I Loathe Brazilian Buracrazy

Anyone else want a button?  Because I'm going to begin printing them this week.  Since so many of you live so far from here and the post office is taking eons for mail they are going to say, "I Loathe Brazilian Buracrazy!"  I'm not sure how that quite translates into Portuguese but  that's fine with me.  It'll just add to the burcracy I've been dealing with here.

Valmir will not be returning to EAB anytime soon.  He got the official okay from his doctor last Sunday (February 13). His hand was completely healed.  He called to share the good news and learned he would be able to return after a few extra visits, aka buracracy, (I just accidentially typed buracrazy and hence my blog post cuz it's kinda funny) on Monday (February 14).

After school on Monday, Valentine's Day, my phone rang and when I saw it was Valmir, I knew it couldn't be good.  He wasn't able to see all three doctors needed to return to work.  You might be thinking, 3 doctors.  My goodness, that's a lot.  Well, it is but you need to be cleared by:

Dr 1 - the doctor who treated you
Dr 2 - the school's doctor
Dr 3 - the social security adminstration's dr

He was cleared by #1 and then proceeded to see #2.  #2 then said he wouldn't clear him unless he saw dr # 3.  When he went to try and see dr #3, the receptionist told him there aren't any appointments until March 17th.  He said, "But I'm healed and ready to return."  The receptionist laughed and replied, "You're the first person to ever say that."  This should give you a little hint into this system. 

That was Monday after school.  He hoped he'd be able to squeeze in on Tuesday afternoon but unfortunately dr #2 shut him down again.  I was just a little frustrated to get this call.  I know it's not Valmir's fault but didn't understand why the school wasn't helping him.

I then learned that they won't help him because they are worried about being sued.  If they help him, the government will view it as a push back to work.  The funny thing is that he's healed.  Completely better. 

Another funny thing is that since Valmir had to visit the SSA (Social Security Admin) since he missed over 15 days of work, that they are paying both Valmir and EAB for his time off.  Yup.  They're double paying.  So Dilma, I've heard you want to cut the govt's budget, well, silly things like this would help ALOT! 

And it wouldn't just help the budget, it would also help, um, let me think, children.  22 of them to be exact. It would help 1 teacher.  It would help countless other people as well.  Grrr!!!

In the meantime, I'm sharing an assistant with Erica.  It's fine and all but it's when you are used to things being one way and then for a really dumb reason the change,  it's annoying.  For a girl who's trying really hard to focus on just her class and grade level, there sure are a lot of things interfering with my plan.  Silly, silly buracrazy.  Silly, silly adults. 

My solution?  If we just listened to my 8-year-old students who said simutaneously in two different languages, English and Portuguese, "That's just dumb," then maybe we'd be a whole lot smarter. 

*  This post has been rewritten about seven times since starting it last week so I apologize if it doesn't flow so well.
** This post has additionally been rewritten about seven times since last week as it's taken me that long to calm down and accept the buracrazy.