Exam postponed, phew

So the big news on Wednesday evening was that the CHIZ ATS schools have decided to postpone again the grade 7 high school entrance exam. A big PHEW! Means I get next week off and theoretically we resume school on the 3rd of August online. We wait and see what happens with next week's MDC demonstration and Corona. Closer to home a staff member at the Pick'n'Pay in Strathaven tested positive for Corona and they had to shut down and sanitize or SANE-tise as a friend put it. It is definitely very much out there now. My sister is still not talking to us and hasn't invited me to do Pilates or Zumba this week. We can't just up and go though, it's not straightforward.

As I was trying to find topics for social studies, I put it out to some of my class as to what they would like to learn about. One student said he'd like to study Apartheid. Good choice. That will take several lessons and is a relevant bit of history. Yesterday with my student that I tutor, we did nutrition. Was interesting to see the traditional theory of a balanced diet which is heavily carbohydrate based. We discussed the newer low carb option and then looked at diseases from deficiencies. I had forgotten about goitre and beri beri. You do need your grains for Vitamin B in some forms of starch. Today I don't teach online. I am trying to find my CELTA teaching English as a foreign language certificate. I know I put it in a "safe place" but can't remember where.

It's a bit like Groundhog Day

With the sudden clamp down by government again last night and lock down being more strictly reinstated once more, there is a tangible sense of deja vu and here we go again. I'm glad I saw a few people this last weekend before going back into hibernation. A few people went to art this morning but I opted to stay home. I also managed to persuade my grade 7 student I am privately tutoring to have an online lesson. They hadn't installed Zoom so we had to do it over Skype which was not ideal as you can't share screens or have a white board, but we managed. They are currently trying to install Zoom for tomorrow, but gosh, didn't know there were so many Zoom apps to choose from now. I just had one option when I installed mine.

Lock down this morning didn't start well. Our dog Jasper is not good with other people if we are around and my mum unwittingly let the dogs out the back door, not knowing our gardner was walking round the corner at that precise moment. Jasper went for him and punctured his hand. We dressed the wound but my mum thought it best to take Given to the trauma centre for tetanus and other things. Unfortunately the CIMAS clinic in Rowland Square was closed, so she took Given to Health Point, which cost a bomb (six weeks' worth of online private teaching blown in one go). It had to be done though. Given has now gone back home to Epworth with the lock down. He rode all the way on his bicycle and was going to take back roads to avoid the police to get home. Means I need to do the watering in the garden.

Did some art in the garden today and some watering. My sister didn't invite me to join Pilates tonight, I think she's still really cross with me.

To go to England

After Pilates last night, my mum and I had a heated discussion with my sister about the COVID situation here. My sister is putting a lot of pressure on us to use the ticket we had on Ethiopian airways to go to the UK for my mum's birthday in May, to go over to the UK now and sit out the COVID pandemic over there. Her reasoning is that she feels that if we were to get sick, there aren't adequate health facilities here to cope with mass infection. We understand her worry and that she is feeling helpless at a distance, but getting on an aeroplane and abandoning ship here is not straightforward. To start, sitting on an aeroplane for many hours surrounded by people you don't know is one of the most riskiest things you can do. Then there's our jobs here and my dogs (Very Important). It is also a financial burden on my sister and brother-in-law to go squat it out in their tiny house for who knows how long. The health facilities here are not geared to a massive onslaught but we wouldn't qualify to be treated on the NHS if we were in England and would have to pay a fortune for private treatment. Well this is our argument for the moment. If Zim really does go into pandemic crisis we may not be allowed into the UK. My sister may not talk to us for a couple of days after last night.

Have given myself a day off today (my first proper one since we've been on break, excluding weekends) Edit that: I lie, I actually did grade 7 references for the schools they are applying to for form one this morning, so actually I did do some work today, it wasn't a complete holiday. Read, did exercise in the garden with my dogs and then WhatsApp video called one of my best friends, Heather in the UK. We had a lovely long chat and giggles and Louis her baby made appearances which were special. Also heard from my other best friends Nina and Gail.

Spoke to our gardner this evening and said to see how things go the rest of this week for next week. If the police clamp down more it might be best if he stays in Epworth next week as coming into town from the high density areas with the big MDC planned anti-government demonstration on Friday the 31st might prove dangerous. Zimbabwe doesn't do things in half measures, we have a flailing political and economic situation, intimidation and abductions and then what looks like a threatening COVID catastrophe. Can't complain that it ever gets dull.

And then suddenly COVID was very real

I ended up phoning the head this morning to touch base on what the plan is for next week. It now hinges on whether the grade 7's will write their entrance exam on Saturday the 1st or not. It is beginning to look a bit unlikely as suddenly the incidences of COVID have started to sky rocket. I mentioned previously the case of a person at the cathedral who had it and has now died. There was also a security guard at the Bon Marche in Mount Pleasant who tested positive, four staff at the Milton Park new hospital, and then a teacher who was offering private tutoring who also infected all her students. I think my trips out are going to end from now and I will see if I can teach my new student online rather. For school, if grade 7's do write, I have to do past papers with them next week and then start with my grade 6's and 7's the following week online again. Deep breath in and out.

My Chinese students have fizzled out which is a bit bleak but had my other student that I still tutor this afternoon. On the way home I stopped at my friend Lucy's. Her little boy got very excited to see me. He first came and sat behind me and played with my hair and then decided I was a giddy up pony and while I was trying to drink a cup of tea he bounced behind me. He calmed down a little and followed us to the vegetable garden where Lucy gave me some salad and veg. While we were busy with this Philippe got bored and built a dam in the coriander flower bed. He decided to add water to this dam and turned on the hose pipe. This started to encroach on the healthy coriander patch and we tried to stop him but the mud became very alluring and it started with hands and feet but rapidly deteriorated into knees and then full body in the mud. Philippe was in white shorts and a lovely sweater. All part of childhood but poor Lucy had her first full mud experience. Philippe came and had a bucket bath but just after he had come clean he made a mad dash back to the coriander flower bed and got coated once again. It was really hard to not laugh and seem stern.

