This week has been… interesting. The rainy season has begun. My first reaction was, “Yes! It’s a thousand times cooler than it was 2 weeks ago! This is great!” But I failed to see the big picture. Yes, it’s nice to have rain and it’s nice to need my sweatshirt again, but how am I supposed to get to town in the mud? I took Thursday off so I could to town, because we were doing exams and I wasn’t giving any on Thursday. Well, it was raining in the morning, and I thought I’d try to get there anyway. However, the mud was so bad that I got 10 minutes from my house and realized that this just wasn’t going to happen. So I was going to try to go again today, but again it’s raining. I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere and I can’t afford a taxi right now, not that I’m sure they’d even come out to pick me up. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know how I’m going to feed myself. Rainy season also means more bugs. I may not have mosquitos at my site, but i have these giant winged ant beasts and the biggest wasps I’ve ever seen in my life.
So, we started the week with exams. Why we’re having endterms this week when we’re not closing until the 31st of March, I don’t know. Anyhow, I wasn’t giving any exams on Monday either, so I went to school late with the intention of staying until I was finished setting my exams for the end of the week and leaving before lunch. Well, I get to school and the first person I see is the principal. He walks up to me and says, “Shake my hand,” which annoys me to no end because he doesn’t need to tell me to shake his hand. I’ll do it anyways. Come on. I’ve been here long enough to know how to greet people. But then he says, “You will be giving my history exam this afternoon noon, si ndiyo?” (si ndiyo is like saying, isn’t it so?). I just stood there. Are you serious?? You can’t expect me to come to school and do your work for you so you can go home. So instead of going home at 10 or 11 as planned, I had to stay until 4. I was pretty pissed. I’m not here to pick up your slack. You need to be responsible for yourself. If you don’t have time to teach, then don’t teach.
Anyways, so we did exams and I wasn’t giving any on Thursday, so I took that day off. Unfortunately it was not what I would call relaxing at all. I live on a family compound that was clearly built for people 5’6” and under. I am not even close to being 5’6”. So I hit my head all the time. On everything. It’s out of control. I wish I could just shrink. Where’s the little bottle that says “DRINK ME” when you need it? So between Wednesday night and Thursday around noon, I’d hit my head 3 times, all really hard and all in different places on my head. The problem is when I get close to these awnings that are too short for me, I can’t always see them coming because they hang out right above my line of vision. So when I walk into them, I’m usually going full speed, so I hit my read really really hard. Well, turns out hitting your head 3 times in less than 24 hours, all in different places on your head, gives you a migraine. It sucked. A lot. Why am I so tall?
When I got back to school on Friday, a surprise was waiting for me. When I get there, I sit at my desk and kind of hang out, waiting for the secretary to give me my exams so I can go get them over with. Exams were not given to me. Instead, one of the other teachers comes in and informs me that the government requires the school to stay open until at least the 8th of April, so we’re pushing the remaining exams back until next week. What?? First of all, how the hell is my school the only school that wasn’t aware of this? Second, what’s the point of pushing the exams back? We didn’t teach yesterday, the students just had all day to study, which in my mind is a waste. Each class only has 3 exams left, so why don’t we just finish them as planned and move on to something new? Yesterday was such a waste of time. Sometimes it really bothers me how incredibly inefficient my school is at doing EVERYTHING. I really wish I could take over for a week and just organize the crap out of the school. Dates of exams and breaks should be scheduled before school even starts, not a week before they’re going to happen. It is by far my biggest pet peeve here.
On another frustrating note, the more I grade exams, the more I realize how desperately these students need to learn some really basic things. Like critical thinking. Nobody in this country seems to understand the concept of critical thinking or problem solving. My students don’t know how to take a question, organize the information you have and the information you’re looking for, and connect the dots to get from A to B. And it kills me. You know something is wrong when one of the questions on your exam is “What is the acceleration of a car moving at a constant speed of 100 km/h?” and only 3 out of 15 students get it right. That question was supposed to be a way for me to give them easy points, but no one got it. The best part is, I had them define acceleration a few questions earlier and most of them got that right. Every time we do a problem or I give them homework or an exam, I realize more and more how much they depend on memorization and don’t know how to do things any other way. If anyone out there has some ideas on how I can teach these kids critical thinking and problem solving skills, please let me know. I’m getting more and more desperate by the day.
Anyways, that’s all I have for now. Until next week!
Hakuna Matata 