June 9, 2010

June 9, 2010 - 2 Days till Kickoff...

I just got back from a delightful run (second day in a row I got my lazy bum out of my house!) with three of the Form D students. Normally students don’t actually come with; they’ll just ask whether or not they can run with me and then flake out. This time, I took off across the soccer pitch and it wasn’t until I passed the primary school that I heard three sets of feet and some boys talking behind me. I was absolutely thrilled to have their company – it was like running with other PCVs, but I could keep up. When we got to where I normally turn around and do an extra loop, they wanted to continue, all the way to the junction. I was pretty tired on the way back, but managed to hang in there until we came to the soccer field again, at which point I sprinted to the finish, and they all fell over in exhaustion. I didn’t feel so bad about being tired the entire rest of the run; I still out-sprinted them. HA. It’s about the small things in life, right?

This morning my principal brought me some mail… one letter from my family, dated January, and one from my grandparents, dated December. On Friday, I received a letter (with photos enclosed) from my mother… also dated January. The mail system is a complete mystery to me. If you have sent me anything and I haven’t received it yet, please don’t worry. I’m sure it will get here by the time I leave in a year and a half.

As I was shutting my computer down last night, I remembered a few more things I wanted to let you all know about. First, sadly, another teacher caught two of my students cheating on my math exam. Sad for several reasons. First, one of the students is one of the top students in my class. Second, their supposed cheating (I’m still not sure who I believe, the students or the teacher, how terrible is that?!) didn’t help them. AT ALL. One still failed and the other barely passed. What was the point?! I’m pretty disappointed, to say the least.

That same morning, in the classroom where I was proctoring, one of my favorite students (who shall remain unnamed here, poor guy) looked like he was really struggling with my exam. He looked so bothered and kept shifting in his seat, like he was really uncomfortable with the questions. Normally, I find him very entertaining. He speaks good English and even though he can be quite chatty some days, most of the time he gets it. I was a little bothered that my exam was giving him so much trouble… Finally, he took his piece of scratch paper (really two loose-leaf sheets stuck together, it’s as the paper would come in a notebook), ripped it in half, and got up. My immediate thought was “Oh great, he’s going to ‘go to the toilet’ with his pen and this scratch paper, work out some problems and come back… or maybe he has a calculator there and will get the answers that way. Perfect.”
Sure enough, the little guy got up with his paper, which he began crumpling and wrinkling, but he left his pen behind. “Madam, please may I go to the toilet?” I was about to say, “Yes, but leave the paper here,” when it hit me that most students probably don’t bring toilet paper to school. Poor guy. I couldn’t help but crack up as he dashed out of the room, and again smile (and bite my tongue) when he returned, looking considerably more relaxed, with no sheet of answer-containing paper. Yep, this is Africa.

Love (and humor) from Africa,
Katie