Yesterday was scrambled. The morning bus route got all confused and twisted with the rain. Abby and I didn’t want to walk to school, so our driver came to pick us up from home. He arrived around 7:15, already starting us off on the wrong foot. The first half of the route went smooth, but it took a while because rather than waiting outside and being ready the second we showed up , parents kept the kids out of the rain indoors. At the halfway point, with about 25 of the onboard, we ran into a snag. A part of our route was impassable and we had to turn around and drop our load off before continuing. We ended up getting to school around 9:00, almost an hour later than usual.
The school day was sloppy because it was the last day of school before the short Easter holiday. I’m not quite sure what the students did in classrooms—I think it was just copying holiday homework into their notebooks—as I was in the music room most of the day. Ezekia and I were able to practice with some of the star students before teachers started getting mad we were pulling kids from their classes. We did some marking while we could—there were many books we had to update with grades before all our students went home with homework over the break.
Ezekia and I were preparing to have a talent show today (the scheduled last day of school) but that had to be fast-tracked because, as I’ve said, school was canceled today. So, we talked with the teacher and were told we could have an impromptu talent show after breakfast. We rushed to set up our stage and instruments, only to wait 3 hours until after lunch to have our talent show. As things operate here, the thing was poorly planned, leading to it being very late, but I’ve learned to embrace this style and just roll with it.
After the talent show, we went right into the quarter-closing parade. Again, this was a little messy with kids trying to board their busses; the parade started at 3:15, only 15 minutes before busses are meant to leave for home.
The assembly held us over by 30 minutes and busses departed at 4:00. Thankfully, no remedial, so it was the route and then home. As always, the route gave a bit of trouble.
This is the patch of road we decided to turn around at during the morning route. Because it was sunny throughout the day, we thought it safe to cross in the afternoon. We were wrong. We hit the muddy patch like a soap covered slip n slide and the bus began to fall off to the right side of the road. Luckily we stopped before any disaster, but we had to unload all the kids just in case something bad happened while jimmying our way out of the precarious spot. In the end it was fine; some muddy shoes, but we eventually got back to the route. Thankfully throughout this whole ordeal there was a nice view.
Last nights dinner was chips (or French fries) and chicken. I had a conversation with someone a few days ago about how Tanzania uses British English as its standard rather than American English. I didn’t realize (or realise) this. So, in class I’ve been teaching my American English spelling and pronunciation, unbeknownst to me I might be hurting the kids. I should have known something was fishy when the textbook was teaching kids to use “shall” for some future tense situations. Anyways, good dinner last night. And then I got to sleep in this morning because there is technically no school. However, the teachers have to show up to prepare materials for the parent meeting that will take place tomorrow.