Let me tell you a story. It begins at 9:30 on a day much like today. But before I get to that maybe I should preface my story by saying that last night I asked my host brother who speaks great English to ask my host grandmother what time I needed to go to school on Friday. She replied though my translator that she didn't know and called the director. The director told her and she told my host brother and he told me that I didn't need to go to school tomorrow…at this point I should have realized that this word of mouth would soon cause me some problems, I dislike installing the game of telephone into a place of power in my life. But anywho, I went to sleep last night carefree and oblivious to the fact that at around 9:30 I would be quite rudely awakened by my host brother who simply told me "the director called, you need to get up and go to school" and then he sauntered back to his room and was already back asleep by the time I had gotten up to ask him for some more information. My host grandmother had already gone to work and therefore would not be around to cook me some breakfast, my host brother refused to acknowledge anything but his pillow so I was left to get dressed and head in the general direction of school on my own. I had a mini debate with myself on what exactly I should wear, but decided that since it would be my first day at the school I should dress at least a little professional but I left my dress shoes at home and went in my sneakers. Luckily the school is easy to find and I still remembered where Doamna Directors office is…however I nearly started to panic when I found the secretaries office full of people and loud talking emanating from the directors office. My Romanian was failing me in this situation but I managed to get the words "Doamna Director" to come out of my mouth in a sort of question like way and luckily the secretary understood and told me just to go right in. The director was busy with a group of girls and after she acknowledged my presence and told everyone both in her office and in the secretaries office that I was the American volunteer she instructed me to wait outside until she called me. I went back to the secretary's office and proceeded to wait for about ten minutes with people that I assume are also teachers at the school and who were in a very cheery mood. Soon the director came out of her office called me back in and informed me that today I had the day off, Saturday and Sunday were the weekend and that on Monday I would be going to the Raion, Falesti, for a conference for English teachers. All of which I already knew. I thanked the director for I'm not sure what, came home and only just caught my host brother as he was leaving…If I had been a minute later I would have came home the doors would have been locked and no one would have been home.
So basically this is a story about the importance of communication, let this be a lesson to everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment