(no subject)
School started of new. We were dicked around a bit with the schedule, but I will not let the man get me down. Before I left for holidays they said I could teach physics, but then when we got back, the new pedagogical director said that I was already scheduled for 8 bio classes. Maybe later. We have 5 biology teachers. We have 2 physics teachers. Half the 8th grade doesn’t have physics. But it’s cool. Instead of writing new lesson plans during my free time I can read Harry Potter e O Ordem do Fenix or spend hours listening to Seu Jorge cover David Bowie songs and write down all the lyrics. So this year will be just fine.
Teaching’s been going relatively well. I think actually being able to speak and have them understand me has played a big role in that game. And also, since I already taught this stuff, it’s not like I’m sitting on the edge of a biology cliff just waiting to fall over it. I can respond to questions they have. Although I did not know what to say to one of my kids Thursday when he asked if grass sweats (to list as a difference between 2 types of living beings). Cause technically doesn’t water leave via the stoma? Could that be considered sweat? Well I told him I’d get back to him on that. Homework is already a problem again. They just don’t do it. I think when I check homework on Monday if the kid hasn’t done it I’m gonna make him/her take the rest of the class sitting on the floor. Discomfort sometime gets the point across.
I’m doing this new thing where if they wanna talk they raise their hand and I throw this nerf ball at them. The one I won at the movie theatre. They like catching the ball so I have a lot more participation so far this year. Hope that keeps going for the rest of the year.
Most teachery moment of the year: Wednesday I had to stop a lesson 3 times in the first 5 minutes to tell them to be quite. I was pissed. And I had just finished reading the part in Harry Potter where Umbridge makes Harry do lines with his own blood. So I made the whole class spend the next 40 minutes writing “I will not speak at the same time as the teacher” over and over again. I was bored; walking around occasionally telling them how disrespectful they were, not much else. But they were well behaved on Friday. Not necessarily connected to the castigation, but in my head it is.
It’s weird that there are only 10 months left. Doing my trimester planning has made that seem so short. Very soon indeed. I can’t really explain what that makes me feel right now. Trust me, it’s got a lot to do with “what the hell am I doing when I get back”, “what the hell am I doing while I’m here”, “what the hell are people gonna think when they see me just sitting in a chair staring off into space”, “is that brick building they are building next to our house gonna be a mall” etc. Most definitely the oddest moment was when i was using our xi-xi bucket and was thinking to myself, "yah know, kebra, in your next house, you can have a nice place for this, it doesn't have to be in the kitchen. Maybe closer to your bedroom for when you need to pee at night" Then I thought to myself, "Wait, the next house I live in will a have a toilet, and a special room just for the toilet. An water will rain from above in that room." Now that was werid.
It hasn’t been debilitating hot yet this year like it was last year. But it’s still pretty fucking hot. Which means the cockroaches have returned for another season of “fly around Kebra’s head while she’s taking a bath at night.” I love the episode where the mosquitoes get in on the action and bite her ass. That’s hilarious.
Other hilarious things:
One of the schools maids coming to our house and asking if we had anything to take that would “make the poop leave”. Oddly enough, laxatives are not something the Peace Corps thinks we need in our medical kits. Maybe it’s all the diarrhea we get.
One of the bio teachers from the new group texting ME and asking ME advice on teaching.
The small child in 8a3 that wears a Clash t-shirt to school everyday. There is no couth way to ask him for his shirt. But it’s olive green. And awesome.
The opening credits to the first season of The Venture Brothers. Give it a looksie. Pay particular attention to the background after the plane flies out of the skull.
The Office. American style.
I made $2,700 last year.
A Mozambican film just came out about the difficulties woman seeking education in Mozambique face. It’s about a young girl that wants to study medicine. It was made by a man from Beira, 100% moçambicano. It’s called “O Jardim do Outro Homem.” Another Man’s Garden. It comes from a saying here, “Sending a girl to school is like watering another man’s garden.” Which I wish I could say I’ve never heard before, but I have (the women in education initiative’s slogan is “to educate a woman is to educate a nation”, just so you know). Anyway, it goes into the corruption of the school system here, trading sex for grades, etc. There’s no movie theatre in Gaza, so we haven’t been able to see it. But if it for some reason comes out near you and you have a chance to see it, do. It sounds like it’s really good. Hoping to get a completely legal copy of it next time I’m in Maputo.
