This past Sunday was independence day for Namibia and they celebrated the 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, and to enjoy the three day weekend, I met up with 6 of my friends in the capital, and it was a weekend of surprises. I suppose I’ll go in chronological order and try to keep it brief!
My first hike was wonderful because there was a baby in the truck with me. She spent the first 20 minutes giggling as I made faces and the next hour asleep in my arms. I was in heaven, as you can imagine. The next hike was less ideal, as I had to listen to a drunk man debate two high school boys about some of the stupidest things possible. The fact that I was sitting sideways and the smell of the man next to me’s feet, combined to make me carsick, which didn’t help. Fortunately one of the boys must have said something to the driver because after an hour he pulled over and yelled “teacher come sit here” so I got to ride up front, and he was very pleasant, telling me all about being born again and his job delivering papers.
I was the first to arrive, so I got to spend some time by myself with Jocie and Moses (my field director and her husband) which is a rare treat. I went to their house and had his infamous spinach salad for dinner and we just drank wine and chatted, which was awesome. She is currently in the middle of site visits, so I got updates on all of my friends too! I went back to the hostel to wait for the others and Kristen arrived just as I got there. We sat at the bar and waited for the rest and caught up. A brief aside- we stayed at a place called the cardboard box, which is a hopping place to be if you are a tourist. It was packed with college age people enjoying themselves, and sketchy Namibians trying to pick them up (our friend Phizel was there and we teased him endlessly about trying to find a white girlfriend). It was weird to hear so many American accents and to see so many white faces! Everyone slowly trickled in and after catching up (and meeting an obnoxious peace corps vol who rubbed all of us the wrong way) we made our way to bed.
Saturday we started with some shopping, for those of us who need to stock up before returning to the bush. We wandered around town for a bit and had a delicious lunch at our favorite café. At around two we were at a bit of a loss for what to do, since everything closes at 1 on Saturdays, but we knew we wanted to just sit and talk more than anything, so we went to Moses’ uncle’s bar in Katatura. We spent the afternoon like most Namibians and started drinking early. We played pool and enjoyed the jukebox, made friends and shocked the people passing by who did not expect to see so many white people in the middle of shantytown… It was a lot of fun, and a very chill way to spend the day. We stopped off for dinner at an Indian restaurant (Kristen and Wes had been dreaming about it for weeks) and went to bed pretty early.
Sunday was independence day. We knew we wanted to see Moses perform, but thought we had a few hours (he was supposed to play in the evening) so we enjoyed a liesurely lunch and walk around town. Kristen, Jena and I broke off into our clique for a few hours to chat and have coffee and then we met up with everyone else at the celebration. There are two stadiums right next to one another and it was set up so that one had a concert with rotating performers and the other had a soccer match (Namibia vs. Botswana). We watched the second half of the game, enjoyed some music, and danced (which meant people for thirty foot radius around us were watching). Unfortunately, my friend Ashley’s purse was stolen by a group of kids, though. She got it back later but her camera and debit card were missing, which put a damper on the evening. We enjoyed some fireworks and Gal Level’s performance (the big name singers, also personal friends of ours, we’re so cool) and made our way out. Sadly, we missed Moses since he got bumped to an earlier time and was done before we even got there, but we enjoyed the other artists.
We met up with Jocie, Moses, and Tangeni at the hostel where we stayed during orientation. Sundays they have a braai so we enjoyed some food and hung out until Lenga (our Afrikaans teacher) showed up to take us out. We piled into a kombi that he had flagged down, and sang the Namibian national anthem (and the star spangled banner, just for kicks) all the way to a surprise destination, which turned out to be a different bar in katatura. We were a little hesitant but met his friends who were kind, fun and surprisingly non-sketchy people. We got to watch lenga rock out to some Britney spears (and other things, he is an amazing dancer) and eventually progressed to a dance club, along with our newfound entourage. We danced until the wee hours of the morning and all had an incredible time (I played matchmaker all night too, which was quite entertaining).
