Early mornings and Teams glitches

 I didn't sleep very well last night, so it was harder to get out of bed this morning at the crack of dawn again (well actually it's before dawn - not going to be fun mid-winter, I am not a morning person, much coffee needed. Luckily there is a kettle in the art room so I can make myself multiple cups, I just have to provide the coffee beans). Today passed in a bit of a blur. I had back to back form 2 art classes and I will next time make a note at the time of what each was doing and getting up to in progress as I didn't today and it is very hard to recap as they were all doing similar things but just got to different points. Before school started and then in my only free, I raced up and down to the IT department as my Mac was not connecting to Microsoft Teams and I really need to be. Have been using my mum's as a back up but need my own. There's a lovely lady in IT and she tried all sorts of things but none worked. I shut down and rebooted and tried reinstalling but Teams got jammed and wouldn't budge. In the end I phoned a friend who works where my laptop has just been upped in RAM and a new SSD and they managed by remote access to finally sort it out but it was a mission for them too.

I've started my first online marking. A different approach to how you comment and correct compared to when you have the hard copy but it does mean I don't have to lug too many hard copy books around. I will have to check classwork books on Friday though for geo and maths. Forgot next week is a public holiday so we get a mini break (yay) but it's thrown my hand in dates out a bit.

Saw yesterday that Doha is not recognising Sino Pharm as a vaccine for people entering from abroad. This is not great. We are due our second jab on Sunday at Wilkins Hospital. My sister is still keen for my mum and I to use our existing Ethiopian Airways plane ticket to visit the UK. Don't know what the travel laws will be then. 

A small cog in a big wheel

 As first days properly into the job go, today was fairly good. I found my classrooms, checked out and in adapters for Macs and projectors, ran a maths ratio treasure hunt and for now seem fairly on top things. The onslaught of marking starts tomorrow and navigating Microsoft Teams and marking online (a new one to me). I really am blessed to be mainly in the art department. I get my own classroom with a view out to the playing fields and lots of space. We use digital tools in art making with iPads and there are a couple of cameras. Went back to basic drawing and shading of seed pods today though. A friend who works at A.R.T. Farm kindly donated some beautiful multi-colour grain miellies to us. They are beautiful with red kernels and dried husks. I might even try some drawing if I have time. The art staff help with taking photos for the school and magazine (something I am more than happy to help with!)

Just as I started this new job a window of opportunity has suddenly arisen with getting students to teach English to online in China. It is something I was trying to gain access to after doing my CELTA qualification in Cape Town. The parents of one of my Chinese five year olds that I taught French to in China are looking at starting a school and they have lots of contacts in China to connect with. Definitely a market and there are lots of CELTA and TEFL teachers in Zimbabwe. I am feeling rather old today as another past tutoring student that I took when she was in grade two, is now in form 1 at my new school. I can't believe it is that long ago that I taught her. Her mum was in the flower growing industry and often gave me wonderful bouquets of roses.

On Sunday morning when we were leaving for church, a guy who lives on the street that we give art materials to and a cup of tea arrived. Someone had kindly donated a notepad for him to record his experiences on in a digital format. As a thank you he whipped out a box and said he had a present for me. I wasn't quite sure what he was giving me but it was a tiny black kitten. I felt terrible but had to say I couldn't take it, as I just can't with our dogs and also starting a new job, I'm not home to look after it. I really felt bad though as he was only feeding it bread. 

Surviving

 I changed classes this week and have had children on the spectrum and others slightly more challenged than what I am used to but surviving. We're doing the Amazon and tomorrow we're going to make a giant tree with all sorts of animals in the canopy and understory. The one little boy is very taken with tapirs, even though he calls it the animal that looks like a horse. They are quite sweet kids but when they all want my attention at once it gets a little stressful.

