From Queens to Hunters

So the cat adventures have been resolved. One of the farms I walk by on my way to school had two kittens and one of them ran strait up to me and started purring. Obviously this little one does not share the crippling fear of humans that the one in my shed does. My principle, a lovely woman named Mme Shai, was walking home with me at the time and she talked to the mom of the house. The woman sold me the kitten for 70 Maluti (about $5) and I can solidly say that is the best purchase I’ve made since coming to this country. The very next day after school, one of the little kids in the house ran up to me and shoved the kitten into my arms and that was it. I had a cat. And I love her! I’ve caught her in the act of eating three mice and have not had any problems sleeping since. She is a fierce little huntress. Her only flaw (if you can call it that) is that she is very clingy and wants to be petted constantly. I oblige, obviously. Not only does she do her job, but she knows how to use the litter box, and she gives me some much needed company in my little corner of nowhere. Keeping with the Lord of the Rings theme I’ve adopted here, I have named my new fuzzy friend Arwen. I haven’t let her outside yet, but I think she sees this place as her home now, so maybe soon.

As for school, well, that strike business has not yet resolved itself. In fact, three of the four teacher unions went to court and got it legalized. Starting today the strike officially begins, which is why I am sitting in my house writing a blog rather than teaching math today. If negotiations continue without success, I have a schedule of three weeks off teaching and one week on teaching (rinse and repeat) to look forward to until a resolution is resolved. Until I hear from my principal, I am officially out of work. Back to crafts and books, I suppose.

Speaking of books, I have decided to join a few other volunteers in a self imposed challenge of reading 200 books before end of service. Considering that I am at 55 (if you count audiobooks, 39 if you don’t) already, I think I’ve got this in the bag. And now I have more free time than ever to kill.

Which brings me to my second project. I am creating a library for my school. In the past few years, a considerable number of books were donated by some organization based in Wales (there are a number of Welsh library tags on the books) but the books are stuffed in unceremonious and unhelpful piles inside desks. There are no shelves and the room is locked at all times. Not exactly kid accessible. I’ve already pulled the books out and started sorting. I started with non-fiction versus fiction and have stated moving on to reading level. Eventually I’m going to have to get actual shelves and do an inventory of what’s already there. Hopefully in the future I can make the room and it’s collection into a library with more books and, if I can wrangle it, large maps painted on the walls. The kids here (and the adults) have very little concept of where they are in the world and are fascinated when I point to the single world map in the grade 10 room. I dream of painting a world map on one wall and a map of Africa on the opposite wall. I figure if I can get my hands on the paint, I can paint the outlines of everything and get the kids to help me paint inside the lines. That way they can feel some pride in the coming years when I’m not here any more in knowing that they put hard work into it too. If the strike continues, I may see if I can get permission to go work on the library even if I’m not teaching.

My last note for now. I have pulled into an endeavor to try to increase the number of students who stay enrolled through the year. To that end, I have realized that droning on about adding and subtracting fractions all week may not exactly inspire interest in students. So I have started teaching the kids how to play chess. Not necessarily a relevant skill set, but the ability to think ahead and strategize is a fairly foreign (sorry, bad pun) concept. We’ve started playing it class once every week or so and already I’m beginning to see improvement. They are starting to remember how pieces move and a few are even starting to pick up strategy. It’s very exciting. Of course, I’m going to have to find a real chess set somewhere. The one I constructed from construction paper and permanent markers is cute but not particularly durable. That’s a problem for the future. For now, I can say that I am very pleased at how well my kids are learning not only chess but the math too. They really are bright kids and far more interested in learning than many of their counterparts in America are. Just a part of the cultural difference of secondary school (anything higher than grade 7) not being mandatory. The kids who bother to go, those who can afford the school fees that is, actually want to learn or else they would stay at home working. It’s refreshing to have real interest.

Anyway, that it for now I suppose. So here’s to mouse hunters and chess players!