Sunday everyone made their way home. My trip was less than ideal, but this post is already quite long, and it’s not a good story, so I will just end here and wish you all a happy Namibian independence!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
More more questions!
This time I'll let you figure out the questions for yourself :)
Porridge is more the consistency of mashed potatoes than what you are probably picturing. Even a little thicker. You make a little ball and eat it with your hands. It is not as delicious as mashed potatoes, but always comes with something to dip it in so that the flavor is overwhelmed by something delicious. Also, I do my laundry by hand. I have a big sink out back that I can use, which is nice, and a clothesline too. It is considered highly inappropriate to hang your underwear outside, but this got really frustrating because a. it doesn’t dry inside, and b. I only have a place to hang one thing in my room so I would have to wash every day. I now hide my undergarments inside of shirts and pants outside, and so far no one can tell! Sneaky!
I am slowly getting more adult friends. I have one woman in town who had me over for lunch and I have gotten to know one of the other teachers better, which is really nice. She offered to take me for a braai at brandberg mountain with the high school principal, which sounds incredible. Mostly I am starting to recognize faces better and pretty much everyone in the location knows me by now, so I’m trying to expand the brief conversations I have with everyone. It’s going slowly, but I can really see progress now.
I’m going to do a post about the “lost boys” soon so that you know more about their personalities. For now their future is unsure, we have been holding off talking to the principal until after this long weekend. They are still here and now it feels totally natural to have them around, it feels a lot more like a home with them here. And I found out today that behind my back they refer to me as their “mother”. Mostly joking, of course, but it is a little maternal the way I have to wake them up in the morning, go with them grocery shopping, remind them to brush their teeth (Peter has been having toothaches lately), scold them about washing dishes or leaving lights on, and asking about their day when they get home from school.
As for the whistle/mace I feel very safe in Uis. I don’t go out much at night, and never alone, but even so I wouldn’t be too worried. Windhoek is a little more dangerous but some other members of my group have mace and we are always careful to travel in groups and try to keep a low-er profile.
We did the electric slide without music (just me counting) but I’m hopefully going to get the “cha cha slide” from my field director soon, which has the instructions in the music (so it’s a listening activity too!)
Soccer has been… sporadic. I haven’t seen the girls since netball started but supposedly that will be winding down soon, we’ll see. The boys still practice every day but I honestly have not had the energy to go out there for too long, although I do go watch sometimes.
As to why my friends liked Uis so much… I honestly think they like my house (it is quite nice... well relatively) and just the home-y feel. They liked that I know everyone around, and the house was bustling with all the kids here. But it’s also a quiet little town and, aside from the heat, was a nice way for them to just relax and have an excuse to do nothing (there is nothing to do!) And of course it’s always just nice to see eachother, the three of us really really like one another.
Porridge is more the consistency of mashed potatoes than what you are probably picturing. Even a little thicker. You make a little ball and eat it with your hands. It is not as delicious as mashed potatoes, but always comes with something to dip it in so that the flavor is overwhelmed by something delicious. Also, I do my laundry by hand. I have a big sink out back that I can use, which is nice, and a clothesline too. It is considered highly inappropriate to hang your underwear outside, but this got really frustrating because a. it doesn’t dry inside, and b. I only have a place to hang one thing in my room so I would have to wash every day. I now hide my undergarments inside of shirts and pants outside, and so far no one can tell! Sneaky!
I am slowly getting more adult friends. I have one woman in town who had me over for lunch and I have gotten to know one of the other teachers better, which is really nice. She offered to take me for a braai at brandberg mountain with the high school principal, which sounds incredible. Mostly I am starting to recognize faces better and pretty much everyone in the location knows me by now, so I’m trying to expand the brief conversations I have with everyone. It’s going slowly, but I can really see progress now.
