Oct 2, 2009
We lost an ETA
The sister of one of our ETAs became deathly ill, and the ETA had to make the difficult decision to return to the US to spend the remaining time with her sister. I completely understand her decision, but it’s a big loss to the program. It left her school without an ETA. The local English teacher had been planning a lot of special programs and activities for the school year, with the assumption that she would have an ETA to help. Suddenly without an ETA, the teacher was quite anxious.
Luckily, an ETA from last year happened to be back in Taiwan. He was planning to study Chinese at the National Taiwan University å°å¤§, but agreed to come back to the program for a second year. He stepped in as a replacement ETA for the year. We only lost about two weeks of continuity of the program in that school.
It seems that there are a lot more problems and situations this year compared to last year. An ETA lost his wallet, which held his Alien Resident Card, insurance card, and other important information. Another ETA is having personality clashes with the staff at the ETA’s school. There are other small problems with the apartments, working conditions, and other small issues.
I feel a bit bad about this, even though it isn’t my fault. I don’t want to the program to be causing problems for the county. Maybe problems are inevitable, and even though it seems that there is always something to take care of, we can always take care of it. Maybe this is just what the program is like: cleaning up one mess after another. Sort of like parenting.
Anyway, the ETA who returned to the US is planning to return next year and complete the program with the next year’s cohort. Everything should work out (knock on wood).