My school from the road. My classroom is at the bottom right and the open-air dining room is on the second floor.
It is Sunday afternoon, and we are hiding indoors. The equatorial sun hangs overhead making any time outside a challenge. I will do some more gardening after 6 when it darkens and cools. Likely by headlamp. I'm trying to get a coconut palm sapling from a colleague's garden and I wanted to get some other edible stuff going. My sunflowers started coming up a few days ago and then a gardener from our school came and ran over most of them with a lawnmower, as well as a coffee seedling and another tree seedling. I'm tempted to tell the school to not send the guys, they are masters of destruction and that's about it. The cocoa tree was missed. Hopefully by the time we leave here, it will be a garden of eatin'!
There are many mango trees around, including the school grounds, and I can see the strings of red mangos hanging on some of them. Can't wait for the crop to start ripening. I'm going to go out and cut some green bananas for a Sri Lankan coconut curry in a while.
There are many mango trees around, including the school grounds, and I can see the strings of red mangos hanging on some of them. Can't wait for the crop to start ripening. I'm going to go out and cut some green bananas for a Sri Lankan coconut curry in a while.
My classroom with huge windows and tons of natural light. And AC to keep it bearable. This is almost my whole grade 7 class!
Every week here has been busy and tiring, but I like it. Thursday is a pretty busy day for me, and then I had a request to take a PE class last block (to the swimming pool across the street). Which sucked because I had rockclimbing to set up for and supervise after school from 3-4:30. And after doing that in the sun, I had to rush to a meeting with a parent who had flown in from Nigeria to see his 3 children's teachers. And then back to sort out gear and classroom materials before heading home.
Here is the view from my classroom
Friday there was a buffet and drinks for the staff, courtesy of the Board of Governors of the school, and we took a break in the middle of that to use the pool, something we try to do 3 times a week.
Then Saturday morning I was at school at 9:45 to teach 'Capture the Flag' as of the activity options for the boarding students. They took to it well, and really gave it their all, which is amazing when it is about 27 degrees and humid. Then a break indoors to cool down and learn a board game called 'bagh chal',basically Nepalese chess. Half played that while the others played Twister. Then outside again to learn 'Kick the Can' which they liked even more.
After that, home for a break and then back to school at 6pm to chaperone a 2-bus trip to a downtown ice cream parlour called 'Festival des Glaces'. Fancy place but they isolated us upstairs in a little-used party room and the kids all looked miserable for a while. Ate dinner and then the disaster began. They had a very poor system of writing the bills, so they remade a list of prices, then crossed them off as the kids came up to pay. Forty-five minutes later we were still paying. And at the end, the owner and a waiter were angrily accusing us of not paying for everything, but they couldn't even tell us what wasn't paid for! So when I asked for a list of dishes and drinks that weren't yet paid for, the owner angrily gave up and asked us to leave. I was sorry that we had already handed over a cumulative tip that was more than the supposed outstanding debt. We won't go back there again! In the end we got home after 10pm, so a long day for me.
Sunday was a lie-in, with pain perdu (French Toast) in bed with fresh pineapple and papaya, and coffee. So nice!
One of our main forms of entertainment is watching films on the computer. Just saw 'Smart People', borrowed from our school office, where they have a pile of DVDs. Ellen Page (Juno), Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker. Quite funny and touching. About a family of basically damaged people trying to get through life.
Also watched some episodes of the British series Cracker, with Robbie Coltrane as a forensic psychologist. Good stuff but brutal. Lots of sick killers.
Almost finished my marking. Grade 6, Grade 8 and Grade 10s tests.
Next Friday is parent night, then a week off at midterm. No plans yet for sure, but might try to go into either Benin or Ghana with a colleague who bought a 4X4.
Never a dull moment.
Then Saturday morning I was at school at 9:45 to teach 'Capture the Flag' as of the activity options for the boarding students. They took to it well, and really gave it their all, which is amazing when it is about 27 degrees and humid. Then a break indoors to cool down and learn a board game called 'bagh chal',basically Nepalese chess. Half played that while the others played Twister. Then outside again to learn 'Kick the Can' which they liked even more.
After that, home for a break and then back to school at 6pm to chaperone a 2-bus trip to a downtown ice cream parlour called 'Festival des Glaces'. Fancy place but they isolated us upstairs in a little-used party room and the kids all looked miserable for a while. Ate dinner and then the disaster began. They had a very poor system of writing the bills, so they remade a list of prices, then crossed them off as the kids came up to pay. Forty-five minutes later we were still paying. And at the end, the owner and a waiter were angrily accusing us of not paying for everything, but they couldn't even tell us what wasn't paid for! So when I asked for a list of dishes and drinks that weren't yet paid for, the owner angrily gave up and asked us to leave. I was sorry that we had already handed over a cumulative tip that was more than the supposed outstanding debt. We won't go back there again! In the end we got home after 10pm, so a long day for me.
Sunday was a lie-in, with pain perdu (French Toast) in bed with fresh pineapple and papaya, and coffee. So nice!
One of our main forms of entertainment is watching films on the computer. Just saw 'Smart People', borrowed from our school office, where they have a pile of DVDs. Ellen Page (Juno), Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker. Quite funny and touching. About a family of basically damaged people trying to get through life.
Also watched some episodes of the British series Cracker, with Robbie Coltrane as a forensic psychologist. Good stuff but brutal. Lots of sick killers.
Almost finished my marking. Grade 6, Grade 8 and Grade 10s tests.
Next Friday is parent night, then a week off at midterm. No plans yet for sure, but might try to go into either Benin or Ghana with a colleague who bought a 4X4.
Never a dull moment.
I thought being "a follower" would entitle me to be informed automatically of new items published. But now I have caught up with your goings-on.I like being in the middle of the details, positive and negative. When will Julia start the French part ?
ReplyDeleteThe school looks very elegant. Are there going to be some of your house ?
Love to both.
Hi Dave and Julia! I would love to have a classroom view as this lovely grove of banana trees. It looks like you have settled into a very comfortable lifestyle. Where is Togo exactly? Since you have a grade 6 class you may be interested in participating in my Olympic Mascot project. Go to my website at http://fcweb.sd36.bc.ca/~poole_j/Olympic%20Mascots
ReplyDeleteI have changed the project to be flat mascots rather than send the real ones around the world due to mailing costs. I would love to start a writing project with one of my schools. We could blog or create a wiki together. Thanks for sharing your new teaching job and adventures in Togo. Looking forward to learning more. Cheers, Julia P