Friday, December 7, 2012

Flush Toilet!

Not much has changed recently. I've been doing literacy work with kids, and they've been learning, slowly but surely. Some more slowly, and some more surely. The semester is coming to a close, though, and they have tests to take, so I don't know how much more I'll work with them this year.

I also don't know if I'll be working with them much next year. The principal called me in yesterday and wanted me to switch to working in 7th and 8th grade teaching English. My English classes in the school last year were not pretty, but she assures me that the 7th grade class only has 24 students, and they're well behaved and very manageable. I have my doubts, but students have been asking me to help me with their English worksheets, which include English words such as the colors 'bleu' and 'maron' (for blue and brown) and the animals 'superfly' and 'tigre'. If they're going to ignore their English class, they might as well be ignoring real English.

Some good news from about a month ago: after more than a year of living in a toolshed with no bathroom, I've increased my standard of living...I'm now living in a toolshed *with* a bathroom! My landlord has been talking about building something since before I moved in, but I finally pointed out that I could give him an advance on the rent, but the amount of rent left to be advanced was getting pretty smaller each month. I was expecting a latrine out in the yard (he had a hole, all he needed to do was put up some walls and a roof), but they installed a flush toilet and a shower.
I still have no door, but since I live alone, it doesn't seem like an urgent need.


Notice the low-flow, environmentally friendly showerhead.

Seriously, I've got indoor plumbing. If it weren't for the mosquitoes, I wouldn't know I was in the Peace Corps. All that's missing is for all the water to be clean enough to drink and to come in any temperature I wish, immediately. And those machines that do your dishes and wash your clothes for you. Haha, as if things like that actually exist. How about a magic box that produces a hot meal in a couple of minutes, just by pushing some buttons on the side? What would people do with all their time?

2 comments:

  1. ... Or what about thin rectangular boxes that produce colored moving pictures with sounds to match. If only! Oh boy, your kids are going to be in such trouble when they begin whining about their modern American conveniences. I can hear you lecturing them now... "Back in my day when I was in the DR..."

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  2. Actually, most families have a TV (or two). It's interesting that television seems to be more important than most other technology. Living without plumbing is one thing, but living without soap operas is a crime against human dignity.

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