Not something I want to see

Day 18 – May 21

The rains made us late this morning, but as I walked through the fields of the coffee plantation, I tried really hard to keep my pants from getting muddy…and succeeded! I had only one class today, a double period in periods 3/4 with Form IIB. Each of the Form II classes are supposed to have about 45 students but today I had just 29. The rest, according to the students present, were “out.” They couldn’t clarify for me whether that meant outside, away from the school, or somewhere else. In any case, the class went really well with the reduced number of students, and we even went overtime into their private study period at their request. As the class was about computers and the internet, I once again brought my laptop in to show them, and we spent a good 40 minutes after class huddled around my computer listening to music and looking at pictures.

Once again I had the displeasure of witnessing corporal punishment in the staffroom, today with not one but two students, and this time I had to watch it with my own eyes. Not pleasant. It’s unfortunate that they think this is a good method of punishment, but it’s not an isolated view; it’s the prevailing opinion of most adults here.

The headmaster was in a day long meeting at the school with the local council. They were discussing the construction plans for the expansion of the school. As mentioned before, Mangi Sabas is a new high school, and in these parts they phase in the schools. So when it opened last year, they had just the Form I students. Each year, the school grows as the existing students move up a level and new Form I students arrive. That also means, at the beginning, that each year new classrooms must be built to house the new students. The government pays 50% of the construction costs and the local community is obliged to pick up the rest of the tab. Apparently it was decided today that construction of the new classrooms will begin June 10.

With the principal busy, the teachers began leaving for the day at about 1:45, despite the fact that classes don’t even finish until 2:20 and teachers are required to stay until 3:30pm. The two English teachers, unfortunately, are the worst offenders and always leave the earliest.