Looks like it is back to being a hermit after this though and online communication again. Had Pilates with my sister this evening. She was having it in her garden in Swindon with two Scottish guys. I ended up being the only girl which is unusual.

Supposedly the last week before we return

I need to finish my lesson plans for the supposed start of school next Tuesday but it is all rather hard to plan. For a start it now seems government doesn't want us to go back to classroom teaching so it looks like we'll soldier on with online but there is no indication as to how long a term I'm planning for. It feels like we are ending up having a lot more school than normal and I'm scraping the barrel for topics to cover for the estimate of end of term. I do need to do revision too as I don't know how much has gone in with some of my students but not having them face to face makes it difficult to tell if they are really understanding. Sigh, one has to just do one's best and go with the flow and not plan too far ahead (unless you're trying, "trying" to write forecasts for work). My grade 7's write their entrance exams for high school supposedly in two weeks' time, again, who knows what is going to happen, but I have to finish preparing them as best I can for that, whilst juggling my two grade 6's.

In other news, saw a few friends this weekend and went to a socially distanced mass at Saint George's Chapel this morning. Not going to tell my sister this as she feels we should be maintaining a very strict lock down with the stats coming out of South Africa. I won't tell her too that someone who attended mass at the cathedral in town was diagnosed with COVID and is now dead. The cathedral is being sanitised and they are re-thinking mass there. I guess we do have to be careful but the mass at St George's was very spread out and there were very few people there.

Was paid by my Chinese students yesterday but sadly they might not want lessons for the next month as they will be travelling around China. This is a bit of a blow as it is one of my only sources of US$ and you now have to pay for petrol in US$ not bond. We are a bit stuck with paying our gardner as my mum was paying him in US but no longer can and paying him the equivalent in bond is almost my salary. I need to pick up more work or really will have to assess if we can live here. One of the reasons government might up the strict level of lock down again is that MDC plans to have a mass protest on the 31st of July. ZANU PF may use the excuse of COVID to tighten entry into cities in the week of the protest. Things are rather dire in Zim but I am not sure what the protest will achieve.

On an end note, apparently according to a doctor, for COVID you should be taking zinc, have vitamin C, sit in the sunshine every day and take an asprin a day as COVID causes coagulation. I'm getting my sunshine with my dogs and am already taking zinc. The naartjies at the moment are really good, so there's my vitamin C.

(proverbe) Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir

It's almost time for Zumba with my sister. Am nearly through the first week of the two week break between "terms" for school. We closed last week Friday and were supposed to have the grade 7 exam class starting back on the 28th but from newspaper reports it seems that might not happen now. It makes it all rather difficult to plan. I am trying to put together a term plan for now until some point in September. It is proving quite a task and feels like we've had an awful lot of school. Besides the fact that correspondence school is just not working for some. Am still waiting for one student to hand in work.

In between school prep I have been doing quite a bit of art which has been nice. I went out to Mazowe to a farm to paint aloes on Tuesday and was rather pleased with my two pieces. Loving using cadmium yellow at the moment. Want to try capture the jacaranda avenues with their yellow leaves. The first of the msasas are starting to come out.

Une tornade, un monstre et un ours en peluche

(translated - a tornado, a monster and a teddy bear)

Today has been Zooms (that disconnected), Google Meets (as an alternative), WeChat and WhatsApp calls. I started off early with my one student to go over work from yesterday one on one online. We got cut off on Zoom halfway through conjunctions and prepositions and will have to resume on Thursday. I then had my grade 7's and was trying to revise a past maths paper with them for their upcoming entrance exams. We suddenly lost connectivity with that, well at least I did. I tried to get everyone to reconvene on Google Meets but only managed to get three out of seven. It was very amusing to hear that when I left the Zoom chat and the rest of my class were left on, pandemonium apparently broke out and it freaked them out that I was no longer the host or there. I did chuckle and was glad they missed me. Bodes well for the return to school. I did get from the three who made it to Google Meet which topics we will need to revise when we return to school. Quite a few things, and this was from some of my stronger students.

I managed to have my French lesson on WeChat for its entirety but my mum came charging through midway wanting me to go help with our dog Jasper. He had apparently found a hole in the fence to next door and gone to investigate the tree cutters and all the noise they've been making. Luckily he was so intent on that, he ignored our next door neighbour (he has torn her clothes before) and thankfully her dog was indoors as otherwise it could all have been quite disastrous. Fortunately the tree cutters were all up the tree too, as Jasper bites people. I was in the middle of my French lesson so waved my mum off but she managed to get him back into our yard and he has been confined to the veranda all afternoon until Given, our gardner returned and fixed the hole.

As something different, I played a story telling game with my Chinese French students. Basically we added on to a story I started and I provided the words in French. I struggled a bit with what teddy bear is in French but otherwise the story revolved around a monster and a tornado. They seemed to enjoy this. We had already played Simon Says in French. They are getting pretty good at parts of the body. They can already read English so tonight I need to try find some very simple stories in French.

This afternoon I managed to WhatsApp my friend Heather in the UK and chatted to her and saw her beautiful baby boy, Louis. Tomorrow is my art day. We are going to socially distanced paint in the late Daryl Nero's garden and try some of his techniques - dabbling with water colour, oil pastel and then a marker pen.