Physio and wetness

Having to get my head around my new timetable. I now teach my Chinese five year old in the mornings Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays and then in the afternoon the other two days. I continue to teach French to my Chinese ten year old and then have my Hellenic form 3 randomly (basically when he needs help). Trying to get tutoring on my free afternoons. There have been two people interested but they want tutoring every afternoon and it is tricky with having my five year old two afternoons. At the moment am having a battle of wills with my five year in trying to get him to look properly at words and not guess read. Trying to get hime to recognise the letters we're learning. I think a sticker system needs to come into effect tomorrow. Also trying to get him to look how I draw letters before he rushes ahead and does his own version. He doesn't like it but having to be firm. With my ten year old we will be venturing into the passé composé tomorrow.

Still working on my second wetland report from the field visits on Sunday. Have another field trip tomorrow between teaching and will have to also write that up. Will be going with one of Zimbabwe's very own Nobel Laureates. It could be quite wet as we are finally having some much needed rain. Unfortunately the remaining wetlands in Harare are once again disappearing at an alarming rate. Friday is World Wetland Day.

Finally had my first physio session this afternoon at Hands On in Avondale. It is rather overdue and although the swelling has come down a lot, it is still very tender. My GP had put it down as a severe sprain.  I stupidly didn't ask the physio what she reckoned I had done, she just said to rather do upper body for my personal training and she will only give me exercises to do from next week. She started off with using an electro current machine with gel, then massaged the tendons before putting on a hot pack (which was actually jolly hot and burnt a little to begin with). I see her again on Friday when I also see my other therapist.

Last minute shopping for a president

I was the only one successful in our third trip to Market Square last Sunday. The two others with me were turned away and directed to Makombe Building to change from alien to citizen and to replace an alien ID. I went and joined the queue I had been directed to the week before and hit my first difficult person but luckily the supervisor at counter 8 had signed my birth certificate so all was well. My friend who wanted to get her citizenship had a week of being shunted from one door to another at Makombe Building but they did actually phone her today and she has it at last. I don't know if I would have held out like she did.

I went to the voter registration centre open in Mount Pleasant and was relieved I was only one of three people there. Well I guess I should wish there were more people registering. As one of the three other people there put it, "we were last minute shoppers for a president". I thought I had everything but the person at the first desk said I needed a stamp on my ZOL bill to show it was original. I thought this meant I would have to go away and some how get this. I suggested that instead I get a utility bill in my mum's name and get her to sign an affidavit. He said no, my mum would have to come in person to the registering centre and sign it there. He handed me a form to sign which I did which he seemed to think was an affidavit for the ZOL form - I am still not sure how that all worked but I got registered - woohoo! Now I will have to start figuring out who I should vote for or vote against. As far as I can tell there are an awful lot of different opposition candidates - it would be better if they could consolidate.

Have battled a cold most of this week and have lost my morning home school students. It does mean though that I can now take my Chinese five year old in the mornings until he goes back to China and it gives me precious afternoon time to find work tutoring. I think I got sick as I was already feeling a bit burnt out with the double home schooling only three weeks in. Just need to get active in seeking out extra pupils to tutor. Perhaps can even try do lessons online. This weekend I've got some further work trying to save Harare's remaining wetlands.

A much happier five year old

Vos enfants ne sont pas vos enfants.
Ils sont les fils et les filles de l’appel de la Vie à elle-même,
Ils viennent à travers vous mais non de vous.
Et bien qu’ils soient avec vous, ils ne vous appartiennent pas.
Vous pouvez leur donner votre amour mais non point vos pensées,
Car ils ont leurs propres pensées.
Vous pouvez accueillir leurs corps mais non leurs âmes,
Car leurs âmes habitent la maison de demain, que vous ne pouvez visiter, pas même dans vos rêves.
Vous pouvez vous efforcer d’être comme eux, mais ne tentez pas de les faire comme vous.
Car la vie ne va pas en arrière, ni ne s’attarde avec hier.

Khalil Gibran

Today I had a much more lively lesson with my five year old. We persisted with maths, reading, sounds and writing but we then discussed food going bad and I told him about bread mold. We decided to start an experiment growing our own on a slice of bread but he was reluctant to just leave the bread to get on with it. We also talked about animals that cause diseases and he didn't know what a rat was so I found the video below of pouched rats used to detect land mines. He was completely taken with the rat featured and asked how he might catch the rat that eats his granny's cabbages in their back garden. I asked him why he wanted to know this and he said he wants a pet rat - I don't know how thrilled his parents will be by this idea.

My personal trainer kindly taped my tendons today at the start of my session. It is helping a little. Need to get preauthorisation to see the physio for Bupa to cover it. Saw my psychiatrist after teaching and he has upped my lithium to treatment level for the moment. He prodded a bit into my rage episode and I ended up in tears. He was trying to get me to see that I must give people the benefit of the doubt and let comments go. I don't do that easily. He wants me to work on cognitive responses to situations - it is easier said than done. Will discuss it with my therapist tomorrow.

Had to make a decision on going to England for a friend's wedding in April. Sadly funds are not going to permit it as much as I would have loved to.

Technology and modal verbs

This week is pretty busy with teaching and then meeting people at lunchtimes. Managed to prepare work in advance for today so I could go watch The Greatest Showman last night with friends. It was a feel good movie, but not sure it quite met the reviews I'd heard. Prior to going my phone died a sudden death and refused to switch on again. I managed to get a Chinese one to replace it this morning and so far so good, although I didn't realise there was a code for my Bitcoin wallet that I was supposed to have backed up - oh dear. Will see what can be done to resuscitate my old phone to retrieve it. It was quite a complicated process paying for my new phone as the only money I had was ecocash but luckily the shop salesman was accommodating and let me put my SIM card in the phone to make payment. Am noticing a lot more people are paying by ecocash in the supermarket and most restaurants accept it. People really don't have cash. To pay tips at coffee shops I am having to send waiters air time.

