Back to school yesterday! It felt like returning from a holiday, but in a good way. I had missed my daily routine and the steady (but unpredictable) movement of the day. One thing I had missed most was the morning bus route and waking up to a bunch of happy kids!
Yesterday we ran into a bit of trouble with the route. Abby and I woke up to a discouraging rain—normally rain means poor roads and improvisations along the route. We had started our walk to school when our driver called us to say our bus was in the shop and inoperable for the morning. We had to do a bit of scrambling to get a new bus; it took some time but we were lucky to find that a driver had finished his route early and we could use his bus. By the time we took off for the route it was nearing 7:30 (three-quarters of an hour later than we are supposed to leave). In the end we got all the kids to school and our timing wasn’t an issue because the teachers were in a mess trying to organize end-of-month exams.
My duty for the exams was to input to grades into the grade book. It was boring and easy. I really don’t understand why the kids take tests every month, but I guess it works. Hope School for Girls and Boys ranks among the top in the area. But, I wonder if this type of exam style learning is effective. The kids don’t have much recess (or play time) and at this age it seems like that is important. But hey, I’m no teacher so I can’t be saying anything.
It was a short day yesterday. Because of the exams, we didn’t have any remedial classes. I was alone on the bus route home—Jovin got stung by a bee or bit by a spider and his leg was a little swollen, so the family took him to see a doctor.
This is our normal road, but like I said, rain requires some quick thinking. We took a quick little detour and everything worked out alright. I got home a little after 5:00 and really needed that extra time. I’ve been having a lot of issues with Ethiopian airlines and figuring out a flight for when I’m leaving, but I finally got it figured out! Unfortunately, I fly into Addis Ababa at 6:40 a.m. on the first day of onboarding/introductions so I’ll be pretty tired for that.
Last night was an early night—-everybody was tired because the weekend didn’t provide much rest. Today I’m excited because Ezekia and I are doing practical music exams for the students! We get to test their skill and see how far they’ve come!