MonkeyMan business #2: UNIS (part 1)

I am what they refer to as a "UNIS survivor". For all of you who are oblivious to this expression I am an alumna of the United Nations International School who attended from Kindergarten through 12th grade (known as Tut 4 for all my fellow classmates). I managed to study enough for those looooong exams which tested you on 2 years worth of material to obtain an international diploma, while also having the time of my life.

You would think that I had enough of the school, yet I have returned this time as a temporary staff member. I first started working at the copy center/book room making photocopies for all my old teachers and sending packages and books to the corresponding classrooms.


As I was working there one day, an old teacher of mine told me that these types of jobs "build character", and boy is he right. You have to be direct and a bit nasty otherwise everyone is always asking you for favors. I never have imagined I would be working in a space the size of a walk-in closet serving the teachers who once assigned me essays. The funny thing is that you see these people in a different light...as just people... and not as someone who is purposefully trying to ruin your life by making you read Shakespeare.

The best part about the job was that I was able to speak Spanish all day and I became a small capillary in the network of veins and arteries which keep a school like UNIS going. It really all depends on those small jobs and how people are treated for a school to run smoothly. MonkeyMan stood by me through the hours of copying, sorting and stamping books reminding me that there still a world outside that little room with no window.