Today was a bit out of the ordinary. Around 10:30am a constant bell rang, it sounded like a fire alarm. All the students seemed to know what to do so I followed them out into the “gymnasium.” Gymnasium is in quotes because it’s really just an open space outdoors where they practice sports. It’s pretty common here, an open (but covered) rectangular space in the middle of the school where the classrooms border along the outside. I lead the poor kids all over the place because I don’t really know fire drill procedures (wish they could have warned me). I find my co teacher and have them line up together. The chat is that it’s an earthquake drill. Silly me, earthquakes are obviously more prominent than fires.
They have the students assemble and shut up to make an announcement (quieting them down alone takes 15 minutes). All the while a faint smell of gas ensues. The announcement verifies that there is some sort of gas leak and that the carabineros (police) and bomberos (fire fighters) are on their way to check it out. Depending on how bad it is they may evacuate us to the street. So we wait for a good 15 minutes or so for the bomberos to show up, my head starts to hurt. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the screaming children (apparently they don’t seem to be too worried) or the fumes I’m continuing to inhale.
Well finally, a strong wave of gas ensues and they finally evacuate us to the street. At this point, people are starting to get sick and a few niños had to seek medical attention in the ambulances parked outside. I’m now a little lightheaded and wondering why the hell they haven’t sent us home yet. I end up waiting around for another hour or so not really sure what was going on. But apparently I could have left sooner rather than later. I should have because I was not a happy camper; my head was killing me (me duele la cabeza), I was worried about the severity of the situation, and I couldn’t deal with the constant high pitched Spanish being shot at me from all directions.
On the way home I start to feel a little better, but then it starts to rain! En serio?? Really? This is just not my day. I never would have thought I’d get caught in the rain here. The thing about the whole situation that I don’t understand is that, as soon as it rains for more than 5 minutes school is suspended and all the parents are there to pick up their kids instantly. When there’s a gas leak, it takes longer. Well anyway, tomorrow school has been suspended, not because of the gas, but because of the rain tonight that temporarily flooded all the roads. Who knows what’s going on with the gas, obviously the rain is so much more interesting! Hey, can't really complain about another 3 day weekend!
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