Halloween

Walked into my classroom this morning to be sprung upon by a group of my boys saying, "Boo!" and then, "Happy Halloween!" I was slightly preoccupied, so didn't get a huge fright. Got my class to write Halloween poems for creative writing. My one naughtier boy wrote in his plan "Aim: to give Ms Lannas nightmares." He wrote a good poem though. At lunchtime I switched on Zoom to have my six year old in China's mum asking me to wait a minute. He suddenly appeared in front of the camera decked out in a wizard's hat and proudly spun round to show me a cape with gold pumpkins on it. Guess everyone is celebrating Halloween today. Didn't know it extended as far as China but there you go.

I was quiz mistress at the Mustard Seed last night and did a heavily Halloween themed quiz. I think I made the first round on history in October a little too difficult in places. I had requests at the end to include questions on birds, sport and things like 1+1 next time if I do another quiz. OK.

Met up with a good friend this afternoon at Queen of Hearts who is back briefly from the UK, where she lives now. Was so good to see her and made me realise I have really missed her. Hopefully see her in Oxford in December.

I am on staff tea duty this week. It is going to be interesting getting ingredients tomorrow as not only does everything cost a bomb at the moment (some prices having more than doubled), it is also hard to find some things. Interesting times. One teacher at break today said it was good to compare where we shop and find things as we can find things more cheaply. Another teacher replied, "Is anything cheaper?" At least the fuel queues seem to have eased up slightly. Last week they were ridiculous. Life in Zimbabwe.

Onwards

Things have been busy with school and then two Nyanga trips. We had our school swimming gala on Friday, luckily no more frogs. While in Nyanga I went up Mount Nyangani with two others. The initial stage was painful but managed to get better at going uphill and surprised myself with a steep bit I managed on my way down. The other two kept telling me it was going to be flat after steep bits (they did lie at times and one looked back to see my face on seeing another steep bit). You have to have a guide as seven people have gone missing on the mountain - something our guide kept reiterating and implying we might be the next if we didn't obey cultural laws which included not being sarcastic, not pointing at anything and not comparing the mountain to others - all of which proved to actually be quite hard to not do.

I have been asked to give a talk on my experiences with depression at an event a friend in organising on depression at the Rokpa Centre on the 19th. Trying to pen down what I am going to say. Forgot to take my medication on Saturday and had a sudden dip yesterday. Haven't felt low like that for a while now. It seems to be lifting a bit today but it makes you panic as you think what if it is coming back.

Frog spawn and chicken pox

Still living in uncertain times here in Zim. I have just been past Borrowdale Spar and there were queues of people with their bottles of Mazoe orange juice - clearly this is now a sought after essential.

Tomorrow we break for half term (two extra days on either side of the weekend). One of our students has gone down with chicken pox. I am hoping I am not getting it (I've never had it). Got home after a quiz last night to a splitting heading and feeling nauseous and still not feeling great today. Don't really want to spend half term sick.

We had fun and games in my swimming class yesterday. Halfway through the lesson the pool suddenly became inundated with rather large frogs verging on toads. My one rather naughty boy was swimming a length and went face first into one. His face when he surfaced and saw what it was in front of him was priceless. I had a really had time trying not to chuckle away. I ended up going round the pool scooping frogs out with the pool net and putting them in a nearby flowerbed. Some of the frogs were mating and this is what really freaked my class out with the spawn floating round them. I told them it really wouldn't kill them, but they weren't buying it. There was also a water scorpion to add to the mayhem.

 My friend Nina wrote - To brew the ultimate teacher-silent-laughing-at-her-students potion add:
4 parts mating frogs
1 cup frog spawn
2 parts water scorpions
and a generous mix of 10 to 13 year olds.
voilà 

Medication could be a slight problem

This week has been a little crazy with shops suddenly closing, long queues in supermarkets and at the petrol pumps. Trying to look at the good things and not get weighed down by the negative. Things really hit home today though when I had to go get medication at my usual pharmacy and they said they now only accept US dollars - chete! and many pharmacies have closed. I earn a teeny bit of forex from my Chinese student but this is not going to be sustainable. It's not like I can just stop taking my meds though. Hopefully some sort of sanity will prevail and this can somehow be resolved. I am having to do a rain check though on my plans to go across to Europe from the UK in December - I don't know that I can squander the forex I have left. This has all been looming as the economy has been in trouble for a long time but I don't know that anyone saw this all going belly up quite so quickly. Technically there aren't food shortages - people are panicking and hoarding and creating the shortages but with bankable money no longer equating to US dollars it makes it difficult for any business to function.