Oh. I suggest being in or around the Stroudsburg area for New Year’s Eve 2007/2008. I hear there is going to be heck of a shindig at the old Ward place.
Okay, rock out don’t dork out.
Teaching’s been going relatively well. I think actually being able to speak and have them understand me has played a big role in that game. And also, since I already taught this stuff, it’s not like I’m sitting on the edge of a biology cliff just waiting to fall over it. I can respond to questions they have. Although I did not know what to say to one of my kids Thursday when he asked if grass sweats (to list as a difference between 2 types of living beings). Cause technically doesn’t water leave via the stoma? Could that be considered sweat? Well I told him I’d get back to him on that. Homework is already a problem again. They just don’t do it. I think when I check homework on Monday if the kid hasn’t done it I’m gonna make him/her take the rest of the class sitting on the floor. Discomfort sometime gets the point across.
I’m doing this new thing where if they wanna talk they raise their hand and I throw this nerf ball at them. The one I won at the movie theatre. They like catching the ball so I have a lot more participation so far this year. Hope that keeps going for the rest of the year.
Most teachery moment of the year: Wednesday I had to stop a lesson 3 times in the first 5 minutes to tell them to be quite. I was pissed. And I had just finished reading the part in Harry Potter where Umbridge makes Harry do lines with his own blood. So I made the whole class spend the next 40 minutes writing “I will not speak at the same time as the teacher” over and over again. I was bored; walking around occasionally telling them how disrespectful they were, not much else. But they were well behaved on Friday. Not necessarily connected to the castigation, but in my head it is.
It’s weird that there are only 10 months left. Doing my trimester planning has made that seem so short. Very soon indeed. I can’t really explain what that makes me feel right now. Trust me, it’s got a lot to do with “what the hell am I doing when I get back”, “what the hell am I doing while I’m here”, “what the hell are people gonna think when they see me just sitting in a chair staring off into space”, “is that brick building they are building next to our house gonna be a mall” etc. Most definitely the oddest moment was when i was using our xi-xi bucket and was thinking to myself, "yah know, kebra, in your next house, you can have a nice place for this, it doesn't have to be in the kitchen. Maybe closer to your bedroom for when you need to pee at night" Then I thought to myself, "Wait, the next house I live in will a have a toilet, and a special room just for the toilet. An water will rain from above in that room." Now that was werid.
It hasn’t been debilitating hot yet this year like it was last year. But it’s still pretty fucking hot. Which means the cockroaches have returned for another season of “fly around Kebra’s head while she’s taking a bath at night.” I love the episode where the mosquitoes get in on the action and bite her ass. That’s hilarious.
Other hilarious things:
One of the schools maids coming to our house and asking if we had anything to take that would “make the poop leave”. Oddly enough, laxatives are not something the Peace Corps thinks we need in our medical kits. Maybe it’s all the diarrhea we get.
One of the bio teachers from the new group texting ME and asking ME advice on teaching.
The small child in 8a3 that wears a Clash t-shirt to school everyday. There is no couth way to ask him for his shirt. But it’s olive green. And awesome.
The opening credits to the first season of The Venture Brothers. Give it a looksie. Pay particular attention to the background after the plane flies out of the skull.
The Office. American style.
I made $2,700 last year.
A Mozambican film just came out about the difficulties woman seeking education in Mozambique face. It’s about a young girl that wants to study medicine. It was made by a man from Beira, 100% moçambicano. It’s called “O Jardim do Outro Homem.” Another Man’s Garden. It comes from a saying here, “Sending a girl to school is like watering another man’s garden.” Which I wish I could say I’ve never heard before, but I have (the women in education initiative’s slogan is “to educate a woman is to educate a nation”, just so you know). Anyway, it goes into the corruption of the school system here, trading sex for grades, etc. There’s no movie theatre in Gaza, so we haven’t been able to see it. But if it for some reason comes out near you and you have a chance to see it, do. It sounds like it’s really good. Hoping to get a completely legal copy of it next time I’m in Maputo.
Oh. I suggest being in or around the Stroudsburg area for New Year’s Eve 2007/2008. I hear there is going to be heck of a shindig at the old Ward place.
Okay, rock out don’t dork out.