Retour à la réalité

Tonight's my last night of cat sitting here in Avondale. Went home this afternoon with some of my stuff and was a bit horrified by the state of things. My mum has been moving stuff home from her classroom at H.I.S. and there are now boxes and boxes everywhere. There isn't even space at the kitchen table for me to work at. Well I don't know how much work I am going to be able to do at home at this point anyway as we don't have an alternative for electricity and we don't get power at home like most places apart from between 11 pm and 4 am. Either my sleeping patterns are going to have to drastically change or I will have to learn to do without. I am wanting to try get a friend to put in an inverter for lights and internet. Just got to persuade my mum to let the friend in to the house with the state it is currently in. I need to take a big gulp when I move back home and try survive. The mess and clutter my mum lives in is not good for my head space and I do get dragged down by it. Have told her this but she still hoards.

There are two more weeks of school. I have luckily finished my NILD online component while I have been house sitting and not had power cuts. It would have been very stressful trying to have done it otherwise. I have the residency week from the 19th to the 24th at Hellenic and we have a short workshop next Saturday on syllabification. Tomorrow and next weekend I have farewells for people leaving the country. It is a little unsettling as you wonder why you are still here and if you should be leaving too. As my mum is no longer at H.I.S. we are having to review our medical aid scheme. We can't afford to be on BUPA any longer but need to have a medical aid that accepts pre-existing conditions. There is a supposedly good medical aid from South Africa we might move to but it is something to think about seriously as from my mum's scare earlier this year, you don't want to be caught without insurance as hospitals here won't start offering medical care unless you are covered.

Emotionally I am beginning to just feel numb and the pain which is still there is no longer acute but rather a dull ache of a broken heart. I don't know if I will ever get completely over it but life just goes on any way. Whilst I am looking forward to a break from school, I need to keep busy as when I have too much time on my hands I have way too much time to think and that drags me down. So yah, it will be a balance between having a break but not letting my mind wander off. My Chinese student will at least be back for two weeks so he will keep me busy.

Zim euphoria

Finally home after sitting in a petrol queue for three hours. At one point it looked like they had run out but thankfully I managed to get a full tank. It is such a relief and tides you over to the next week, when you queue all over again. Was listening the local radio in between studying phonemes for NILD (National Institute for Learning Development) and they were spouting why it is such a good thing we are back on the Zim dollar. Hmmm. The price of fuel has gone up even more and our salaries just don't.

I've had a minor scrape in the car I am borrowing while house sitting and the first quote I got was over 6,000 RTGS. Nearly keeled over and died of heart failure. The second quote was much more within budget. The electric gate of my medical aid closed on me when I went to try claim back for my visit to the dentist. Looks like I will be house sitting for the parents of the author of the book "Girl on the Train" in August.

Have started NILD again and so far am on top of things and slightly ahead with hand ins. Need to remember to be online on Sunday. Trying to get on with the second big written assignment if I can now, before reports and exam marking are all due at school. Printing things with no electricity from ZESA is proving a nightmare.

My grade 7's write their high school entrance exams tomorrow. Hoping they do OK. My one student wrote on why tv is bad for you and likened it to be bad for the brain like coffee! Oh dear, that means I am causing severe brain damage to mine.

Have a meet up for the Unquiet Minds depression support group tomorrow morning and an occupational therapist from UCT is joining us. Will then tackle more NILD - tonight I need to just go to bed, I can't think any more. Petrol queueing takes it out of you. Even if you can learn some phonemes while you wait.

English for Chinese nursery school graduation

Just had an entertaining lesson with my Chinese 6 year old in Xi'an, China, over Zoom. He has been asked to be the master of ceremonies for his nursery school graduation. His mum had asked me to get him to practice his lines on Thursday but unfortunately we had to give up on that lesson as the internet from my phone (there was no ZESA) was too slow. Today was better and he had me trying not to smile as he had a battle of wills with his mum sitting next to him, over his pronunciation. The word "glorious" was particularly challenging for him. I had to offer a few corrections as some of the English wasn't actually right. By the end of the lesson he had had more than enough and started bellowing out glorious randomly in his own interpretation of how to say it. I got called an alligator as he tried to remember "see you later alligator". I thought his graduation was yesterday but there are still two weeks. Two weeks of continuing to practice this. He has memorised the words (and there are a lot of them) pretty impressively. I don't think I could remember all of that in Chinese.

There have been some funny moments at school this week. The one little girl, Melissa*, in grade three got to school early and decided to give the other early arrivals a spelling test. For number three she called out, "Number three, Melissa. Melissa is a lovely girl." With lots of people leaving the country one student announced his family was leaving the country. When asked where they were going to, he replied Victoria Falls. He then corrected this to Ruwa. We are doing cross country for sports day at the end of term and one student re-named it "running across the country".

