The trailer is showing some signs of Halloween as well. Rain appeared after weeks of dryness, and the walls of the trailer don't seem especially water proof. The adorable, "All About Me" posters the kids made about themselves at the beginning of the school year seem to be absorbing moisture from the walls, transforming their hand drawn faces into something quite speckled and ghoulish.
There is also a strange smell. I've gone to great pains to clean the tables and chairs weekly with lemon scented, disease killing wet wipes. I also clean the board and my desk and antiquated computer and phone. I spray the trailer with a natural orange spray that the kids say smells like a mix of the counselor's office and candy. I keep my dry snacks in a sealed plastic box in order to not attract rats. I deny residence to large cockroaches by chasing them from the trailer. Most have declined to return.
"Ewwww...." one of the kindergartners commented, scrunching her nose and waving her hand in front of her face.
It was only their second visit to the coveted trailer, the desired destination of all of my ESOL kids.
"It smells like fish!" another exclaimed.
My trailer. My beautiful trailer. FISH. They might as well have told me it smelled like B.O. I was horrified.
"Agnieszka, the kindergartners said the trailer smells." I whispered to one of my first graders.
"Really?" she whispered back, perplexed.
"Maybe it's me, do I smell?" I responded, pretending to sniff myself.
She drew her nose closer and took a careful whiff.
"No, you don't smell. You smell good. " she paused for a minute, before exclaiming in a moment of realization,
"You smell like white people! I smelled one before on the playground!"
I thought of the lone white girl in the school, who happened to be in her class, and burst out laughing.
We both did.
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