When Teaching English, Wear a Bra

Two weeks ago I started to volunteer at a church teaching children English. It is something I wanted to do before coming here for practice. I am also using the experience to write a paper for my Spanish culture class. From one day of volunteering I have enough to write a 3 or 4 page paper, it was quite an experience. The first day I went to the church we (Kate and I) did not really do much but meet some people, last Monday was the first real day of teaching. The children range in age from 6 to 14 and they are all quite aggressive. The older ones immediately started with vulgar questions. First they were obsessed with wrestling and saying smack down. Then one told us he has a shirt that says “Fud me I am famous” and he wanted to know the significance of fud. Obviously a shirt lost in translation. Anyway after talking about the shirt they started yelling fucky and would not stop for ten minutes. Then another fine young man joined our group and started asking about various rappers and as well as throwing down the west-side symbol. He also told me that his mother is a prostitute. He then got up on the table and took his pants off and started twirling them around on his hand. I about lost it and could not stop laughing because I did not know what to do, it was a lost cause. Laughing was a bad decision because after putting his pants back on, he took them off again. After this little game, the older kids starting chanting mother fucker and would not stop. When the real teacher walked in to see how we were doing they all called him a mother fucker and he did not really react. I don't know if he was unaware of the significance of mother fucker or if he just ignored it. He told them to listen and pay attention and put one kid in a minor head lock and left the room. The situation was not resolved and mother fucker continued to be the word of the day. I then had another boy come up to me and ask me the significance of playboy, hmm. I actually explained to him what it was because in Spain being naked and wearing clothes is equal and I knew he had seen plenty of nude women in magazines and public access television. Finally the older boys left and we started to focus on some of the younger children. One would think this would be a controlled situation, not really. I was wearing a tank top with a built in bra and a girl of seven years old pulled my shirt out and asked why I was not wearing a bra. She then grabbed my boobs, a few times. After my boobs became a bore, she asked me how to say puta (which has various meanings in Spanish depending on the use, a popular meaning is whore) and mierda (shit) in English. I responded with poop. At this point we were almost done with our duties and I went to get my purse and upon my return the girl took one final boob pinch when I walked by. Among the many lessons learned, the most important is to wear a real bra. I don't think this will be the last story about my volunteer experience.