Having said all of this, it is looking to be quite a busy weekend. I am going to the Freshlyground concert at Jam Tree tomorrow. I then teach two sets on Saturday morning before going to help the rest of the committee set up at Alo Alo restaurant for the Convent Old Girls' lunch. There is then a quiz at Dandaro for the Dance Trust of Zimbabwe (it is a Halloween one, need to check they don't ask the questions I have prepared for my quiz at the Mustard Seed in two weeks' time). There is another quiz at Reps on Sunday and I then move to where I am house sitting next in Monavale. Next week is half term though -Can't.Wait!!!

My students are a little stressed out by all that is going on and tell me stories of standing in supermarket queues as we are rationed to one item per product per customer, so their parents get them to buy things. The deputy head needed dog meat and tried to get two packets but was told she could only have one. When she said she had two dogs, the cashier replied well the dogs would have to share!

Trying to look at the positive

This week has not been the greatest in Zim, with fuel queues returning, tax on electronic transfers increasing, prices skyrocketing and general panic. Tea at school today was very bleak with everyone discussing all of this and its implications. Not a cheery picture. Doing gate duty at lunch though I had one of the grade fours who is "researching on aliens" tell me all about what he plans which was a breath of fresh air and I had to try keep a straight face. He is looking now at "alien adoption" and said it is crucial you remember what happens when the aliens take you up into space. He also said that since he has started telling the teachers about his alien project he has become extremely popular. This is after one of the grade ones interrupted him this morning and said "you do know that aliens are not real?!" Nothing daunted he has continued with his endeavour - quite admirable really. The other teachers said I may have to listen to many more tales now that I have shown an interest. I don't mind - definitely something different and I love the grade four's creativity and abstract thinking.

Felt a bit ill after personal training today after a marathon of burpees and wall balls. My trainer said that it's a good sign as you're burning stored reserves - hmmm, not a big fan of feeling ill. Went from there to meet a person I will be house sitting for in Monavale from Sunday. It's an interesting house and there are raspberries that are almost ripe that I am allowed to eat (oooooooooh!!) Was warned the dogs might decide to sing me an aria at night so it is best to keep them separated from each other.

Looking forward to Freshlyground playing at Jam Tree on Friday. I hope they sing some of their older songs too as I know those more and they bring on good nostalgic moments.

Magic on Zoom

The weeks are beginning to fly even faster and December is fast approaching - too fast! School is in full tilt and so far am steering clear of my students' lurgies, although I seem to have developed hey fever the last few days and slight ear ache with it. Am on antihistamines. Keeping on my toes with my naughtier boys, who keep trying their luck and see if they can skive out of work. Two of the grade four boys have decided to "research" on aliens. The one declared with absolute certainty when asked what colour they are, that they are definitely green! Although he conceded today that sometimes they are slightly red. He announced yesterday that they are doing an experiment in the playground with smelly cheese to attract these aliens and told the teachers that they must not be alarmed if aliens should happen to suddenly appear - they mean us no harm!

Last weekend I went with my boyfriend and some friends to Nyanga as there was the Fly Fishing Zimbabwe competition at Mare. They were lucky with the weather on Saturday, the day of the competition, as the weather changed on Sunday and it rained heavily on Saturday night. It was misty on the drive back through Nyanga and Juliasdale. Was given one of the trout that were caught, yum yum. Being away has made me speed up on marking. Managed to finish all my marking already for this weekend. Just have to do marks and schemes and prep for Monday. It is my turn to do assembly on Monday - have a story about patience and making mistakes.

Taught my Chinese student online this afternoon and was treated to a magic show by him. He is suddenly into magic tricks. I showed him some other tricks on Youtube which he was quite taken with. He did his performance with flair and panache, I must say.

Trying to finalise plans for visiting Germany and Switzerland in December when I go over to England for Christmas. The plan is to try first go to Berlin and then Frankfurt am Main, before visiting friends and former work colleagues in Lausanne (It's been 8 years already!)