Our unexpected journey - prelude

This is the follow-up post to the one I made last week where I began to tell you about a new adventure @abh12345 and I have recently embarked on, far away from Europe, on the island of Reunion.

To help you locate and get a feel for this somewhat rather small piece of land lost in the middle of nowhere, here are 2 maps which should give you a better idea:

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was hired a couple of months back to teach in a Montessori classroom.
Here are the 2 main things I was told I would obtain upon my arrival (and also the reasons why I accepted the job):

• despite a low salary (lowest I've ever been offered), the entire top floor of the school was offered for us to live upon our arrival. From the photos they sent, the place was huge (with 5 different rooms) and filled with beautiful natural light, lots of windows and a massive terrace the length of the entire floor. Huge potential. After a bit of research and seeing how high the rent prices were in St Denis (the capital), I realized this may just be a great opportunity.
  The only inconvenience being that it was unfurnished... which meant extra expenses especially in the first few weeks/months of our stay. Not ideal, but hey, nothing is.

• a class filled with 15 children - this is quite low for a Montessori classroom, but it is not a bad number if most of the children do not come from a Montessori background

The surprises which ruined it all:

Four days before our flight departure I received an email stating that the school and the top floor (our future home) had not finished being renovated and would not be by the time we arrived. Nothing more on that topic. And strangely, not even any guidance as to where we were supposed to go... First "hhmmmmm WTF".
At the end of this email, he also stated that there would now be 10 children in the classroom (numbers are dropping... teacher is worrying). Second "hhhmmmmm WTF".
Thinking about the situation for a bit, Asher and I decided it may be better to get a hotel room from the Wednesday of our arrival to the following Sunday, knowing that my contract started on Monday, and assuming that by then, the school/house would be ready.
I let my future boss know our decision, which he then replied by saying: "Up to you, if you can afford it."... Third "hhhhmmmm WTF". (no offer to pay or reimburse. no offer to help. no nothing)
Remember that, by this time, our flights had already been purchased. Not much backtracking possible. I've turned on the trying-to-see-the-good-sides-to-everything mode.

As we arrived and settled in our hotel room in Reunion (in between 2 cyclones which did not make our first 3 days very exciting, as you can imagine), we spent a bit of time adjusting to the new temperatures (above 30 degrees celsius/ 86 degrees fahrenheit) and high humidity, as well as discovering the city before we were scheduled to meet up with my bosses and several staff members to help paint, build shelves and tables on Saturday.

On Friday night, I received yet another email from my boss with some new information:

• school renovations are definitely not done so the scheduled parent/teacher meetings which were to happen during the week would now take place in the other school campus (a 30-minute drive away from my school and the hotel we rented)
• the upper floor is therefore not ready for move-in either (no water, no electricity...)
• there will be 5 or 6 children in the classroom
  All that with a nice "See you tomorrow bright and early to help get the school ready for next week's opening day" (first day of school here is on February 1rst)

Jaw drops...

Let me tell you, I've had to go through a lot of BS as a teacher throughout the years, but this place was winning some serious BS awards already!
Was I supposed to be living in a hotel indefinitely? Does he not realize I have not just brought a tiny suitcase here, I have moved... WE have moved. Does he think that teachers have such amazingly high salaries that they can afford to live in hotels indefinitely? Still no mention of reimbursement or help with anything... How do I get to this other school without a car? Can I afford taxis there and back daily for 5 days? Which buses should I take? (looks like a big mess on their website). And the cherry on top of the cake: 5 or 6 children!!!

Just so you guys know, a Montessori classroom with 5 or 6 children IS NOT a Montessori classroom. More like a posh babysitting service.

Stay cool Sylvia. Just stay cool and focus on meeting everyone tomorrow. Everything will be fine.

So the next day, Asher and I got up, focused on meeting everyone, seeing the school and our future "home". Bosses are welcoming and seem lovely, but also very busy painting and building around the house. We all get to work and paint the entire classroom.
The state of the upper floor is... well, how can I put it... an absolute mess. I can see in Asher's eyes that he's really not feeling this anymore. This place was NEVER going to be ready upon our arrival. Nor will it be ready any time soon.

We stay there painting and building the entire day, having a few chats here and there with lovely people.

As we walked back to our hotel, Asher and I barely talked. Too tired, too disappointed, too confused...

It took me about 24 hours to realize and decide that I was not going to do this. That this beautiful and exciting dream of working on a paradise island doing something I love to do was simply not going to happen.

The next few days were filled with intense stress as I was dropping a project I had accepted (boss showed me yet another side of him... not a pleasant one, which made me even happier to have quit) and now in a faraway place with tons of luggage. What to do?

Asher and I looked at eachother. We figured heck, we're already here, let's make the best of it and travel. We've got a bit of cash left, and we have Steemit. When we run out, we leave. In the meantime, there is Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar.. and if we make it that far there is Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and so many other places to cross off the bucket list.

So we shipped lots of our stuff back home, gave 2 of our suitcases away to a man in the street (who granted us with beautiful smiles I will never forget), and here we are today.

What would you have done?

To start of this brand new travelling series, here is a little tour of what St-Denis, the capital city, looks like. This place could easily be visited in 2 days.

St-Denis - The capital city

_{St Denis and the entire North-Eastern side of the island do not have access to beaches (watch out for sharks!)}

_{Canons of the seaside area of St-Denis called the "Barachois"}

The small streets of St-Denis are colorful and filled with life. The city boasts an undeniably Creole soul, with some delightful colonial and religious buildings and a casual multi-ethnic atmosphere. Our favorite activity in St-Denis was to sit at the terrace of a cafe surrounded by flamboyant and palm trees in the scorching hot sun while drinking a few dodos (local beer).

The red ornamental-looking roof you see protecting the doorway entrance is what is known as "Lambrequins".

Ultimate evolution of the embellishment of traditional homes from the 1860's in Reunion, lambrequins adorn the awning.

Wooden originally, they are now often sheet metal just like the one we see here, and are intended to replace the gutters, as their tips help guide down rain drops. Small bushes are usually planted just below in order to absorb the water and not splash the walls.

"Lambrequins" represent in the collective imagination alone the Creole architectural style, and are the symbol of a certain art of living.

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And I'll leave you with this last photo I took in St-Denis.
"Le monde ne mourra pas par manque de merveilles mais par manque d'émerveillement..." - The world will not die from a lack of wonders, but from our inability to wonder.

So let's not stop wondering! This door might have closed, but millions of others have opened... and who knows what's out there for us next?
If we can't work on this paradise island, it doesn't mean we can't explore it, right?

Follow us while we take you on our unexpected adventures. We have no idea where we're going, or how long it will take us until we run out of money... but who cares. LET'S DO THIS!

_{Map Location: !steemitworldmap -20.998427 lat 55.5777763 long Reunion-Island D3SCR}

All photos in this blog were taken with my Sony Xperia Z3.

Don't hesitate to leave comments, ask questions, and share ideas - I love to hear from all of you.

To view some of my previous posts, click on the links below:

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“Learning is not a race for information, it is a walk of discovery” - Jane Healy