Where I'm Staying

12/3/13

                So I realized I haven’t really given you the daily schedule for the school here.

                I wake up about 5:45 am, yoga, breakfast, shower etc.

                We must be at 6:55 for our daily briefing, and taking attendance of our classes.

                Classes themselves begin at 7:15, and run until 9:55. There is a tea break until 10:35, and classes resume until 1:25. There are 8 periods per day.  I teach art and ICT, and now I will also be teaching Life Skills, which is health and career readiness. 

                We have a lunch break from 1:25 to 3:00 pm. Teachers do not have to go back to school after 1:25 if there are no meetings or they are not on duty.  If we are on duty, however, then we need to be present for the whole rest of the day.

                3:00 pm starts afternoon study period, where the kids study quietly in their classrooms until 4:30.  Then there are two hours for dinner and relaxing a bit. 

                At 6:30, we have an extra class period until 7:30 pm, which are divided amongst the teachers for the week.  Then the learners study again until 9:00 pm. 

                Lights out is at 10 pm. 

                My afternoons are mostly spent in the staff room (we don’t have our own classrooms so all work is done in the same room), planning lessons, marking papers, planning Student Council Meetings, planning Saturday activities, and dealing with bureaucratic communication between committees.  Throughout the whole day, if anyone is having a medical issue, I am there to treat them.  I go to the hospital sometimes, with them.  I will currently wait on reporting about the condition of the hospital here.

                The learners here do not have water bottles, or cups , or anything to drink from outside of the dining hall, and they do not think about drinking water throughout the way, so a lot of the health issues we have here are likely a result of dehydration.  I am working on getting water bottles donated for my learners! If anyone knows of someone with an extra 240 water bottles, send them my way!

You need a committee to do anything here.  A committee to get snacks for tea break for the teachers, a committee to beautify the school, a committee to make sure that the cleaners are doing their jobs, a committee to follow up on the workings of the other committees which are in charge of planning the activities of the follow through committee. But I am on the committee in charge of the student council, school beautification (making sure it looks good here for the official opening with the President), and the Saturday evening activity committee.  I am looking forward to helping the student council set up clubs for drama, academics, and culture.  I’m curious how that will work—like if each of those learner clubs will need a committee of teachers. 

                Overall, I am loving it here, and so I’m staying the whole year! If anyone wants to come visit, I am so game!