I’m going to do a post about the “lost boys” soon so that you know more about their personalities. For now their future is unsure, we have been holding off talking to the principal until after this long weekend. They are still here and now it feels totally natural to have them around, it feels a lot more like a home with them here. And I found out today that behind my back they refer to me as their “mother”. Mostly joking, of course, but it is a little maternal the way I have to wake them up in the morning, go with them grocery shopping, remind them to brush their teeth (Peter has been having toothaches lately), scold them about washing dishes or leaving lights on, and asking about their day when they get home from school.
As for the whistle/mace I feel very safe in Uis. I don’t go out much at night, and never alone, but even so I wouldn’t be too worried. Windhoek is a little more dangerous but some other members of my group have mace and we are always careful to travel in groups and try to keep a low-er profile.
We did the electric slide without music (just me counting) but I’m hopefully going to get the “cha cha slide” from my field director soon, which has the instructions in the music (so it’s a listening activity too!)
Soccer has been… sporadic. I haven’t seen the girls since netball started but supposedly that will be winding down soon, we’ll see. The boys still practice every day but I honestly have not had the energy to go out there for too long, although I do go watch sometimes.
As to why my friends liked Uis so much… I honestly think they like my house (it is quite nice... well relatively) and just the home-y feel. They liked that I know everyone around, and the house was bustling with all the kids here. But it’s also a quiet little town and, aside from the heat, was a nice way for them to just relax and have an excuse to do nothing (there is nothing to do!) And of course it’s always just nice to see eachother, the three of us really really like one another.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Miss, It’s time for eating!
So I know I have posted a lot in recent days, but I wanted to give you a little insight into a few sporadic moments from my day today. If you are pressed for time, just check out the last one ☺
Moment 1: Talking about recycling in my natural sciences class. First period of the day, most of my learners are still half asleep. I look at them and ask, “so why should you care? Why do we recycle?” (which is one of the things they need to learn) after a blank moment… I shout “alright, you don’t care right now but I’m gonna make you care!” and actually get a few laughs. This is a joke they would not have gotten a month ago.
Moment 2: Reading in the back of a classroom during my free period. I hear a little “tap tap” and look over to see my favorite small child (a little 2nd grade boy… we barely talk but he is always within a 5 foot radius of me. Never actually interacting… just always close) waving through a window less than a foot from my face while he’s supposed to be in class. I should not have encouraged this behavior, but I couldn’t help but laugh.
Moment 3: Teaching grade 5 the electric slide for the last 15 minutes of art class today. It completely failed… they didn’t learn much and of course it’s grade 5 so it was a discipline nightmare, but their exclamations of , “Miss can dance!” were too funny and they loved the idea of line dancing. I didn’t mention they would fit right in at any wedding back in the states.
Moment 4: Sitting in the library today with some grade 3 learner I kind of know (as much as we can know each other without speaking the same language). He is leaning on the opposite side of the table from me showing me pictures in a book and pretending to read. Has the biggest grin on his face and is missing his front two teeth.
Moment 5: At about 6:30 I was checking my email, trying to perk up a bit since today was very long and I was feeling burnt out and a bit depressed (I used up all my happy at school). I was typing when suddenly the boys come in and tell me, “miss it’s time for eating”. I shut the computer and they put it away and bring out a plate of porridge and a plate of chicken. We prayed and washed our hands in a little bucket of soapy water, then shared a traditional communal meal and talked about the day and the food they eat at home. It was exactly what I needed to cheer up and was just too adorable. I cannot believe how attached I have gotten to these boys…
Moment 1: Talking about recycling in my natural sciences class. First period of the day, most of my learners are still half asleep. I look at them and ask, “so why should you care? Why do we recycle?” (which is one of the things they need to learn) after a blank moment… I shout “alright, you don’t care right now but I’m gonna make you care!” and actually get a few laughs. This is a joke they would not have gotten a month ago.
