Frustrating is kind of an Understatment

So obviously nothing is going to go as perfect as it does in your head.  But Anna, Caralyn, and I are all pretty torn….but in totally different ways. My idea of perfect, your idea of perfect, and everyone else's idea of perfect are completely different.

Today was our first day at the school, getting the classroom prepared and learning how to teach. We learned a bit more about our job description and were alarmed to find out that “kindergarteners” means2-year-olds. Not 5-6 year-olds who can carry a conversation with you.  And we only teach for 1-1.5 hours a day. We finally were able to call Spencer (one of the directors). When he found out the people we were living with weren’t teachers he said “that’s odd”, which kind of freaked us out…a lot.

Last night we met Shirley. She is one of the coordinators for living around here. Apparently she was supposed to be there at the airport to pick us up, but I’m not entirely sure what went wrong.

So when we got home, we Skyped Spencer and told him a long list of things that were very much bothering us. He was very upset about MANY things that happened. He told us that Shirley should have been there at the airport, and that they never put teachers in with locals.And even if they did, that would be something discussed and agreed upon by all tenants, native and teacher. He said that relocation could be very probable, and that no place would be as nice as what we’re living in. Here’s just a small list of things that have gone wrong:

1)      When we arrived, no water was available to us, and neither was food. We didn’t have breakfast the first morning, and we didn’t know how we were going to get food.

2)      There was a lack of explaining what we should be prepared for (age group, lessens, etc)

3)      The people we’re living with aren’t responsible for us, but they feel bad so they’re trying to be, that’s not fair to them, they even bought stuff for us.

4)      We were told there would be a place to go shopping and we don’t know where to go, what places are good, what prices are good, there are lots of things we didn’t pack because we were assured we would be able to buy them in China. We still do not have those things.

5)      The people that picked us up at the airport were not associated with the school at all.

6)      Everything we’ve been learning is from here/say.

If we were to only have one thing changed, it would be the age group. Like I said, we were under the understanding that we would be teaching kindergarten....5-6 year olds. 2 year olds will never remember us, and probably not really retain and English anyways. We’re not totally fond of the idea of babysitters….As a volunteer, our payment is the reward of seeing what our knowledge does in their life for the better; when a student understands what we're teaching. The sign on the school says "day care", that was a major concern.

There’s been so much frustration; it’s wearing on all three of us. Anna and Caralyn have were great and dived in, but at this point their perfect world would be a plane ride home. Mine? Living in a hut in rural China, with no internet immediately assessable, eating rice and vegetables all day, and teaching in a school that’s falling apart with students who have nothing to their name, but are richer than kings because of their hunger for knowledge….and me being able to share a piece of it with them.