30 Girls & 1 Dog

Sigh.  It’s been a draining couple of days for me.  Today we had our first day as teachers, the first time EVER that we’re teaching an actual class.  We had to deal with attendance, election of officers, our syllabus, and other teacher stuff.  Suddenly it was so real and final.  Let me just say, the girls were absolutely great.  Some of them (about 5-7 girls) are ready to go, just give us a month, and they’d be good to put on the air.  And even some of the girls who didn’t do as well, actually have potential to even surpass the already good ones.  I was very impressed with how they all spoke, none of that kolehiyala English (which I have nothing against, I just prefer the regular English over it), just good old-fashioned, clean English.  And we have a mishmash of girls with varied interests.  Some liked rock, some liked trance, one hated country music, one didn’t really want to be in radio but to make films in the future, one was a hilariously funny girl, one was a painfully shy Korean girl who struggled with the language, one wanted to be a journalist, and we even have a student who already works as a student DJ in a rival station!  Even on the first day of classes many girls already exceeded our expectations.  So can you imagine how good they can potentially be?  As teachers, I don’t think we did great, but I don’t think we did bad either.  But one thing was crystal clear to us: TEACHING IS MUCH HARDER THAN WE EXPECTED.  Maybe it’s because it’s our first day, but we certainly had a feeling of biting off more than we could chew.  But the possibilities of what these girls could learn is what pushes us on.  If we could aid, in whatever capacity, the growth of even just one girl as a future broadcaster, it would already be worth it.  But for sure, we got our work cut out for us.

I guess another reason I’m stressed is because my Yorkie puppy, Cairo, has injured both eyes.  He was probably scratched by Nairobi during one of their wrestling matches, and now he has major scratches in both corneas.  He’s under a lot of medication, he’s wearing an Elizabethan collar (I don’t even have the heart to take a pic), and he’s  been sluggish the past few days.  He’s doing much better now, but one eye has turned milky white.  The vet said that that’s normal for an eye injury, but the sight of it really worries me.  He slept with me on my bed the whole day the other day, since he could only sleep if he snuggled in my arms.  Plus, I had to distract him because he was constantly trying to chew off his collar.  You have no idea how STRESSED I am with this injury.  It would kill me if he went blind or anything like that.  I just pray that we get to nurse him back to health.  80% of my waking hours is filled with fretting and dreading about my little one’s health.  I bleed whenever I see the poor thing, with his collar, and his white eye, still hopping on one foot, whenever he sees me approaching, as if none of his pain mattered as long as I pick him up.

So now, I’m a teacher AND a nurse….