Moment 2: Reading in the back of a classroom during my free period. I hear a little “tap tap” and look over to see my favorite small child (a little 2nd grade boy… we barely talk but he is always within a 5 foot radius of me. Never actually interacting… just always close) waving through a window less than a foot from my face while he’s supposed to be in class. I should not have encouraged this behavior, but I couldn’t help but laugh.
Moment 3: Teaching grade 5 the electric slide for the last 15 minutes of art class today. It completely failed… they didn’t learn much and of course it’s grade 5 so it was a discipline nightmare, but their exclamations of , “Miss can dance!” were too funny and they loved the idea of line dancing. I didn’t mention they would fit right in at any wedding back in the states.
Moment 4: Sitting in the library today with some grade 3 learner I kind of know (as much as we can know each other without speaking the same language). He is leaning on the opposite side of the table from me showing me pictures in a book and pretending to read. Has the biggest grin on his face and is missing his front two teeth.
Moment 5: At about 6:30 I was checking my email, trying to perk up a bit since today was very long and I was feeling burnt out and a bit depressed (I used up all my happy at school). I was typing when suddenly the boys come in and tell me, “miss it’s time for eating”. I shut the computer and they put it away and bring out a plate of porridge and a plate of chicken. We prayed and washed our hands in a little bucket of soapy water, then shared a traditional communal meal and talked about the day and the food they eat at home. It was exactly what I needed to cheer up and was just too adorable. I cannot believe how attached I have gotten to these boys…
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A wonderful weekend
This weekend was exactly what I needed after this week. Friday night, I showed the boys the movie Gladiator… they missed a lot of the plot but absolutely loved it anyway. I woke up Saturday morning at 8AM to the sound of furniture being moved. I crawled out of bed and splashed some water on my face, I couldn’t let these boys clean my house without helping. After an hour it was sparkling. Literally… they cleaned every surface possible and I used a couple drops of shampoo to mop the floors in an effort to cancel out the smell of boy.
Kristen and Jena arrived at around 3 on Saturday and they loved my house. We spent the rest of the night talking, making pizzas (amazingly enough to share with the four boys and McLean), baking chocolate chip cookies, drinking wine (none for the kids!), and listening to music. It was a wonderful combination of getting to talk just the three of us and the party-like feeling of eight people crowded into one room singing along with music. We walked McLean home and stopped on the way back to lay on the netball court and admire the stars. We can see the Milky Way and more stars than I ever knew existed, it was awe-inspiring. We even saw five shooting stars over the course of the night! We fell into bed around midnight, all very content after a wonderful afternoon/evening.
This morning we were woken up at 7:30 (groan…) but enjoyed some real coffee (well… folgers instant, still better than the daily grind) and breakfast on the front porch. I showed the girls the library and we went to the china shop. We stopped for a cool drink at the shop, as a side note I feel better knowing they think it is insanely hot here too, and I found them a ride home for later in the day. After lunch and a little more chatting, the girls left.
But the house was far from quiet. One of the boy’s sisters and her friend came over to teach me how to make porridge. There were also two girls watching a movie with them and three of my learners on the back porch. I actually had 11 kids at my house. They have slowly trickled away and now I’m procrastinating from lesson planning, enjoying the sound of Chester and McLean talking on my back porch. It’s amazing how attached I have gotten to these boys in a short time… even if they did put sparkly stickers all over my fridge.
Kristen and Jena arrived at around 3 on Saturday and they loved my house. We spent the rest of the night talking, making pizzas (amazingly enough to share with the four boys and McLean), baking chocolate chip cookies, drinking wine (none for the kids!), and listening to music. It was a wonderful combination of getting to talk just the three of us and the party-like feeling of eight people crowded into one room singing along with music. We walked McLean home and stopped on the way back to lay on the netball court and admire the stars. We can see the Milky Way and more stars than I ever knew existed, it was awe-inspiring. We even saw five shooting stars over the course of the night! We fell into bed around midnight, all very content after a wonderful afternoon/evening.
