My first week in Xela.

Wow, has it really only been just a week...it feels like so much longer! i feel like i have been living in this prehistoric dinasour era for at least a year! My skin is all shriveled up from the cold at nite and i've lost about 10lbs.  My spanish is coming along nicely (kind of).  I mean i definitely understand alot more now than i used to and it's cool that i'm using my brain again - it's been a while:-)  5 subsequent hours of class a day is definitely a shock to the system but im really lucky to have the opportunity to do this so no complaints here!
I really enjoy my morning walks to school - about a 20minute walk.  I am starting to recognise the same people every day standing on the streets.  i'm even getting the nerve to say good morning in spanish to some of them!

I study in the mornings and then in the afternoons i've been catching up on emails and trying to research volunteer opportunities round here.  I found myself checking my emails a bit too much so decided to take a time out and focus on properly finding volunteer work. 
CONTINUED... I found one place within walkable distance.  It's an orphanage and i'll be teaching english.  There will be 15 kids per class - i start tomorrow!  I'm a bit nervous as i have no idea how i'm gonna do this but it should be interesting!  i'm excited to meet the kids!

Although i wanna focus on the fun parts, it would be unrealistic if i didnt mention the low days....Friday was a really sad day...On my way to school i saw 2 guys carrying a guy that was slumped in their arms up the road (let's call the slumped fella Jose for the sake of this story).  I continued to walk but as i got closer to the top of the road, i realised that all those 2 guys had done was carry Jose from the middle of the street and prop him up on the pavement.  He was bleeding profusely from his skull, there was blood EVERYWHERE and they'd just left him there.  He was unconscious so i walk upto this woman who had just passed him and was staring at him and I tried, with what little spanish i knew, to get her to call an ambulance.  She told me that the ambulance was really nearby and she points me in that direction so i start running towards it but her directions sucked and i couldnt find it so i ran back.  I then stopped another guy who had also just walked past him and luckily he spoke english but he seemed extremely uninterested.  He said he had the emergency number at his desk at work and he'll call when he got in...So i thought: "ok, there's not much i can do now", the ambulance will be there soon and so i walked off...i was almost at my school when i decided to turn back and go stay with Jose - at least i could kick up a fuss and draw attention to us, especially since people just kept walking past him. I couldnt stop thinking about him the whole walk - thoughts like "is he gonna die by the side of the road today?"or  "could i have saved his life if i'd looked harder for the ambulance".  I rang my school and asked them to call the police and the ambulance.  When i got back to Jose, there were a couple of people with him luckily but by this point, he'd fallen of the pavement onto the ground again.  The ambulance came in the end and he was still breathing so that's good.   I was so upset when i got to school -  due to frustration at the fact that i couldnt express myself or help him sooner, along with the fact that i had just left him!  I don't know why i did that...i think it was a practical response i.e "Well i've done all i can, no one understands what the hell i'm saying neway,  I don't know CPR or how to stitch a head closed and i got to get to class".  I was so disappointed in myself and v upset at how people just walked past him...
I could not focus for the first 2.5hours of class so at break time i decided to go for a walk and grab a coffee.  It was a nice day so i sat outside drinking my coffee and I saw this homeless guy rumaging through the bin.  So i thought to myself "ok, this is my opportunity to redeem myself and do something nice for someone so I'm gonna buy him lunch".  So i walk upto him and say "excuse me" a couple of times  but he was too focussed on being in the bin than listening to me.  I finally got his attention and i almost jumped back when he looked up at me...His face looked so much like my dad that it startled me:-(  I ended up buying him a mcdees and he was really grateful but i was even more traumatised than i was in the morning so i ended up going back to class and crying!!! aarrrrgh!! Needless to say my 23 year old teacher didn't know what to say or do!:-)

So basically, Friday was a really sucky day.  I checked to see if it was Fri the 13th but it wasn't so i dunno what was going on!!  I see Jose's blood all over the payment every day I walk to school and i wonder if he made it in the end.  I really hope they got to him in time...:-(