Start of the New Term

13 April 2007

So it's the end of the week. Last week I thought I would get to start teaching this week. I was wrong. Monday for sure, though. This week has been really disorganized; it's really made me appreciate how much the headmaster does. Last week A-level was supposed to start, which meant that by Friday around 30 or 40 of the 150 students had arrived. For O-level it was Easter break, so more than half the teachers were gone on Monday and by the end of the week it was down to 2 others. I went into town on Friday, along with the 2nd master who goes to Njombe for vacations to visit his family. He hadn't been unable to leave earlier because the headmaster had been traveling.

I stayed in Njombe for Easter, coming back Monday night. Tuesday, still students were arriving, but my headmaster had to travel for family reasons and the 2nd master, as well as quite a few O-level teachers, still hadn't returned. The school sort of seemed directionless. Neither returned until Thursday (both had said they'd be back by Tuesday). Anway, without really knowing how many students were present or what sort of time table we were working with, I didn't know whether or not to start teaching. I decided to use the other teacher's as an indication. Thursday morning the geography teacher asked me if I was starting to teach today. I said no, but that if he was I'd start tomorrow. He said he was and that we'd just use last year's timetable for the form 5's, which were here in enough numbers to start teaching. A look at the timetable indicated that he had no periods. (I think he taught anyway, which is great. We need to get these classes underway.) That afternoon I hashed out a new timetable with the chemistry teacher, which confirms my fears, I'm up to 28 periods of math and physics, 30 if you count the music I'll be continuing with, and, and they're still gonna want computer classes. That might just get a "too bad." The good news is that my schedule doesn't have periods on Fridays, which will mean I won't have to feel bad about missing classes on those weekends I want to use the post office, and for the majority of weeks when I'm here will give me some freedom to do some preparations or work on extra projects. The fourth A-level teacher, my counterpart whose advice I trusted when he said we'd probably be able to start teaching as early as Wednesday a week ago, I haven't seen in 2 weeks.

16 April 2007

Started teaching FV today. It's nice to be teaching again after so long a break, but tomorrow I'm starting the FVI's also, and that brings me up to 28 periods a week. A normal load is around 12. By some scheduling oddities, my classes are all on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, except for 2 on Wednesday. Thursdays, as often as I can manage will be labs, and on the days the schedule will be roughly halved. Still, it's a lot of work. A whole lot. My counterpart (who it turns out was at a workshop on teaching biology for the past 2 weeks) was complaining about his 20 periods. I don't know what I'll think about this set-up in a week, much less a month, but right now my mind is alternating between thinking "Why am I doing this, I didn't come to Africa to overwork myself," and indignantly retorting "This is exactly why I came to Africa!"

I went to the monthly big market this afternoon. It was the first time I've both known about it and been in town for it. Gotta say I was underwhelmed. I suppose to the villagers here it's a big deal, but I'm jaded by going into town all the time and it was like big bus stand, but with no buses, just the merchants. I bought some "high quality" rice for a decent price and got a earthenware pot I think I'll use as a breadbox. The pot, which I got with a little pot that fits over it as a lid, was amazingly cheap. I paid 1000/=, which is also what a paid for a kilo of the nice rice, which is the same price as 2 sodas and a packet of biscuits, or about 25 pears when they're in season, or 1 beer, or, in America, whatever you can buy for 80 cents.

17 April 2007

Just some quick reflections about teaching so far--I love it when I'm teaching, it's just the frantic preparation periods in between that are rough. I gave the new form 5 students tests in physics and math to see what they actually learned in their O-level. I also asked them what they want to be when they grow up, and almost everyone said doctor. A few wanted to be teachers, some pharmacists, a banker, a lawyer, and I got a few interesting responses: a responsible citizen, an adult, an environmental manager, and my favorite, "a facilitator like Mr. Gregor."

Also, progress has been made on the househelp front. There's a prospective who's going to ask her mom and get back to me. After teaching and working straight until 4:00 today (starting at 7:30), then going to pick up a little food in the village and washing clothes while my beans cooked, while wishing that I had time to sweep my courtyard while the wind was a bit low, I can't wait to get some househelp. Phew.

Also, some little things are letting me know that I'm adjusting to life here. For the first month or two something little like being hungry could really get me in a bad/sullen mood, so I worked hard at keeping myself fed regularly. Recently I've slipped a bit on that with no worse consequences than hunger, so apparently I'm becoming stable. But I still miss home. I've been thinking a bit (or a bit too much) about what I want to eat my first few days in America. I'm not going to commit to anything here as I've still got a lot of time I may change my mind in, but I'm pretty sure a fat juicy steak and some salad with a balsamic vinaigrette are high on the list. And Ranch dressing. And bacon.