I luckily was home early on Monday and had my dogs inside with me. Otherwise I might not have noticed that poor old Jasper was bleeding from his rear. I panicked and called a friend who is a vet and she confirmed that it can be a symptom of poisoning which I had thought of. There have been dogs poisoned in Monavale recently. My mum had the car so called a friend Vee, and she kindly went and got sedatives for Jasper to take him to the vet. He bites so he has to be sedated. Unfortunately yet again these took a while to kick in. Eventually my mum got back and went with her to the vet with Jasper. Long story, it wasn't poisoning and not gastro as they initially thought. Seems to be a mass on his anus that burst. We have to monitor this and if he bleeds again or gets any more lumps we must take him back immediately. I want to get a second opinion to be sure.

Well yesterday I was finally given my start date for my new school next term. Unfortunately it is immediately after Easter - eeeek! I have done prep but that is a month earlier than planned because of the government changes to school terms. Not much time left at all and we go on until June. This year is going to be a killer.

Have also just been told my medical aid terminated my contract with them last year without telling me. I have still been paying. They have now tracked my payment and seen I did pay but I have a whopping bill for physio that I have to pay. It's when things like this happen in Zim that you really get irritated.

Last weekend feels like years ago

 Almost at the end of the first week back to face to face classroom teaching. I can't believe we've only been back a week. Feels like way longer and the stuff I did last weekend feels like a lifetime ago. I will be taking the other class next week. Did a fairly comprehensive (well I hope it is), list of instructions for my replacement. I find out tomorrow what I'll be doing for the other class. One of the students isn't back at school as his parents don't want him to be yet, so I have to prepare a whole separate work pack for him. Will have slightly more students to teach. After this week I only have one and half weeks left at school, before I start my new job. I will be sad to leave and as I said previously, was just beginning to really enjoy my current class.

Having to explain a lot of English words to my Russian student. Yesterday it was the difference between engaged and married. One of my other students decided to add their two cents, and according to him, when you are engaged, you tell the other person that you like them. I had to adjust this definition a little. Another thing that came up was voice mail boxes. I tried to explain that in the past there was no WhatsApp, and you could only text, phone or leave a voice message. This blew my students' minds - no WhatsApp - how did we cope. I also said there was no WI-FI. Another shattering revelation. I decided not to go as far back as dialling and just a phone call and landlines. I think they would have thought I belonged to the dinosaurs then.

Went to see my personal trainer and good friend this afternoon. She has baby tortoises which are just too cute! Her little girl is amazing. She can already say "baby tortoise" and she is only a year, one month old. She can also fit puzzle pieces onto a wooden puzzle and follow fairly detailed instructions. Her paediatrician says she is very advanced for her age.

Tomorrow is Friday - hooray! I teach my ZIMSEC O Level student English online tomorrow afternoon. Seeing a friend on Saturday, going for sushi at Vanilla Moon on Sunday and getting some help on using Microsoft Teams. Also might do family games on JackBox. Two weeks until Easter. This year is an odd one again.

Possibly changing teaching hats again

 I'm really tired today, more so than yesterday. We did fun things like art and a board game yesterday, today was more hard work, so I guess that's why. It's a different kind of tired to online teaching tired. I finished house sitting today and was given Cote D'or chocolate, so am sitting munching yummy chocolate and recovering. I think I mentioned that yesterday my Russian student gave me chocolate for the first day. It was a sort of marshmallow covered in dark chocolate. Apparently it is Russian tradition that you give your teacher a box of chocolates on your first day of school each term. Maybe I should go teach English in Russia. It seems Russian children are taught to hold their teachers in almost the same level of esteem as the Chinese and are very polite. It makes such a pleasant change from some of my Zimbabwean students that I had to deal with last year. May my Russian student influence the rest of my class in a positive way.

Having said all that, it seems this week may actually be the last with my class. My colleague who teaches grade 5 had an emergency last week with her son, whom I taught for the last previous three years. They thought he had a burst appendix but it has turned out to be a rare gut disease and he had to have major major surgery today, poor boy. I might therefore be taking his mum's class next week and the person replacing me next term will take over my class early. Not quite sure yet what work I'll need to prepare for the different class. Will be sad to say good bye already to my class as we were just connecting but might be better for their new teacher to get familiar with them and thier learning challenges now.

