Back at it

As frustrating as the school system is, I had a pretty good week. Batman was super excited to see me. He's turned into a little devil! He tears up the house, steals my underwear and socks, sleeps in my suitcase (which is my dresser still) once I am sound asleep, and gets so excited to see me and other people he knows that he jumps and squeals and scratches and bites (playfully of course, but it still can hurt). So we're working on training for that. Any tips? He's such a cutie, though, with his big bat ears which he hasn't grown into yet, even though he grew a lot while I was away for two weeks. He's a cuddler, too, and loves to jump on the couch (I try to get him to stay on the section where I put his sheet) and then curl up next to me, sometimes crawling into my lap. It's really adorable.

I have a student who's very helpful to me, too. She took care of Batman while I was away. And while I was quite miffed that she found a hidden key to the house (I gave her only the key to the courtyard), let herself in, ate some of my pasta, and gave my precious expensive powdered milk to the dog (though I specifically told her he didn't need any milk, only the dog food I had left in my courtyard kitchen for him), she also took good care of him, washed dishes and mopped my house for me when I returned, went with me to the village and helped me find eggs and potatoes and all sorts of things I can't usually find, and then brought me some pumpkins and corn from her family's farm. So how could I be angry with her? She's so nice and eager to learn and to talk to me and take me everywhere I need to go and then clean my house for me. So I guess I'll just deal with it.

We had mid-terms at school this week. Monday's tests were canceled because no one had copied out the tests for the students yet. No one thought to do that before the day tests were scheduled to start, of course. And then the school secretary copied a few tests, painstakingly slow even though 3 of us teachers were there helping, until tea break when she left again for the day. L-a-z-y. I love her little boys (about 3 and 1 years old- so cute! and they love to play with me), but she can be so hard to deal with. I just don't know what to say to her, because she doesn't work, she's always complaining about how strict/mean the headmaster is (I think he's great), and she doesn't really talk about anything else.

So anyway, we started supervising tests on Tuesday. But no one made copies of the tests for Wednesday, and then the "copy machine" broke. The "copy machine" is a hand crank piece of metal far older than I am, to which you must attach a specially typed paper attached to carbon paper and then add ink and crank a few times before you can put paper in. Now, a simple sautwering (how do you spell that?) gun would have easily fixed the problem, but of course there are none of those to be found. And even if there were, there would be no one to find it because no one thinks it's their job to do such a thing.

So we ended up writing the rest of the tests on the chalkboards. The poor teachers who had to write up my tests! My tests were super long compared to the others, even though they were only 2-3 pages long. And the students thought they were so hard! But I'm not ashamed. The hardest classes I've ever taken have usually been the ones that have taught me the most, not only about the material I was supposed to learn, but also about how to think critically, how to integrate ideas and make connections between them, how to apply my understanding to new situations, and how to synthesize new information given what I already know. And I’ve realized that’s what’s really lacking in these kids’ education. And that’s just what I plan (and hope) to teach them. Instead of being super frustrated with this system and angry at the kids for their lack of knowledge and critical thinking skills, I need to find ways to be patient and turn that anger/frustration into something productive, into a lesson. I have to meet the kids where they are and bring them up to par rather than continue to expect that they know things and can think for themselves and then get frustrated when they don’t/can’t. So that’s going to be a new goal of mine, both for myself and for my students.

But there’s also good news. We have 5 new teachers! That brings us up to 10 teachers, technically (not that they all actually teach, of course). The new ones are temporary (3-4 months probably), but that brings the student to teacher ratio down below 100:1! Sad that I think that’s wonderful. Then yesterday, my counterpart and I took my Frisbee out to the football field and we taught the students who were hanging around how to throw and catch. They loved it! Even though it poured twice, they just took the Frisbee inside a classroom and continued til the rain stopped. And they complained loudly when we left. I left my Frisbee with my counterpart today so they could play again this afternoon. Maybe I’ll teach them Ultimate this week and we can have competitions. Fun!

So life’s pretty good lately. I’m dealing with frustrations and enjoying the beauty of my site and getting to know people better. I feel a little more a part of the community these days, though I’m still often confused and feel like a little kid who can’t do things correctly or handle situations at school, etc. Slowly, it’s coming along. And I’m hoping to plant my own garden, starting tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes!