Riots and Stealing Accusations

Friday, the 5-year-olds in my class started a riot. Background info: the children here are just naturally wilder and louder. It’s just a cultural thing. To add to that, the teacher I work with Marissa has the tightest control on these kids. She is very authoritarian and controls them with yelling and public embarrassment, two things I am not capable of doing with a 5-year-old. She expects them to be able to sit for two hours and listen. When she leaves the classroom, they turn into monsters. Back to the story: Marissa had to leave the room to go set up the video. She asked me if I could sing a song with the children. I had recently taught them a song that they really liked. I told them we would sing it, a few children protested but I ignored it. We sang the song, then when Marissa had still not returned, I had two groups of children come up and sing the song in front of the class. After the second time the children began to get a little loud. One child requested we sing another song I had taught them. Then, the children began to argue loudly in Spanish, seeing as only half of the class wanted to sing the other song. I yelled that we would not be singing any more songs. When half the class erupted into cheers, the children in opposition began shouting “NO” at the cheerers. Then the cheerers began shouting “YES”. In a deafening roar of rioting, I could NOT quite the children. I tried yelling, I tried whispering, I tried singing, I tried stomping my foot. After a panicked minute of not being able to control the children, I ran out of the classroom to get Marissa in the other room. And what happens…. She walks into the classroom and immediately the rioting children all quite, like nothing ever happened!! It was horrible!!

Then on Saturday, Jen and I were accused of stealing Sunscreen from the grocery store!! Weeks ago we had bought a bottle of sunscreen from the Super Amara. Yesterday, before heading to the beach, we decided to stop at the store to get some snacks. We walked in with our beach bag, through the stealing alarm detectors, and got our groceries and then headed to the line. While we were getting ready to pay, the alarm detector next to me kept going off. OF COURSE, the checker said something to me in Spanish that I couldn’t understand. I gave her our bag and she began to dig through it. With a triumphant “I caught the stealers” look, she pulls out the bottle of sunscreen. Stammering in Spanish, Jen and I attempted to explain we had paid for it days before. She asked us if we had a receipt! I don’t know about you but I do not save receipts from the grocery store that I visit every few days and pay cash at. When we told her no, she said we had to pay for the 8 Euros bottle of sunscreen… again!!! We paid and she pulled off this paper thin foil alarm patch off the bottle and we left completely embarrassed! Who steals sunscreen… come on!