Saw my high school biology teacher on Saturday and she has very kindly said I can have all her biology teaching material as she no longer needs it. It includes slides and all the A Level biology practicals. Very valuable but I've just got to figure out where in our house I can store it as there are boxes and boxes of it and our house feels like it's bursting at the seams. Felt honoured though that my teacher said she couldn't think of a better person to give it all to.

First day back and murder in the neighbourhood

 It was actually a feeling of relief when school finally kicked off back in the classroom today. I had mixed feeling this weekend but when we actually just got on with it and got back to proper teaching it felt so much better and you realise it is so much easier explaining things face to face and interacting and getting feedback. I'm going to feel quite sad leaving my current class in two weeks time as they are really nice kids and I am enjoying having only six students while it lasts. We did art today and they made robots, and then instead of swimming we played a board game friends had given me on survival skills. At the end of the day my Russian student gave me a box of Russian chocolates. The packaging is entirely in Russian so I have no idea what they are called. They were a sort of marshmallow coated in dark chocolate. Never been given chocolates on my first day. As a friend put it, let's see if I'm still popular at the end of term. (Although technically that's in two and a half weeks time, still unsure on the whole private school term debacle).

Had fun picnicking at Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens yesterday. My friend Lucy didn't realise how far it is and halfway along the road off Enterprise she started wondering if she had enough petrol! We got there and back though, although we kept my friend Claire and her mum waiting as we thought we were close but still had a little bit more to go. Lucy (the Borrowdale Madame) announced that her neighbourhood had become dodgier of late. Something out of Desperate Housewives has happened, which is actually quite a sad tale. I watched the St George's online mass in the evening and it turns out an old boy murdered his brother, there seems to have been drugs involved, and the mother and gardener helped bury the brother in their front garden in Borrowdale. It all came to light when the brother then had a car accident and had to be put on Pethidine and started uttering things about it and the doctor on duty told the police. A bit horrific and hard to think of in Harare!

Bracing myself for what could be a very long term

 So after weeks of waiting, government finally announced we could resume face to face school this coming Monday. The pickling point being though that private schools have had almost a full term of online lessons and are ready for a holiday. The private school boards took this up with government but were flatly told that they weren't supposed to have been having online school and that we must follow the government dates or risk being unregistered. Hmmm, this means we might get a teeny tiny break over Easter before continuing through til June (aaaaaargh!!!) This also means my new job might get pushed forward and I don't really get a chance to switch hats before launching head on into high school. So yes, I have rather mixed feelings about Monday's return and a little apprehensive about what this all means. I'm not alone.

Am therefore enjoying my last weekend before hitting the storm and taking a bit of time out. Watching some Master Class before my subscription ends (enjoying the Billy Collins on poetry and may watch Neil Gaimon on fiction). Did some body balance with my sister (have shed a few more kgs, but some of it has been down to stress. For a couple of weeks have woken up in the morning to a feeling of panic over what I have still got to do and have had a nagging feeling of anxiety. This has died down a little thankfully). Went to a friend's little girl's birthday tea today and am going out to Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens for a picnic with friends tomorrow.

It seems some medical aid companies here are in the process of procuring vaccines for their members which is good news. The one my mum and I are on is one of them. My sister is hoping for us to get over to England in our next school holidays but at the moment we have no idea when those are and there is the teeny risk that we go back to everything, there is a sudden surge again and then we're back to square one with lockdown. I guess if vaccines can be obtained it might lessen the effect but it is all a guessing game. We have until December to use our Ethiopian Airways tickets. I don't really want to go all the way over to the UK though to be cooped up inside. There's also the current situation where you have to do the paid hotel quarantine that costs more than your air ticket.