Aye aye aye. Yesterday was a long day. I knew I was going to school to mark papers and input them into the grade book, but I didn’t know how long it would take. I woke up early, willing to go walking, because I thought it would be a relaxing day. Got back, did laundry (which includes hanging it to air dry, but I am lucky enough to have a washing machine), had breakfast, then left for school around 8:30. I rode on a motorcycle to school with two others—I think the capacity is only one—which felt fine until a bump came and it seemed as if the back fender was going to touch the ground.
Once at school we got to marking right at 9:00 and didn’t take a break until nearly 1:00 for lunch (kept grading during eating, even), continued marking until 5:00 pm and… still didn’t finish! I wound up volunteering to help set up the computer room for this coming week which held me another hour. And even with all of that, there is more marking and grade inputting to be done as well as computer set up. A slow, energy depleted, walk home turned a 10 minute journey into a 30 minute snail race. So in all I was away from home from 8:30 until 6:30. When Pius, the head teacher, asked me to come saying it would be from 9 to 12 I happily agreed. Had I have actually used my brain and imagined the impossibility of marking 5 different subject tests taken by 900ish students in 3 hours I would have chosen to go to town with the family. However, I did have an amazing time hanging out with the other teachers in a very hot, makeshift grading set up.
