Monday 6-23-14
Yay,
one day of testing is done and only one more to go. We woke up and there was
still no power. I let Jove sleep in for a while since there was nothing else to
really do without power. I wanted to be out the door and get to school early,
but no matter how hard I tried, the kids took forever at that last minute.
On the
way to school we stopped and picked up Charlene for her first day at the
school. I introduced her to the teachers, and when I came across Vienna, I said
Pasiana. I always get those two confused. I felt really bad, but Vienna took it
with a smile and just laughed.
Standard
One was ready and waiting with their tables nice and clean. I brought new
sharpened pencils for them and passed out the English tests. We worked on it
one section at a time; all except Grace, whom as far as I am concerned is out
of the school. We tried to arrange a meeting with her grandparents last week
about her being absent too often, and here it was the day of the midterm and
she wasn’t there. They don’t care, and neither does she, so she needs to just
be done.
I
started getting kids asking to use the toilet after just 30 minutes. I really
didn’t want anyone to wet themselves in class today, so I let everyone that
asked, go. Even with a bathroom break in
the middle of the two hour class, it was still a constant request by many. The
oral reading took a long time because I had to take one child at a time out of
the classroom to read the excerpt, but with Charlene in the class it made it
easy. I had her read to the kids while we did that, they are still only in
first grade and need to have testing still seem like a fun thing. We finished
about five minutes early and so I released them to use the toilet yet again
then went on into std3.
I got
my standard three kids ready to start as fast as I could since I knew they were
already starting with the least amount of time. We moved in a very similar way,
section by section. Instead of doing oral reading one by one and having
Charlene read books to the kids, I took them one by one while they were working
on the other sections and that seemed to work very well for them. A few of the
kids didn’t finish in time, but I felt bad so I let them finish up the extra
credit section and the last section at the end of the day. It only took them at
most five minutes.
Then it
was on to lunch that I knew from the start that I would not be able to eat
anything. I had to make many copies to finish up getting the tests to the other
teachers. They said they have too many exams to give and cannot do it in just
the three days that Mamaliz said it should take. When I got to the house, Ruth
had the generator on, so I was happy, but at the same time it meant we had to
power still. I checked out the printer and it seemed to work. I was very happy.
When Burton was setting it up to check it out, I noticed he shook the ink
cartridge. So when I had printed up about 50 pages and it began to go blank on
half the page, I decided to give that a shot. What do you know it worked! I
have no idea why it does that, but I knew how to fix it temporarily and so that
was enough for me.
In
between copying I would run into the house to work on making some coffee. If I
couldn’t have lunch, I was at least going to bring a thermos of coffee with me
to class. The lady I met on the road last week with stones showed up at the
house also. It was the worst timing
possible, but I stopped to check them out and had Frank help me out. He let me
know that it looked like she was one that had colored glass and not minerals. I
had gathered as much and thanked him for helping me out. Then back to making
more copies. Lunchtime had come to an end and I still had another five or six
exams to copy off. Ruth said they would only have the generator on for another
hour, so I went to school, got the kids in std2 started on their exams, then
had Charlene take over so I could run (literally) back up the office and finish
making the copies before I lost my chance. Toward the end, I was getting
nervous because we were on our last pack of paper. I let them know how much I
would need, but that didn’t get but two packs. When I finished the printing,
there were five sheets left in the intake tray. I came so close to not being
able to finish. I would have cried, but luckily I didn’t have to. I borrowed
the stapler and went back to the school.
Charlene
was doing great; more lenient then myself or Mamaliz. Dictation was repeated
more than twice, and many more questions were asked, but that is what happens
with a new teacher. The kids were loving it. Even though I have only been here
for two months, I have gotten into the rhythm of things and know what to expect
from the kids, and when they don’t perform to those expectations I know they
are just being lazy. I sat in the chekechea and stapled papers with Jove’s help
and then moved on to letting the std3 kids that didn’t finish have the few
minutes needed to complete their test.
We
finished about a half hour early and so I decided to release std2 early. The
other teachers took this as a sign to release the whole school early. They did
not use it as a study or review time in any way shape or form. During the
morning they had the kids write letters to Charlene and myself, and during the
afternoon when I went in, they were reading books. That was a great time that
they could have been utilizing to prep the kids for their own exams. I told
them as much that morning and on Friday when school let out. When we went to
lock up, they had lost their keys again.
It is always a kids fault, every time. This time it was Rahabu, because
she didn’t put the keys back where they should have gone, or give them to one
of those teachers. I don’t understand why they have to be without them anyways.
The keys need to go with whoever is the teacher on duty, that way they are not
being given to the children during the lunchtime craziness. But again, one can
state these kinds of things only so many times before it gets old and
repetitive. I finally found the keys for them because they were just standing
outside asking the kids where they were instead of just looking for themselves.
They were sitting on the shelf in std1.
We went
home then to the Monday market. I was sad when I saw that these scarves I got
last week were not there this week. I really wanted to get more. I do have one
more Monday market so I am hoping she will be there next week. We walked around
as a decently large group; Charlene, myself, Ayla, Jove, Ima Mkulati, Joan,
Farida, and Samweli (at times, he kept disappearing). I got a bunch of sugar
cane and passed them out to the kids that were with us. They were very
grateful. Ayla and Jove each spent a decent amount of their money. They both
wanted a pink scarf, yes both of them.
They got their scarves and had them wrapped around their neck and head
very proudly. They found a nice little purse as well. They left very happy. It
began to rain pretty hard, so we hurried home.
I was
expecting many kids to come by for math help. Many even asked if it would be
okay, but none came. I sat and graded papers while Ayla and Jove ate sugar cane
outside with Samweli. They then came inside and ate dinner. Ayla had hotdogs
and chipati, Jove had hotdogs and banana. One of them is always doing something
gross when it comes to food, but they ate and that is really all that I care
about. After they finished, and a little before, they worked on a book. They
are writing a book about nonsense. They would say “kumi na napkin, kumi na
butt, kumi na mommy”, etc. Kumi means ten, na means and, the rest of it is just
whatever they could think of. They thought it was just the funniest thing
around. I was glad to see them having such a good time with it. I had a great
day today knowing I got so much accomplished, I wanted them to have a great day
as well.
I
filled bathtubs with a flashlight for my light, still no power. The kids got
all nice and cleaned up and I read them a story while they bathed. Afterward, I
noticed that the neighbors house had lights on that didn’t look the solar light
color. It made me wonder. I decided to check the fuse box just to see. Sure
enough the main breaker was flipped and there came on our power. So I have no
idea if we could have had power back on last night when some of the other
houses got it back, or if it was after that. I will never know, but it made me
laugh and want to cry at the same time. The only thing I can’t figure out is
why the internet still isn’t working. It claims it is working, but it still has
no service. I will have Scott check it out tomorrow, either way, I have power
and that brings me one step closer to internet tomorrow. Not only that, but
tomorrow is my last day of testing. I am going to so miss teaching those kids,
but I am ready for a bit of a break. I think the kids are also.
