Kids gone wild

I know, I'm a bad blogger. I haven't not been updating my blog lately and to be honest, its because I'm too busy. Every day I think of a new blog post but by the time I come home I'm exhausted and have to put it off for another day.
Nevertheless, things have been fantastic. The kids I teach and the women I work with are so kind, generous, grateful and loving. Even though I struggle, everyday is truly a blessing.

That being said, I thought I would share some of my crazy moments with you. As you may imagine, teaching ESL to 25 kids ranging from 4-12 is not an easy task. An even harder task is getting them all to sit still for more than 5 minutes. Sometimes I get frustrated but most of the time they are just so cute so all I can do is laugh.
In the neighborhood where I work, women do not have time to watch their kids 24/7 like we obsessively do in the US. That is not to say they are bad parents, they are amazing, but its pretty humorous what happens when they do turn their back for a minute. Remember when you were told all the things kids should not be doing, well I've basically caught my kids doing all of the above and then some. In my personal experience I have witnessed and caught my students doing the following:

• Beating each other with sticks. Yes, I know that doesn't seem like much, but after I took the sticks away from them I realized they had rusty nails all over them. Lucky for all of us, no one was harmed.
• Playing with matches. When I caught them huddled in a corner playing with these I had to laugh because it was so wrong. How many parenting books specifically advise against this, I thought?
• Running with scissors. If only this happened once. This happens on a daily basis and although I try to keep the scissors away from them, they always find sneaky ways to get them back into their cute little hands.
• Playing in garbage. The shelter I work at is pretty big and is equipped with a small farm, two classrooms, a garden and a huge garbage pile. The kids are most fascinated with the garbage pile and like to climb all over it. I spend more time than I'm proud to admit picking the children out of the trash and diverting their attention to the nice grassy yard.
• Eating glue. Now, they are not eating glue to get addicted, they just like to put absolutely anything that looks appealing in their mouths. After glue eating wouldn't stop, I had to take it all away, so they moved on to sucking on markers. I have lectured them several times about not putting things in their mouths but I think it just encourages them more.

 These are just a couple examples of the kids-gone-wild incidents I encounter daily. Even though I am paranoid about their safety, I must laugh at how funny it can be. They really are the best kids in the world and they use their imagination to have as much fun with the limited resources around them. No matter how much trouble they get into or how dirty they are I still give each of them a hug and kiss and tell them I love them. I think that is all that matters anyway.