Shame, my poor five year old student is feeling very stressed by grade 1 and his new workload from learning Chinese. He seems to get a lot of written home work for that practising Chinese characters. His mum has asked me to ease up on the grade one work and make it more like my old lessons which it is gratifying to know he really enjoyed and misses. She said last night when he was being made to do his Chinese home work, in an angry outburst he grabbed his scissors and started carving into his desk. Poor thing - he has really plunged into the deep end. Working on what I can do tomorrow to cheer him up. I think he is missing his friends from nursery school but he does at least see his best friend three times a week at swimming.

I met with my friend who also teaches English as a foreign language this morning before work and she said there's another app called Zoom which can be used instead of Skype and can be used in China. It apparently has some great features for teaching. We also discussed joining language schools online and teaching online. Possibly is a way of earning money outside the country which right now would be extremely useful. We talked about how home schooling is on the one hand not that lucrative but is at least a dependable income as, although you can charge a better hourly rate for tutoring, people are not good at committing. My friend says she does all her teaching from home which saves time and money as you don't have to drive all over the place like I do. Lots to think about. Was great to chat to someone doing similar work to me and compare notes.

Used the book Eric in It's a Piece of Cake by Lulu and Tee which is about chacma baboons in Cape Town for my lessons this week. It went down a treat and generated interest. I really must try write some stories. Could definitely do some dinosaur ones from my lessons with my five year old - he could possibly even help me write them.

Les mantes religieuse and Ecocash

Overall it has been a good Monday. My lessons went well and my students were all fairly endearing. Looked at insects in French with my ten year old and he particularly liked the story of the praying mantis or la mantis religieuse eating her mate. We watched the below National Geographic video at the end of the lesson as a reward for working on the conjugation of -ir verbs. The only thing that wasn't so great today was that the only remaining person paying me cash no longer can and now I am getting paid entirely in Ecocash. You can pay for groceries with it but it isn't accepted everywhere and for instance my doctor requires a shortfall to be paid with no Ecocash option. When my Chinese parents can no longer source cash you know the situation is dire.

Otherwise I had personal training at lunch time. I made the mistake of saying I miss cardio with my ankle injury. Well I got an upper body cardio session - I think I asked for it. The endorphin high was good though afterwards and I need to keep exercising.

Almost a Zimbabwean citizen

Back we trekked to Market Square this morning. I got my birth certificate with ease - I was the only one in the queue. I then went to counter 8 to ask what I needed for my ID and they sent me off round the corner to photocopy my passport. When I returned the guy at the counter said that if I was applying for an alien ID I would have to go to Makombe building BUT if I was going to get a citizen ID I could do it there and then at Market Square and all I needed to do was go get my newly acquired birth certificate photocopied and join the ID queue. This was very exciting - I can finally be Zimbabwean and British. They didn't even want the letter that my friend had to write trying to say why I hadn't wanted to renounce my citizenship when I was 18. At this point the friend I was with needed to get home to finish preparing lunch for a group of us, so I will make a third trip back next Sunday but it is all fairly straightforward, very chilled and for the most part highly efficient. Amazing! Hopefully I can then register to vote - woohoo!

It has ended up being a very social weekend but I am feeling rested for what promises to be another frenetic week of teaching. Yesterday morning I went along to the nia workshop at the studio on Epping Road (memories of when my friend's used to dance with Dawn Saunders there and when I briefly did a dance class). It was interesting. Quite a different approach to dance to what I have known in ballet where if you feel pain you shouldn't do it - definitely not the philosophy of pointe work - no pain, no gain there. I enjoyed the jazz and more up tempo stuff which were fun and in a way a little like the swing class I went to with my cousin in Cape Town. The more martial art and new age things I was little less sure of. Had a braai and then a farewell yesterday and today was the lunch and am off now for drinks to see a friend back from the States.

Finding home schooling is a bit of a labour of love as I can't charge what I would charge for an hour's tutoring. It requires a lot of preparation and you feel like a rugby coach trying to get the students to keep going (we do have breaks, but still). When my Chinese student goes back to China in March I may try to rather get tutoring work. Someone is interested in A level maths lessons. Told them I can't do mechanics but can help with core and statistics. Am now enjoying the French lessons with my Chinese 10 year old most as it lends itself to interesting discussions in French. He asks some good questions. My five year old wants to have a little of what we used to do incorporated into his daily lessons - his mum says he misses talking about dinosaurs - it has only been one week so far!

No bones broken

Went to see my GP this morning after teaching about my ankle as it's still inflamed and sore. She said she thinks I may have done something to the tendon and I am probably going to have to have physio. She also sent me off to have x-rays to check I hadn't broken anything. Luckily all was fine on that front. At the Diagnostic Centre I bumped into my high school Shona teacher, Amai Chihambakwe which was nice. On my way to work this morning I got coffee from Veldemeer's and saw a guy I used to do extra maths with at Miss van Wyk's in upper sixth. It has been a while and we both kept squinting at each other before I realised where I knew him from and went and said hello. Harare really can feel like a small village at times but it is one of the things I love about it.

Am glad tomorrow is Friday, I've got to finish preparing to teach my four year old and then my ten year old French. In our previous lesson I helped the ten year old with his homework on Gaul mythology. Interesting that they had gods that were a mixture of Greek and Roman ones. We looked at Apollon, Mercure and Cernunnos. When my student's aunt asked me something mid lesson I accidentally replied in French as my brain was working in that instead of English. As it turned out though we had to then translate the English to Chinese. I guess that's what my student has to do everyday.