Nostro accounts and frustrations

Was an early start again today and a long day. Just finished my marking now. Some of my students are doing well and keeping up and doing their work properly, but I have a few that do their work all over the place in different books, all mixed up and it is honestly a nightmare trying to mark it. They also don't say which past paper they are doing and when they fall behind I don't know what I am marking as some of the papers are multiple choice so I really can't tell.

A muffin from The Plot from one of the other teachers cheered me up.

I went to the bank at lunch time to sort out my account being linked to Ecocash so I can easily transfer funds across and make payments. My mum sat in a petrol queue last week from 7 am to 4.30 pm, only to get to the pump and be told they were only taking Ecocash payments which she didn't have. When I got to the bank I joined the queue on the pavement outside only to discover it was for people making withdrawals from their nostro accounts (yes withdrawals in US dollars). I have money sitting in my nostro account that is being eaten away by bank charges. I went to sort out Ecocash and then came back out and joined the queue for nostro accounts and withdrew my US. Couldn't believe you could actually get dollars in cash. Am afraid some of it got promptly used to pay for petrol :(

After the frustrations with some of my class, it was an absolute pleasure to tutor my new student. He is polite, conscientious, neat and tidy. It was also nice to do some high school level science. On the way home we passed a guy who was posing as a muse, I presume busking, at the traffic intersection. Rather a dangerous place to do it, but it was refreshing to see. You don't really get people doing that sort of thing here in Zim. He was really good.

I got some lovely feedback on the illustrations I did for a story about a little boy and his toy owl. He apparently takes his book to bed with him and keeps looking at the pictures and particularly likes the one below of him making a chocolate cake as a reward for the little girl who found his owl after he kicked it over his wall to see if his owl could fly. (I didn't write the actual story, his clever gran did).

It's been a short week with half term but I am jolly glad tomorrow is Friday. I didn't have my French Chinese students at lunchtime today as it was the Dragon Boat Festival in China today and they were celebrating it. I need to look up what that is in French now so I can ask them about it tomorrow. (Just done so, there's not a direct translation. They have dragon fruit, dragon tree and Komodo dragon but no Dragon Boat Festival).

In my happy place

Had my Wednesday art morning again today. I missed two weeks as was in a down but got my things out today and had fun. Under Sarah Fynn's guidance I picked a photo of a kudu and then did different abstractions, using blind contour and block shading to cutting out a concertina of the shape and then worked into the shapes and form using oil pastel, water colour, a solid graphite block (which I loved), charcoal and then a toothbrush for splattering and a sponge. Really enjoyed it and was fairly pleased with how it all worked out.

At 12 pm I had a nail biting final bidding on Bidding Wars for Julia Donaldson phonics books for the school. Another friend was also bidding and it literally went down to the last second before midday. Only my second time winning a bid but never had someone else bidding simultaneously against me. It was close. The books should be a good tool kit to work from at school.

I took my new student for maths for the first time this afternoon. He lives in a gated community where another friend Claire Bradnum used to live. Made it easy to find as had been there before. We sat distanced across the dinning room table. Stopped at a friend's afterwards to drop off some wool for making blankets for an old age home in Mabvuku. Cleared up some cupboard space at home (slowly, very slowly clearing).

It's been a little bit warmer and brighter the last two days. Definitely an improvement to the gloom over the weekend. Didn't realise there was a solar eclipse on Sunday. Would explain why it got very dark. Wouldn't have seen it because of the cloud.

The start of the auctions

Today sees the start of weekly auctions of foreign currency by the RBZ in a bid to stabilise the exchange rate. We wait to see what happens with that. At the moment the source of the black market rate has been blocked and no one is sure what the US dollar is trading at. Shops are now allowed to give their prices in US dollar amounts but this means having to whip out calculators and a random rate being given. It's a bit of a déjà vu scenario but scary in a way as we are well aware what followed last time we went down this road.

I have suddenly got a new student to tutor in maths and science. Will boost my income but will mean I am working pretty hard. It is looking like we might close for school holidays in a few weeks' time before we reopen with government on the 28th of July. This is all if COVID doesn't suddenly take off. The problem will be that my grade 7's will be writing their entrance exams for high school at the beginning of August so I might not get a holiday as I might be coaching them. It's all a bit of mess and you just take each day as it comes as the plan could change.

I had a bit of a break after my Zoom lesson this morning as I went to go get a pizza from Sorellas in Rolf Valley. I popped into the nursery at Willowmead, across the road, and got some bone meal to plant two ornamental cherry trees I have been given. Ended up with an arum lily and pelargonium to boot and had a quick look in Kava (which is amazing). On the way home from school this evening I stopped at Dandaro to get my new Karen Seager miniature framed. The man, Mr Macfayden, who does the framing was busy re-framing a giant Darryl Nero that is up for auction on Friday. It was quite funny that he was going from that size and scale to my tiny 10x10 cm piece. There were cygnets and baby crakes in the pond at Dandaro.

