Quizzing, St Giles and line dancing

We really enjoyed the violin evening at Casa Mia last night. The food was good, the music pleasant and we were entertained by stories from some of the International School staff. Despite the restaurant being more than fully booked out the service was excellent and we didn't wait long.

This morning I went with a friend to a quiz in the Reps Theatre bar. The group we were with take it quite seriously and many of them go to at least one quiz a week at places like the Mustard Seed, Blue@2 and Amanzi. Many of the questions were pretty darn hard, for instance where does Harare's road Rotten Row derive it's name from? Apparently there is a Rotten Row in Hyde Park in London that was originally called Route du Roi but the commoners changed it. I was chuffed to answer two questions for the group - what Operation Barbarossa was (my history teacher Miss Machine would be proud) and then which month the Titanic sank in - April (I don't quite know why I know that particular fact).

From Reps my mum and I went to go visit a friend's grandfather at the rehabilitation hospital, St Giles. I haven't been there since I was in my last two years of high school and used to go every Saturday morning as part of Rotary's Interact to play with children in the paediatric hospital and school. The playing field we used to play on was a little overgrown but the hospital itself was pretty clean and decent. I was reminded that I don't think I could be a healthcare professional as hospitals do freak me out a bit and after my own experiences they bring back memories. I think my friend's grandfather was happy to see us though.

We were about to head home after that when we were invited to go meet up with people from church to practise a line dance for a variety show. Luckily it's fairly straightforward and we got it pretty quickly. Am now home prepping for the week. It's half term next weekend so I won't take Ira in the mornings on Friday and Monday. I will probably still have my afternoon students though.

It's the weekend

Ended teaching earlier than usual yesterday as Scott is away and Alberto didn't want a lesson. Met with two friends for coffee instead, one at Veldemeer's and the other at Bottom Drawer. Could have got home earlier but on the way home it bucketed with rain and we drove through a river at the Lomagundi and Second Street intersection. Think we got water on the battery terminal points and our car died at the Argyll traffic lights. We sat in the car for about an hour, getting out every so often to wipe the terminals but the car just wouldn't start. Eventually the rain ceased and we got home.

Thankfully the car was back to normal this morning and I was able to meet up with a friend at Aroma Cafe. Again we got onto the topic of having a baby and my friend said it's OK to not have children and be a pseudo-aunty. The thing is deep down I would really like to have children of my own and you do feel an outsider to the mothers group. I think not having children will be something I may well regret. I guess I could always adopt and I do have the children I am teaching.

Got home and pottered round the garden a bit with the dogs. A Rastafarian guy called Henry who makes stuff to sell and is often by the Maarsdorp market came to our gate. He never begs and does things to help himself. We sometimes give him materials to make stuff with. He is a writer and had written about how the police have treated him in the past. Some ZANU PF youth got hold of what he wrote and came and beat him up for four hours for what he had written. The police have previously knocked down the house in which he was living in Epworth. He keeps on trying though and makes a plan. He had made some bags which he brought today made out of bamboo.

Tonight my mum and I are going to a violin evening at Casa Mia restaurant with other staff from the International School as some of the students will be playing.

Progress

Am really happy to report there has been a major shift in lessons with Ira and he's getting stuck in more and we have fewer dashes around the garden and escapes to the nursery school playground. He is motivated by the promise of a sticker if he does his work well and it really seems to be the trick. I hope I'm not speaking too soon but it is a great relief. Still struggle to get him to speak and read. He much prefers hands on stuff and writing.

I went to the Jolly Phonics workshop last week and it seemed to be a more sensible way of teaching reading with sounds rather than sight reading. It is jolly expensive though to get all the books and the extra materials - definitely a bit of a money making gambit. I'm learning lots though and was good to go along to it.

Making some progress with Scott and Alberto too. Poor Scott doesn't seem to have many friends at school. We wrote a letter to someone he would like to be friends with as an exercise. I suggested maybe he gives it to the other child. I get lots of hugs from Scott and Ira has now taken to pulling me down at the end of his lessons and planting a great big kiss on my cheek - I nearly fell over backwards the first time he did it - not quite sure how to take it.

Went to a friend's birthday brunch at a fairly new restaurant in Chisi called Teta on Saturday. The cooked breakfast was good and I liked the blueberry and lemon cake we shared afterwards. They had very interesting decor, particularly in the bathrooms. Going to a violin evening at Casa Mia restaurant on Saturday.

