Day: March 9, 2013
We went on a whale watching trip today!
We had to get up super early and met at the school around 7:15 and carpooled to Port Allen. I was in a car with Robin and Chantalle, and got to listen about the (really interesting) story about them moving to Bali and the green school. Sadly, 5 minutes before we arrived Orus’ dad called, while driving through Anahola, trying to coordinate the boat to wait for him. Robin parked and stayed on the phone. Chantalle and her son left. Isabella and I were trying to figure out how to get the girls to the bathroom (with or without the lunches) – so finally after almost 10 minutes I used my “teacher Sonja” voice and ordered to leave backpacks and life vests and cross the street to go to the bathroom. Robin hung up the phone that second, and ordered them to take their stuff. We crossed the street a bit unorderly for my taste, and the kids took their lunches and stuff into the restrooms, which I thought was gross. It got a bit better after that. We did a little blessing that Chantalle lead to call the whales and ask for calm weather and water and a few other things…
The captain told us all about the rules on the boat, but I could not really understand it all as it was too loud. I figured there would be at least 3 other people watching the kids and did not worry about it. Robin did not assign buddies, and I was a bit alarmed from the lack of coordination already, so I asked her if she was not going to assign buddies… she looked at me strangely and said. Everybody, grab somebodies hand. I was not too happy about that, but it was too loud and chaotic for me to even try to explain what I meant. …
Sadly I forgot the ginger cookies I had brought to share. We went on the boat, and I let people know I had made strong ginger tea, but they preferred ginger ale, which I thought did not have a lot of ginger in it… anyway, Leilani and I had drunk a lot of tea. We put our stuff down, and 2 kids, followed by Leilani ran to the front. I told the adults I was going to the front with them, as I did not feel the boat was a safe enough place to leave Leilani alone. We found a nice bench in the front of the boat, prime views, and as far as possible from the potentially seasick people in the back of the boat.
Most the time the children behaved really well. We had lots of fun, even though there were not a lot of whales. I was a bit disappointed that the kids were told to were life vests, but then one of them got an exception, and nobody really explained to me who was exempt and I did not know how well the other kids swam. It made me a bit unpopular, as I enforced the original rule and made them put their life vests on. Later they figured out they could go back to Robin and take their life vests off too. Robin later said that captain Aaron had said they could go without, as they were tall enough.
Occasionally some of them went to the back, which worried me and left me struggling whether to stay with the ones fairly safe in the front, or go with the ones walking towards the back …
Chantalle came to the front for a while, but she was the only adult. Isabella was a bit seasick, and Robin said she was feeling great, but didn’t look the part, so I assumed she was a bit seasick too.
A whale. No a turtle. And what the kids are doing is forbidden, as I later learned from the other boat guide, as if the boat was to hit a big wave in just the moment their chin hovered on top of the reeling…
There was a lot of wind…. and Leilani had to go to the bathroom, and did not want to use the marine toilet…
Lining up to drive the boat
Captain Leilani
Fortunately the rain spared us. That was the end of the good part of the trip, I was upset at Robin at that point, because she had not once helped out in the front, or taken a child back and forth, or even come to talk about whales or their experience…
I had to go to the bathroom, as well as Leilani. Robin did not tell the kids when we came from the boat ramp onto the road. Isabella and I tried to shuffle them to the side, while Robin and Chantalle were upfront. Robin wanted to leave right away, that left me to suggest a bathroom break. After that we drove to Kahili Mountain Park. We had lunch, and the kids had a lot of pent-up energy. Before lunch there was some crying, after lunch they ran wild.
Waaaayyyy too wild for my taste. Not surprisingly after getting up 2-3 hours earlier than normal, and sitting all morning. I guess my ginger cookies did not help either…. not even 5 minutes after they started playing Eden fell off the Merry-Go-Round, and was dragged, she screamed. After she managed to free herself she ran off. Robin looked up from her discussion with Chantalle and said “She’s still moving, she is all right.” I could not believe my ears. I could not believe how insensitive a person could be towards a crying child, Eden is really tough (when it comes to bodily pain) and it seemed cruel and obnoxious of a teacher to be so uncaring.
I ran to Eden and held her and examined her scraped back and talked to her about her dirty clothes, which always seem so strangely important to some little kids… soon she was OK again. Bu the energy had not shifted down since Eden’s accident, it seemed even crazier than before. The kids were running wild. I wanted to do a meditation or game with them, but I had overstepped so many of Robin’s boundaries at that point, that I just kept quiet.
Less than 5 minutes after Eden calmed down Makeya hurt her foot. Again, Robin did not feel it was necessary to interrupt her conversation, much less get up. There was a lot of blood, it soaked through several layers of paper towel, and the cut was more than an inch long. I had soap and Isabella a paper towel and we kind of doctored the screaming kid and brought her back to the table. Fortunately I had drawing supplies in my backpack and the kids came to the table one by one and started drawing.
I did not write up the story, until Robin insisted that there was never any supervision problem on this field trip, and everything was just fine, implying that I made up the whole thing.