This morning we were woken up at 7:30 (groan…) but enjoyed some real coffee (well… folgers instant, still better than the daily grind) and breakfast on the front porch. I showed the girls the library and we went to the china shop. We stopped for a cool drink at the shop, as a side note I feel better knowing they think it is insanely hot here too, and I found them a ride home for later in the day. After lunch and a little more chatting, the girls left.
But the house was far from quiet. One of the boy’s sisters and her friend came over to teach me how to make porridge. There were also two girls watching a movie with them and three of my learners on the back porch. I actually had 11 kids at my house. They have slowly trickled away and now I’m procrastinating from lesson planning, enjoying the sound of Chester and McLean talking on my back porch. It’s amazing how attached I have gotten to these boys in a short time… even if they did put sparkly stickers all over my fridge.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
A quick, cute story
Yesterday in BIS I was trying to teach my grade 6 learners about encyclopedias and how to use them. I figured I would just show them that they can be fun by having them just look through to find something they think is interesting. A lot of the students were enjoying themselves, and really having fun paging through their books. But one student, Elrico, was unimpressed. He was leaning back in his chair, not even looking at the book and doing the minimum amount of work possible. Elrico is by far the coolest kid in grade 6 so of course at least two of the other boys were following suit and not participating.
I went over and picked up the book, convinced I could show him encyclopedias can be fun (wow… I’m a nerd). He had the “I” volume so I paged through to a picture of an iguana and read that they can get up to 6.5 feet long. I showed him the picture and showed him how big 6.5 feet is. He FREAKED OUT. He didn’t believe me and called all the other boys over to tell them. He was showing them the picture and the distance that I had shown him. I kept going and leafed through to “insects” and found a picture of a wasp laying its eggs inside of a living tarantula. I explained that the eggs hatch and devour the spider alive from the inside out. Once again, quite a reaction. Needless to say, I think I proved my point that encyclopedias can be interesting ☺
I went over and picked up the book, convinced I could show him encyclopedias can be fun (wow… I’m a nerd). He had the “I” volume so I paged through to a picture of an iguana and read that they can get up to 6.5 feet long. I showed him the picture and showed him how big 6.5 feet is. He FREAKED OUT. He didn’t believe me and called all the other boys over to tell them. He was showing them the picture and the distance that I had shown him. I kept going and leafed through to “insects” and found a picture of a wasp laying its eggs inside of a living tarantula. I explained that the eggs hatch and devour the spider alive from the inside out. Once again, quite a reaction. Needless to say, I think I proved my point that encyclopedias can be interesting ☺
New questions
Here are some questions I got from my wonderful father: I (as a humble blog reader), would like to get a little better feeling about who your 5th grade class is, vs your 7th grade class. What do they do or say that is challenging or characteristic (this class compared to that one), or are they fairly willing or passive students? Are you doing better with one age or study group vs the other? Since you don't beat them, how is discipline going as compared to your other teachers? It is interesting that you like your problem students more. Why is that?
And the answers (as best I can convey them):
My 5th grade class is the biggest. They speak the least English and are by far the worst behaved. There are some kids who quite literally act out just to get me riled up (they like to push my buttons). I have to dumb down the lessons a lot because of the English comprehension factor, and the class is never quiet. Generally they stress me out the most, but there are a few students I really like and connect with.
Grade 6 is the one you have heard the most about because they are the ones I see the most. They are the smallest and best behaved and have the kids that I know the best. I know each of their names and personalities, and even a bit about most of their lives. Recently they have been frustrating me a lot for some reason, which is a new development, but that might be more a reflection of my state of mind than their behavior.
Grade 7 is basically in between. Most of them are well behaved and pay attention most of the time but there is a small fraction that don’t. They are also the easiest to reason with since their English is the best and they are the oldest, so a chat about respect that I had with them actually went a long way. Sometimes the class is dominated by Matias, a boy who is… very involved. He has about 100 questions and loves to talk, which can be very helpful in moving the class along as long as he’s on topic… but I can tell you more about him later.
