I’m going to break my
personal rule and make an assumption: Many of you never watched the old program
“Hee Haw” set in a cornfield with stars like Roy Clark and Buck Owens. I doubt
I would ever have watched it if I didn’t spend so many summers with
Grandparents while growing up and in college (where, let’s be honest, I was
still growing up). The whole Hee Haw gang is a pretty upbeat, satirical,
humorous group. However, there was usually a segment with overall-clad men
complaining about something random in some rhythm. Anyway, the open and close
of their act was the following stanza:
“Gloom,
despair, agony on me.
Deep
dark depression. Excessive misery.
If
it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
Gloom,
despair, agony on me.”
I can’t really
explain, when I was walking home exhausted and weighed down by an extremely
long day, why these lyrics popped into my head. However, they did in their long
dreary low tones (youtube it!) making me stop and think, why of all days would
I think these thoughts?
Well,
let’s look at all the gloomy, dark, agonizing, depressing, misery inducing, bad
luck things that happened to me today. I woke up at 4:37am for no particular
reason; however, thanks to donkeys, roosters, pigeons, cats and car horns I
wasn’t really able to get back to sleep. My phone’s decided it doesn’t want to
work so I can’t attempt to Fb text Mom or anyone. On the way to school around
9ish, my big right toe split open on the side so now walking on either foot
hurts (got blisters on left one going to funeral on Saturday) and of course I
left Band-Aids and Neosporin at home. I was able to have some help measuring
the wall for the mural, but washing the wall, hanging the stencil and tracing
it while on ladders at odd angles, caused me to have many knots form in my back
and bruises on my shins (from propping self on ladder). Temperatures are starting to get really
hot, so that was just an exhausting, though I was having to limit water as I am
teaching afternoon shift and the bathrooms at the school aren’t the best. Got
to my first real class of the semester, just to realize that all the work I did
rearranging the desks last week was undone so I can’t actually move through the
classrooms which leads to misery when I use proximity for classroom management
of 70 kiddos. I then had 2nd-4th period free to indulge a
headache and overall tiredness from pretty much being conscious since 4:30. 5th
period was a breeze (besides desks being crazy) but that left final period (4:30-5:12pm)
with the class that knows all my buttons. And, oh, did they push every button
in the most agonizing ways possible! Let them out early (5!) even though all
the other teachers had already left and we didn’t get everything covered for
the day. As I walked to the office I felt the first raindrops and rolled my
eyes at that bad luck. Of course the day that I stencil out a world map mural
with pencil is the day we get rain for the first time in months (all of 2016
plus some!). Started walking home just wanting to be done for the day, but
realizing I still need to plan for tomorrow, cook a real meal, find paint, and
rehydrate. Tigrigna music was blaring as girls washed laundry in my compound
helping the pounding headache along, and the power went out just as I was
starting soup. Rinsed out cut toe with candlelight trying to get all the dirt I
could see out; however, that lead to the disinfectant and Neosporin really
stinging.
Okay,
so today was a day I could (and just kind of did) complain about. I spent all
day at school for something that was destroyed with the evening showers. I had
a great lesson that only really worked for one class and another one that made
me feel like a “mean teacher.” I couldn’t twirl kids as I hobbled home. Gloom,
despair and agony.
However,
that’s only a part of today. I also had blueberries in my morning oatmeal, got
to pack a fun sack lunch for the first time in ages (2 small pb&j
sandwhiches, banana and jollyranchers), watch “Psych” (which makes one lol-out
loud), hang out with teachers in the opposite shift I never see, receive some
encouraging facebook and text message, have a geography teacher want to help
out with painting, met students who helped me trace the map mural, take a nap,
be fed a second small lunch of injera and silsi (tomatoes, onions and chili
sauce), record and plan out penpalling activities for students later this week,
listen to music on way home, use my nice hole-in-the-ground-toilet, read the Bible by candlelight, use new
Disney Princess band-aid on toe, drink tons of water (some with crystal light),
make a delicious new experimental soup, and laugh some more with Shawn and Gus
on “Psych.”
Life
in Peace Corps is hard. Life anywhere is hard. There are times that seem very
forlorn and disheartening. However, that’s only a piece of the puzzle of life.
There are other cool things going on. The rain today is going to allow me to
sleep in tomorrow and go to the post office for the first time this week
instead of trying to hurry a busy director into giving me approval to buy new
paint. Reading by candlelight is a simple pleasure I forget about. I’ll have
another day to reach my students and fill in the blanks from today’s lessons,
and have planned my semester with plenty of cushion days to work with. As Kelsey,
one of my dear PC friends, texted me today: “You are a cool and amazing person
and there isn’t a bad day that tea, some chocolate, a funny tv show or good
book, fuzzy blanket, and a stuffed animal can’t fix. Tomorrow is a new day.”
So, I’m passing those words of wisdom on to you. You are cool and amazing in
your own way. No matter if you have electricity (or chocolate) or not, fixing a
bad day doesn’t take that much. It mostly takes a change of perspective, a deep
breath, and the comfort that “tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it
yet” (Anne of Green Gables). And if you need a fun, hokey, twangy country show,
check out HeeHaw, maybe that song isn’t as depressing as I’ve let on. ;)
Update:
I went to school the next day and miraculously the world map mural was still
traced out! It took us a while to find blue paint, but a Geography teacher
buddy and I are going to start painting oceans on Monday! J
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