And time passes...

Tuesday marks the start of exams at Kalumbu CDSS and it quite a more involved process than any of my exams ever were. To start there is the fact that we are encouraged to follow the National Exam format, so that students are used to the general procedure, meaning that each subject should have 2 papers/tests; I rebelled and only wrote one. I have been informed that next term I will conform! Then there is the matter of a timetable – we are also following the national schedule for that and are in current debate about whether to have both daily exams in the morning or give the students a two hour break and take the 2nd in the afternoon; a hot topic that will hopefully be resolved before Tuesday.
Still all this is minuet when compared to the actual construction of the exams. First we write them out by hand and submit them to our temporarily employed typist. She then types them onto some sort of stencil which we keep running out of and are continually sending someone to town for. These stencils are then used in some sort of duplicating apparatus. I am missing that land of computers and even, dare I say, copy machines.

But it was encouraging during our review sessions to realize how much my students really did learn; even those topics I felt sure they hadn’t understood. Given time to ‘ferment’ it seems that at least Photosynthesis and collection of like terms is clear if nothing else.
Low moment on Wednesday: Math Form Three. The day before I had put them into groups – their assignment was to solve one problem, ONE, and then teach the class how they solved it the following day. We were doing circle geometry and I figured if they could explain how they understood it in Chichewa or English, their classmates would be more apt to understand than if I ranted about chord properties and angle theorems for the better part of an hour. Getting into class today, not a single group had even started their problem. I was crestfallen, although had anticipated it slightly given the general nature of the class. It was my first ‘disappointed teacher’ speech and then I walked out of class. They seemed better in Biology, more engaged but it’s disappointing to work your ass off [or feel like you’re working your ass off], doing something you’ve never really done, in a place not your own, and you end up looking at a room of blank faces.

I’ve had a few interesting interactions of the past couple of days. Just this morning marks the strangest though. Usually in the morning we [my neighbors and I] are friendly but stick to basic greetings – we’re all pretty busy cooking, sweeping, bathing, getting ready for school or work or the field, so I found it odd when Patrick from next door wandered into my yard announcing I had visitors. At 5:45 in the morning, I thought. Turns out an elderly couple thought I was a health worker and would help them. I had to explain that I was just a teacher and didn’t have any medicine. They decided that instead I would be a miracle worker and asked me to pray for them. They came back in the afternoon and I prayed for them – they hinted that they were coming back, so I’m not sure if this healing prayer session is going to be a weekly thing but there was also talk of a basin, maize mill and 3rd mother…I lost the Chichewa after a while.

I’m getting better at 3 things:
1. Waiting: for things to happen, for my house to be fixed and finished, for my garden to grow, for my students to absorb and understand, for life in general.
2. At being present: I think this is connected to patience; being impatient makes you constantly aware of what you want or think you should be doing and therefore always thinking about a time and space other than the one you’re in. As I slow down I have moments of true “present-ness”.
3. At being watched or observed: I remember even at Koinonia I hated people watching me as I cooked or baked [which 12 people in a house makes a challenge]. Even here, I would stop what I was doing it someone came to visit – and for some I still do – but especially for the kids, if I’m cooking or gardening or doing dishes or laundry I chat with them as I work. However, there are two girls, sisters, whose visits I dread because they come over purely ‘kupempha’ to beg for things: flour, bananas, bottles, anything. And they don’t even put up a façade of wanting to chat. But my favorite neighbor Kafryn is four and lovely. She will come over and just watch as I work or we’ll draw pictures in the sand of my freshly swept yard and she’ll chat with me the whole time – slowly and articulately so that I understand. How amazing that a four-year-old comprehends better than most grownups that I’m slow with Chichewa. It seems people go to either extreme with language when they deal with me – they either give me the most rudimentary greeting very slowly “Muuuulllliiiii bwaaaaaanji?” not even having enough respect to use a time specific greeting. Or they after seeing that I am actually able to converse assume I am fluent and begin rattling off at a speed and in a dialect I have no hope of following.

In garden news: The wild tomato plants are thriving while my watered, weeded, cared for plants are struggling; with the help of the Medical Safety Administrator, I transplanted flowers from the non-functional clinic to my house; I’ve learned that carrots are NOT to be transplanted only thinned and I have my first visible cucumber! The garden is a-growin’.