General Updates

Care Packages:

Wanted to allay everyone’s fears…all that should have arrived by now have!! Matt’s first envelope full of CDs with a few of my favorite TV shows was sitting on the very dusty floor of the post office the last time I was there. Thankfully there was a long line so I was perusing the packages. So I finally got to watch the season finale of Breaking Bad, which aired May 29 when I was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Like most season finales, it was somewhat of a let down. In the OTHER care package that arrived that day (which is why I went to the PO in the first place), he had sent me a few mini bottles of wine. So I did have a lovely evening with my wine and Breaking Bad.

Andreas:

There has been an outpouring of support for my dear Andreas, so he’s all set. In fact, my friend in Windhoek may have found him a job! The details of that remain to be seen. I will keep you all posted.

Other orphans:

As luck would have it, teachers are supposed to generate a list of orphans and “vulnerable children” for the government. (A vulnerable child is one whose parents are not working or who live on less than $1USD a day.) I’ll soon have many more sponsorship opportunities.

Calculator pool:

Unfortunately, all grades and classes are tested on the same subjects each day. Therefore my 15 calculator pool isn’t going to go very far at all. I’m SOOOO BUMMED! Don’t really know what to do at this point. I’m not sure how the calculator sharing thing works because the desks are rearranged in lines.

Me:

I’ve been feeling better this week. Just had to dive into work, which is nonstop. I added it up, I’m working well over 60 hours a week. At this point it might be more. But a break is a comin! I’m travelling to Windhoek for my mid-service conference next week. I’ll stay an extra night to hang out with my friend there. Then when I return it’s just invigilating exams, so no teaching. I’m not sure if I’m responsible for all the marking though. That could get tedious. But I’m ahead of my grade keeping for the term, so life shouldn’t be too strenuous. I shudder to think what the other teachers do without excel. As it is it sucks that I have to handwrite what excel spits out for 250 learners.

THEN, I’m OFF for 2 whole weeks! I’m going to head east to Victoria Falls and then south into Botswana. I think I’m travelling alone at this point, which will be great practice for my adventuring in November. I have a tent, a sleeping bag, what could possibly go wrong?!

Parents Meeting:

A parents meeting was sort of scheduled for today. Even though it was all going to be in Thimbukushu, I was kind of looking forward to it…getting to see where these kids come from. Unfortunately though, I got a sour taste in my mouth for the whole thing as it was only announced at 7am this morning that classes would be cut to 20 minutes each instead of the usual 40 (in the midst of exam prep nonetheless), so that we could get started with the meeting at 10:20. HA! Fat chance. Things didn’t really get going until oh, 11:45 or so, mostly because there were about 5 parents there. I guess the meeting was supposed to be last week and then it was rescheduled, yadda yadda, in the end, no one showed. BUMMER!

What else can I tell you guys…OH, for those of you that want to contribute to the learners, what’s going to be the easiest way for you? Willing to make deposits at a Chase bank? Or I think I can still do paypal so long as you make the payment through a checking account and not a credit card. Please let me know…email me though, not with comments on the blog.

That’s it for now….SUPER tired as usual and still have two learners cranking away on problems in the staff room.

‘gnight.