The interesting Teta bathroom, with a singer sewing machine base.

Teta's old fashioned cashier.

Momentary Breakthrough

I nearly fell over backwards this morning when Ira came bounding up for lessons all on his own. I asked him where his bag was and he gleefully went back and got it and came straight back. He put it away and and got out his objects for sorting all on his own and so the lesson proceeded for a good half hour until the spell ended and we went back to square one with him running out of the classroom and trying to play catch me under the washing on the washing line outside. At least no bolts for the nursery school playground. He did eventually come back and even sat on my lap to hear the story. It was a breakthrough and may we continue with more of that.

Coming into school my supervisor accosted me and wanted me to pay up for my replacement last week. Following friends' advice I said what were legal rights. She said well she would need a doctor's letter which I said I could get. That seemed to make her take a step back and we left it there.

With my grade 4, I had to explain to his uncle that dyslexia makes word recognition difficult. He said he had thought it was just a matter of discipline. I am going to a workshop on using Jolly Phonics on Thursday.

Have a potential English as a second language student from Pakistan who wants to prepare for his IELTS exam in a month's time. He conveniently lives literally round the corner from me. He wants to go study electrical engineering in Manchester or Australia.

Hippo Pools

Road trip out along potholed roads,
Miombo woodlands and dombos.
Rivers winding and churning away
To the bush and tranquility.
Vistas of green and muddy river
Butterflies flitting and the grasses a quiver.
Firelight and braaied meat,
Starry skies hard to beat.

Just increase your meds

This past week I had a bit of a dip again. Part of it was due to the frustration of not being able to seek expert advice on Ira and his autism and then for his speech impediment and partly I think it was also premenstrual. In any case it resulted in one day not being able to get myself out of bed to school. I did let them know. On Thursday I managed to go to the ministry training on following the correspondence school for grade one. Most of it was in the manual and a lot was in Shona so I didn't find it particularly useful. We were given a letter when we handed in work on Tuesday saying we needed to give $5 towards snacks for the bring and share! On the day they demanded instead a $5 registration fee.

When I went back to teaching Ira on Friday I was told that if I miss another day of school I lose the job. I was asked what was wrong with me and I said I get depression. I don't think the person understood the severity as she said oh she gets it too but can force herself to carry on. I told her I was bipolar and she said oh, well couldn't I just increase my medication when I felt low? Not only am I not allowed to miss a single day of school I have to pay out of my salary for the person who replaced me. The only consoling thing was that apparently Ira missed me and on Friday when it was someone's birthday in the nursery school he apparently had a plate for me and said he needed a slice for his teacher.

See you in a month Runbo!

Well Runbo will be on his way to China now and soon will meet his baby brother. Our planned picnic didn't quite go to plan as he was a bit upset about saying goodbye to his cat Chilli who is going to stay at his dad's factory while they are away. We did semi play dinosaur snap with the cards I made and munched ginger nougat biscuits. Runbo told me his "soupcase" was all packed and ready to go. We somehow got onto talk about his milk teeth and I told him they would start falling out when he was six and he would get new ones. With glee Runbo told me his new ones would be just like T. rex's. I did point out that T. rex had ones the size of bananas but this didn't faze Runbo. I am going to miss him while he's away and just hope meeting baby brother goes well.

Feeling frustrated with what to do with Ira. Am going to keep reading up on autism and what I can do. It is thwarting that his parents and my supervisor won't even consent to him seeing a speech therapist. I met with another friend who is helping design a syllabus and curriculum for Cross Over and she reckons the reading syllabus I'm using should have more phonics in it. She's going to pass on some materials to me. On Thursday I'm supposed to go to a workshop on the government correspondence course. Hoping it doesn't go on all day as I have two other students later in the day. I have to submit the first set of work done by Ira to the ministry on Tuesday.

I had my form 3 student this morning and we looked at the introduction to Macbeth and why Shakespeare uses the witches. I had my grade 3 student yesterday and had forgotten how much I enjoy teaching him. He has severe dyslexia and has forgotten his times tables over the holidays when he went to his mum in Mozambique.

After teaching this morning I went to the depression support group get together and we sat and coloured in mindfulness pages. Sadly my friend hosting's father died this afternoon. It's now bucketing with rain. The Save River has been in full flood which is amazing.