Honored?

Have I mentioned that things are a bit busy these days for me?  In addition to the normal life that I lead, I am doing 100 hours of coursework to receive my TEFL certificate.  (I finally started it, and I love it!!)  I am coordinating a team of at least 15 different people from several different western countries to come this summer and volunteer at a conference.  We have some guests coming in May.  I am helping Mindy with her wedding planning.  We are preparing for a big cross-country move.  Plus, it seems like everyone is crawling out of hibernation.  So, pretty much every single one of our friends has called us in the past two weeks to schedule a time to get together.  Etc, and so on.  Everyone is busy.  I get that.

Anyhow, that was just background info for today's (actually yesterday's) story.

Friday at about 11:15 I get a call from the class mom.  Roughly translated, "Hello, blah, blah blah, pleasantries and a sundry greetings.  When you drop Lucy off at Chess Club, are you free for a parent meeting about the school fundraiser?"

(Chess Club starts at 11:40.  Thanks for the short notice!)

Me: "Uh... ok."

So I hurry everything along and I manage to just get us to chess on time.  Poor Lucy!  I practically dragged her the whole way.  Actually, I take that back.  Poor me!  I am too old and out of shape to run to school, carrying a surprisingly heavy backpack and dragging a 7 year old.

Lucy goes to chess.  I go to my meeting.  There are 8 of us.  Of course it is a social visit for the first 30 minutes, complete with tea.  Then we get down to business.  Each year the school holds a bazaar to raise funds for the school.  Please do not ask me what on earth they do with these funds.  I have yet to see the results!  For three (gruelingly long days) moms make a ridiculous amount of food and sell it to whomever will buy it.  People also donate all sorts of crap items to be sold.

The fundraiser can be a controversial topic.  We all have very different ideas about the best way to go about things.  Also, the same 10 moms do pretty much everything.  While we are happy to help, it does get annoying that everyone does not pitch in.   So the meeting is going on and everyone is offering their thoughts and opinions... all at one time.

I'll save you the tedium (as if it hasn't been a total snoozer up to this point!) and tell you one of the results of the meeting.

I was elected to be the person who gathers donations for our class!!

There are many crazy things about this.  The first one is, that I was pre-selected for this honor (I use that term loosely!) without my knowledge or consent by the principal and our teacher.  I will get an official certificate from the school, and my job for the next month and a half is to go to as many places as possible and solicit donations.

I was shocked and asked them if they really wanted the foreign lady begging for our class.  I tried to use the, "Um... but I don't speak the language well!" excuse.  "You're language is awesome!" they manipulated encouraged.  I guess I'm in good company.  That excuse didn't work for Moses either!

They went on to say that since I don't have little kids at home, I am more available.  This is true.  They also went on to say that they think people will be more likely to give to me because I am foreign.  To which I responded with many thanks for using me!

In the end, I'm the class beggar.  Regardless of the fact that my schedule is a bit more than full (see the first paragraph) I am so excited!  I am going to have to learn some new begging vocabulary!  Time to make some new notecards!

Anybody got anything they want to send for a school fundraiser?