The question of whether they are willing or passive is interesting. I have been talking a lot with one friend about motivation and our conversations tell me this will not be easy to summarize but here goes: the kids here are willing to do a lot—they will run any errand, clean the classroom, write 14 pages… as long as it requires little mental effort or creativity. As soon as I ask them to figure something out for themselves (things I know they can do- I’m not a monsrer) even the best students will start to pout. It is very frustrating, but that’s what they have been brought up to expect from school.
And now for the discipline issue. It has been difficult not beating my students. Ha well that came out wrong, but I mean they do try to see what they can get away with knowing I won’t hit them. And a lot of the time when someone misbehaves the other students say, “Miss just beat him”. I learned from a return volunteer the good response of “he needs to learn to behave without being beaten” which they seem to understand but it is still difficult. I was talking to my friend Kristen about how difficult it is because we both came in thinking we could eradicate corporal punishment at our schools but that will be very hard to do if we, as the only teachers who don’t beat students, have discipline problems. It has been difficult too because I feel like I don’t have backup in my principal or the other teachers because if I try to get help, they will just beat the students for me. It has been difficult, but I’m hoping the idea of using respect and responsive punishments will just take time to get through to them. We’ll see.
Lastly, I have no idea why I like my problem students the best. It may be because they tend to be the most animated and frequently the most talkative (usually the problem). Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. I honestly don’t know.
And the answers (as best I can convey them):
My 5th grade class is the biggest. They speak the least English and are by far the worst behaved. There are some kids who quite literally act out just to get me riled up (they like to push my buttons). I have to dumb down the lessons a lot because of the English comprehension factor, and the class is never quiet. Generally they stress me out the most, but there are a few students I really like and connect with.
Grade 6 is the one you have heard the most about because they are the ones I see the most. They are the smallest and best behaved and have the kids that I know the best. I know each of their names and personalities, and even a bit about most of their lives. Recently they have been frustrating me a lot for some reason, which is a new development, but that might be more a reflection of my state of mind than their behavior.
Grade 7 is basically in between. Most of them are well behaved and pay attention most of the time but there is a small fraction that don’t. They are also the easiest to reason with since their English is the best and they are the oldest, so a chat about respect that I had with them actually went a long way. Sometimes the class is dominated by Matias, a boy who is… very involved. He has about 100 questions and loves to talk, which can be very helpful in moving the class along as long as he’s on topic… but I can tell you more about him later.
The question of whether they are willing or passive is interesting. I have been talking a lot with one friend about motivation and our conversations tell me this will not be easy to summarize but here goes: the kids here are willing to do a lot—they will run any errand, clean the classroom, write 14 pages… as long as it requires little mental effort or creativity. As soon as I ask them to figure something out for themselves (things I know they can do- I’m not a monsrer) even the best students will start to pout. It is very frustrating, but that’s what they have been brought up to expect from school.
And now for the discipline issue. It has been difficult not beating my students. Ha well that came out wrong, but I mean they do try to see what they can get away with knowing I won’t hit them. And a lot of the time when someone misbehaves the other students say, “Miss just beat him”. I learned from a return volunteer the good response of “he needs to learn to behave without being beaten” which they seem to understand but it is still difficult. I was talking to my friend Kristen about how difficult it is because we both came in thinking we could eradicate corporal punishment at our schools but that will be very hard to do if we, as the only teachers who don’t beat students, have discipline problems. It has been difficult too because I feel like I don’t have backup in my principal or the other teachers because if I try to get help, they will just beat the students for me. It has been difficult, but I’m hoping the idea of using respect and responsive punishments will just take time to get through to them. We’ll see.
Lastly, I have no idea why I like my problem students the best. It may be because they tend to be the most animated and frequently the most talkative (usually the problem). Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. I honestly don’t know.
