a few more things

Here we are at the end of another block. I am a little worried about the grades of my high schoolers. I have had a great deal of trouble getting them to participate in class, to do homework, and to generally be interested. Although I realize that I can't put all the blame on them, I do put a lot on them. They refuse to stop talking and listen. Then they complain that they don't understand and want to switch to the other English class. Here is an example of how frustrating it is for me. At the beginning of this marking period, I made space for 5 students to make presentations at the end of each week. They were to read an article (in either Spanish, or English), write a summary (in English), type and print it, and bring it to class. When they got to class, they would read the article and answer any questions about it. I didn't think this sounded too hard--challenging, yes, but this is the most advanced class at the school. I had one (1) student do that correctly. Probably about 4 brought an article, but it wasn't typed. One didn't want to read it in class--but I was so glad he did it that I read it for him. The class is 20 students strong...and only 1 student fulfilled the requirements during the past 5 weeks. I even wrote a requirements sheet and gave them a sample article and summary of my own. Then most of the time I reminded them a couple times during the week.

Last night I was on my way home--I was accellerating down the hill where I usually get up some good speed when I noticed a ways ahead of me a group of people gathered in the road--probably an accident. As I approached I could see the reflective vest of a police man--"yup, an accident," I thought. I've seen countless accidents here of all kinds--car/car, car/motocycle, bus/car, truck/motorcycle... I've even had some close calls myself. A lot of people pull out in front of you (sometimes not even looking), or stop just in front of you. I could see there was definately a taxi involved. I scanned for the other car and didn't see one. Then I saw the taped off area of the street, and someone laying in the middle. Nobody was within 15 feet. He or she was covered with a sheet except for part of the lower legs. As I drove around the scene I felt sadness for the tragedy of what had just happened only minutes before. Without expecting anything someone had just lost their life. I thought of how that could have been me instead of the taxi driver. This is a stretch where I usually get up pretty good speed, as I said, and it's also a dark section of the road. I've seen so many people here walk out in to the road and then look to see if there are cars--sometimes running across and sometimes running back to the same side. Other people look but then keep walking slowly forcing a quick lane change. At night people will walk in the road pushing a cart wearing dark clothes. Some will lay on the raised concrete median with their feet dangling dangerously close to the passing cars. I definately need to be careful.

If that's not enough reason to be careful, here's another. I'm told that when something like that happens here, those involved are put in jail until they are proven innocent...which in these parts could take a while. I just heard of a case involving another missionary where he spent several days in jail until the family of the person he hit admitted that he was always drunk and probably the missionary was not at fault. Keep in mind this is just heresay--I don't actually know any more details than that, but it's something I don't want to put to the test if I can help it.

Thanks for reading. Take 'er easy.