school and figured out our school email and passwords… and then it was off for shopping! In the shopping mall, where we ended up buying mostly hangers, I was pleasantly surprised to find a Subway… a Subway that served the option of avocado on your sandwich. Yum! They also had a café that served excellent mocha.