Friday, March 12, 2010
New Roommates
Yesterday (Thursday) on my way to the library, I was approached by two boys from the high school asking if they could rent the extra house in my room. I talked a little bit with them and told them honestly that I have no idea whose house it is or who they need to talk to if the want to rent it, but suggested they ask the principal at my school. She wasn’t there so I agreed to meet them at 4 when the library closed to introduce them. At 4 she still wasn’t there so I said they would just have to wait until tomorrow and they smiled and nodded and went off to find a place to stay for the night.
I expected not to see them again until Friday so you can imagine my surprise when I went to investigate a noise outside and found them (plus one other boy) lurking sheepishly in my back yard. This was at around 7:20, just as the earliest signs of evening are starting. They told me that no one else would take them in and asked if they could stay just for the night. Here’s the problem: I had learned from another teacher at my school that the kids needed a place because they got kicked out of the hostel, so I was a little nervous. I confronted them about it and they told me the story. Apparently they got caught jumping over the fence around the hostel… which they were doing to go to class… because the man with the key locked the gate early… I’m not entirely sure if this is accurate, but I kind of believe it because it’s quite possible the head of the hostel wants to make an example of some “misbehavers” to help with discipline. We were told to be very strict and harsh our first week of school as teachers for the same reason. I didn’t feel unsafe around these boys, but I was a bit nervous I might wake up with my laptop gone… nonetheless I couldn’t let them sleep outside knowing I have a free room so in they came.
My fears were somewhat assuaged when one of them brought me the ring I left in the bathroom after my shower and said “miss you left this!” frantically. I slept restlessly but the night went without a hitch, except I had to get up at 4 to wake one of them up for a track meet. Today we played cards, talked, listened to music, and I showed them the movie gladiator on my laptop. They missed a lot of the political plot but when I asked (after 2 hours…) if they wanted me to pause it so they could take a break, they literally yelled “no! No!”
I like them a lot, and trust them a lot more now. It is a little weird though because they are used to being told what to do and having to report their actions. So they tell me where they are going and what they are doing constantly. And they went to bed on their own promptly at 8:30, washed their uniforms, and do their dishes after eating. Actually, they gave me a hard time about how clean the house is (“miss, if we are staying here we really must sweep tomorrow”). I will tell you more about their personalities later, but for now this post is quite long enough!
I expected not to see them again until Friday so you can imagine my surprise when I went to investigate a noise outside and found them (plus one other boy) lurking sheepishly in my back yard. This was at around 7:20, just as the earliest signs of evening are starting. They told me that no one else would take them in and asked if they could stay just for the night. Here’s the problem: I had learned from another teacher at my school that the kids needed a place because they got kicked out of the hostel, so I was a little nervous. I confronted them about it and they told me the story. Apparently they got caught jumping over the fence around the hostel… which they were doing to go to class… because the man with the key locked the gate early… I’m not entirely sure if this is accurate, but I kind of believe it because it’s quite possible the head of the hostel wants to make an example of some “misbehavers” to help with discipline. We were told to be very strict and harsh our first week of school as teachers for the same reason. I didn’t feel unsafe around these boys, but I was a bit nervous I might wake up with my laptop gone… nonetheless I couldn’t let them sleep outside knowing I have a free room so in they came.
My fears were somewhat assuaged when one of them brought me the ring I left in the bathroom after my shower and said “miss you left this!” frantically. I slept restlessly but the night went without a hitch, except I had to get up at 4 to wake one of them up for a track meet. Today we played cards, talked, listened to music, and I showed them the movie gladiator on my laptop. They missed a lot of the political plot but when I asked (after 2 hours…) if they wanted me to pause it so they could take a break, they literally yelled “no! No!”
I like them a lot, and trust them a lot more now. It is a little weird though because they are used to being told what to do and having to report their actions. So they tell me where they are going and what they are doing constantly. And they went to bed on their own promptly at 8:30, washed their uniforms, and do their dishes after eating. Actually, they gave me a hard time about how clean the house is (“miss, if we are staying here we really must sweep tomorrow”). I will tell you more about their personalities later, but for now this post is quite long enough!
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