Wuyi Public Primary School has been pretty rough on me the last 2 days. Everyday (except for Friday), I teach two classes of 40 six year olds. They can barely write and hardly read and have no english, which is fine, but there are 40 of them. The building is old and the corridors are echo-y. I have to speak in a booming head voice to keep their attention, but also I compete with the the unison chanting, screaming choruses and thunders from the other English teacher's classes up and down the corridor. Sometimes I feel I might faint from light-headedness. And lately, I have been getting yawn attacks in the middle of class, due to lack of oxygen, I suspect. I need to learn how to breath and boom-talk simulataneously. Today, I felt particularly defeated, which is unusual. My students are lovely and they are mostly eager, but their numbers are getting to me. I left the first period in a frustrated blur of "GoodByes"(evading the other teachers at our hangout spot). I had a brief moment padding toward the communal bathroom where I was thinking "This sucks. I hate this." But actually, I have never thought this before, never, ever in all of my teaching thus far. In fact, its been rather okay, with big ups and big downs, up until today. I quite like teaching. Certainly, this is just an off week. I needed to dissipate so I took 10 minutes at break and meandered in the old living quarters behind the classroom building with my new camera. This is where the school chefs, janitors, groundskeepers live, and maybe even the teachers, I bet probably even the teachers. I felt a whole lot better afterward. I call the pictures a "A place for it."
Bonus: After school I went to the market.