Have started my NILD assignments already, even though the course only starts on Monday. Gives me a head start on my first essay. I am very fortunate that I don't get power cuts (touch wood), where I am house sitting as it would otherwise be really difficult to fit in the online work around teaching. The rest of the country is really suffering from crippling power cuts at the moment, my mum at home included. The internet seems to be doing funny things too. Got cut off on a skype board meeting for Xen Arts on Thursday. They did a great intercultural dance project exchange in Hunstanton in Norfolk. I was just filling them in on the current situation in Zim for a possible dance outreach project here when I got cut off with loss of wifi.

When grinding one's teeth gets costly

I ventured out to the dentist this morning after a long leave of absence. Have been getting a twinge in my molars when I eat sweet things and wanted to check I am not developing a cavity. Well after prodding and peering the dentist declared that it wasn't yet a cavity but my enamel is gone on one tooth and she then cleaned my teeth and applied a special gel to the tooth in question. She did ask if I tend to grind my teeth a lot. I guess I do. And if I floss, mmm sometimes and if I use mouthwash - uh, no. All of that came to a neat USD 110, yikes and there's the chance that if it does become a cavity I'll have to go back again soon. Was told I better start flossing and sloshing mouthwash as I am on the verge of developing gingivitis and my gums are slightly receding. Oh the joys of teeth and dental care. I have to wait for the gel to set for two hours before I can eat or drink anything. Am dying for a cup of coffee.

Went to get the mouthwash and dental floss and once again was bowled over by the prices. In the pharmacy they had their calculator at the ready to work out what prices for swipe are with the current rate. I was told at the dentist that the price could change by this afternoon. Our salaries just don't go up with the cost of things and you really can't afford to spend more than you absolutely have to as you just don't know what might hit you tomorrow. The life and times of Zimbabwe. I thinks we are all gnashing our teeth a little.

I pick arum lilies

In my dream, I am bending picking arum lilies.
I then recite endless poetry
of love and life and light.
You come to mind and I am blinded,
I stumble and once again come unglued.
You have moved on, but here I sit,
still aching and trying to cover over the wound.
The sun that shone has gone
and I sit here in the gloom.

A hint of sadism

Today's gym session was gruelling. I looked at the white board and saw each set had an ending of 10 burpees. Each set was repeated x3 and there were 5 sets - uh, that's 150 burpees. My goodness gracious me. I made it to set 4 and failed at 6 burpees and was let off having to do set 5. I asked Cara if we could have a break from burpees on Tuesday. My body is going to protest a little tomorrow. Feel good though.

It is half term - yeeha! Although it feels like the first seven weeks have gone relatively quickly. I was sick with blocked sinuses last week and missed some school. Seems some other people had it too. Think it is all the dust and dry air. My one student made me an appreciation bookmark which made my day when I got back. My mum has just joined the school after finishing at the International School, after teaching there for almost ten years. Our house is becoming chocker block full of school stuff as she packs up her HIS classroom. Groan. She is a lot better and seemed to enjoy her first week at my school. I am now known as "Mrs Lannas jnr".

Will have to finish preparing exam papers this weekend as from the beginning of July I redo the NILD course on learning difficulties and educational therapy and that is likely to take over my life a little. I should really do the Search and Teach course to help students lower down with learning difficulties as it would help with my grade 2 student who has dyslexia. He came up with a question of what do you get if you add one infinity with another one? ... To infinity and beyond! I thought that was very cute. He is off in Mana Pools this weekend, lucky fish.

Just staying afloat with the situation in Zim. We make a plan around power cuts and try save fuel. I am lucky to have the extra student as it helps me survive inflation. Going grocery shopping is a little frightening as the prices just keep rising astronomically. I don't know how people in lower income brackets are making out.

A Mental Health Day

Just got back from the workshop at the UZ School of Health Sciences which focused on mental health services. There were a variety of people there from health practitioners to sufferers of mental illness and current patients at Tirivanhu psychiatric rehabilitation centre in Ruwa. The first part wasn't that interesting but the lady from Ethiopia who has set up an organisation for services raised some valid points about conducting research and involving patients. It also then became more lively when the floor opened and we got onto the topic of affordability of medication and access to it. The point being raised of what happens when the drug you are supposed to be on is no longer available and conditions for patients in government hospitals. The human rights of patients was also discussed and what is in place in Zimbabwe compared to Ethiopia. Also the issue of funding for mental health care and prioritising it in government spending. So it was a good afternoon and I made some contacts. There is another mental health trust that does some similar things to Unquiet Minds and also tries to do fundraising for Tirivanhu.

There is electricity but I am going out to dinner in a bit with a friend and her son who also has mental illness. So it is a very mental illness filled day today. Just now I am talking on whatsapp to a friend in Australia who ran the fundraising for Tirivanhu here.