English Theater Performance

The English Theater competition was yesterday. The plan was for my group and two other groups that were coming from the same direction to all travel together. However, on Friday afternoon (the day before the competition) I got a phone call saying the driver who was going to take us raised his price significantly and without cause, and they were wondering if I could find a vehicle here in Nacaroa for my group. Luckily Sambo’s neighbor transports various products for local stores, so he had a truck, didn’t have any plans for the next day, and was willing to give us a very fair price considering it was last minute. The only problem was that since he usually transports products, he didn’t have the credential to transport people, and the administration had already closed for the weekend, so we couldn’t get an authorization letter. There was only one solution: take advantage of the corruption that plagues so much of the developing world.

I wanted to leave by 6:00, so I had told the students to meet at the local elementary school at 5:30. I was worried that they would oversleep since the majority of them don’t have alarms or phones, or even watches to know if they’re on time or not. But they all managed to be there by 6:00, and we headed out. The transit police in Nacaroa knew us, so we just explained where we were going and why, and they let us pass without any problems. My first thought: that was nice of them! Second thought: that was illegal and wrong and corrupt-it’s kind of like how teachers here let students pass when they should fail, and the students think “that was nice,” and I think, “That’s terrible and corrupt!” But when being corrupt helps me, my first thought is how nice these people are. The next transit police didn’t know us, so I gave the driver 100 meticals to slip them, and we passed right on through. My first thought: that was so easy! My second thought: No wonder students who have money just buy their grades; it’s so much easier than studying. The third and final transit police we passed on the trip didn’t make us stop. My first thought: yes, it’s our lucky day! My second thought: wait a minute, these police are getting paid by the government and doing absolutely no work.

We arrived in good spirits; I’d bought juice and bread for our breakfast on the way. We were the third group to perform. They made a few mistakes, but nothing major, and overall they performed well, and had worked really hard for the past two months. We just had the disadvantage of being from the rural school. The schools from the cities had students who could watch TV in English all the time, had access to computers and the internet, and were the kids of well educated parents. The level of English of my students just didn’t compare. But I’m really proud of them, and I think they did a really great job with respect to their abilities and the opportunities they’ve had in life. Even though we didn’t win, the students seemed to be really glad they’d done it, and didn’t think it was a waste of time. They each got Portuguese/English dictionaries, T-shirts, and certificates for participating, and 100 meticals for “travel expenses,” which they didn’t have any of so they could buy whatever they wanted.

On the way home, it was late so we didn’t run into any transit police. Tomorrow is a national holiday (September and October are full of holidays!), which means various groups will perform dances/songs/etc in the town pavilion, where we’ve been rehearsing. When we got back yesterday, the students said they wanted to perform for the village on the holiday. Luckily I’d helped the person who’s in charge of organizing the program for performances with some English explanations a while ago, so he was more than happy to put us in last minute.