Karen Seager miniature.

Still had some marking when I got home and have a bit of a headache again from wearing my mask too long. Have now finished and can do some art tomorrow morning before I teach in the afternoon. The lock down life.

Back to 'normal' tomorrow

It is still quite bitter outside and very overcast. Apparently it's going to be like this for a week and then hopefully get warmer but I've heard you can't predict more than four days ahead with the weather. Tomorrow morning we'll be back to the early morning pick up and drop off at school and I will do Zoom lessons again. This afternoon at lunchtime I had my Chinese five year olds on WeChat. They are a lot more talkative and we are making some progress. Have done Le Petit Chaperone Rouge, La Belle et La Bête, Le Bonhomme de Pain d'épice and La Reine des Neiges with them. They hadn't come across these stories before. We also played a French version of Simon dit (Simon says) which they enjoy.

Just had a lovely long chat on Whatsapp with my good friend Heather and saw her gorgeous little boy who is doing so well. Said I would try look out for a copy of the Jacqui Taylor African ABC for Louis. Jacqui does amazing water colour illustrations that capture a lot of things from growing up in Zimbabwe.

A fifth death from Corona was reported in Gweru yesterday. People are wondering if there will be a sudden spike with it being cold. At the moment a lot of doctors and nurses are on strike so I don't know how many government hospitals are fully in operation. Besides COVID the country really is in quite a pickle, with hyper inflation happening again, human rights abuses and corruption at the top. Things are starting to open again but I think people are being a bit gung ho and not being that careful. If we do get a major outbreak of Corona, our health facilities really aren't going to cope with it. The choir I belong to wants to practise in smaller groups. Still a fair few of us. Will see.

Father's Day

This day is like an empty shell
not really having the man in person.
My last memory of seeing him
is in the high court and a restraining order.
I have had virtual contact but then more abuse
and so I have pretty much cut myself loose.
This person who is part of me
and yet has been missing most of my life.

Of masks and whether to Skype, Whatsapp call, Zoom or Google Meet

I am enjoying my half term break. As I said in my previous post, this could be the only break for a very long time, if schools go back on the 28th of July and we have been going since the 4th of May, so I am making the most of this. Although I get days that aren't so pressurised with remote teaching, the days books are returned are long and there is a lot of extra prep you have to do. Any way, today I met up with a friend at a new market at the Borrowdale Race Course. It was good to see my friend and walk around but I was a little taken aback by how lax some people were about wearing masks and it was quite a big social gathering. While the idea and concept is great, we are still in lock down and I think it is all a little risky. I think I will wait for lock down to be lifted before going back again. All the prices were in US dollars but you could pay in EcoCash but I don't have any so it was merely a window shopping experience. I wasn't too keen on buying food that was not covered in any way. Veggies and plants are one thing but pastries left uncovered with both the vendors and those in the public not wearing masks breathing all over was another. Rant over.

On the way home stopped at the gate of a friend's mum. We thought she might already have moved to Malta to be with my friend but she lost her husband at the beginning of lock down and is still here. She was having a frustrating day trying to tie up her husband's estate as everything is on go slow with lock down and she still hasn't got a death certificate.

Got some groceries and I ended up behind someone who paid for their trolley full of shopping with $2 bond notes. The bill must have been several thousand. It made me think of 2008 and really made me think are we back to those days? With the money they have supposedly printed we well may be.

Got home and ended up deciding on Whatsapp being the easiest to chat to my best friend Nina. She has rescued two baby doves but says they poop all the time and it's smellier than baby poo. Was lovely to catch up and touch base. Just watched an interesting piece of dance called The Revisor choreographed by Crystal Pite with my sister in the UK.

Nina's doves.

Half Term in the time of COVID

It's a funny sort of half term. We have had six weeks of remote learning. There is rumour that the government is going to open schools again on the 28th of July (two weeks before school holidays) which means this is going to be a very long, strange term. Some of my students are doing well and keeping on top of the work sent. Some haven't done any of the maths classwork since we started (hangs head in dismay, but they don't seem perturbed). The grade 7 entrance exams have been postponed to August. I hope this doesn't make my lot sit back and not do anything. There is only so much you can do over Zoom and trying to tell their parents. Last half term I was in the Vumba with friends. Seems another life time ago. Some people are travelling this weekend. It is all a bit of an odd scenario as technically we're still in lock down but not.

When we eventually get back to school.

It is definitely winter now. The grey days don't do wonders for my mood and it is quite cold. I managed to do some exercise yesterday though and felt better. There aren't so many birds when it's really overcast but the other day I counted about ten species when I was out with the dogs and had a bush shrike quite close at hand. Didn't manage to get my proper camera in time though.