We are now at the end of the first week of school. Last week really didn’t count, seeing that the kids returned for two days, then was followed by a long weekend, and many didn’t even bother to turn up until the following week.
As the new week rolled in things around here got under way pretty quickly. I’ve never worked in such a place – school or otherwise. The staff here are a fantastic mixture of incredible focus, but keen to relax whenever they’re able (with a few exceptions). The end result is a weird dynamic where you work your ringer off during the day, but learn to quickly switch off when you need to and enjoy hanging out with each other after hours.
As it happens, my guts are still a bit crook from eating some dodgy thing (certain people have their theories, but I maintain that its been just too many vegetables lately and I needed to break the carnivore drought). 24 hours of fairly uncomfortable life and the very aptly named ‘Ring of Fire’ and things are mostly back to normal and life in the classroom is reasonably comfortable (despite having to wear trousers and shirt to school – thankfully the tie thing is relaxed a little while its hot and muggy here. Currently about 35 degrees and 75-80% humidity according to BBC forecast)
Teaching the IB, and more specifically the PYP (if you don’t know, you probably don’t need to) is turning out to be a helluva learning curve. My teaching partner (Mark - or Mr G for Summer Heights High fans - possibly the proudest Kiwi I know) is a top bloke too, making the transition even easier. I am blessed with Rifat, the creative genius Teacher Assistant in my classroom THE WHOLE TIME (better believe it, chalkies back home…), meaning my classroom for once will actually be constructed and decorated in a way that will do justice to my student’s work (many apologies to my students back home who are reading this, I promise I’ll do a better job when I come back…).
The structure and order of the day is pretty unbelievable too. We had a fire alarm/drill this morning as the kids were arriving and it was the calmest thing I’ve ever seen. Walking in line, no pushing, screaming, carrying on and we were out the front of the school in about 4 minutes. I reckon I’m almost wishing some of these kids give me SOMETHING to have to deal with. Apparently apathy is going to be the biggest thing I have to deal with. Basically these are the kids from the ‘Have’ minority in the Dhaka population and many have an obscene amount of stuff done for them. Keeping this in mind, its going to be interesting trying to teach the little munchkins anything about personal responsibility... Having said that though, there are a lot of amazing kids here. Gorgeous personalities, kind and gentle souls – they’re kinda growing on me already
(But of course no match for Tozza students back home!)
The flip side of all of this is that I am an itty bitty part in educating kids who may well be quite wealthy and influential in the future and the implications there are daunting.
The cafeteria thing is a whole new ball game for me too. Lorinda and I did the maths last night and it is (financially speaking) ridiculously cheap for us to eat at the school. Health-wise, maybe not the best option, but pretty good on many occasions. The local meal (rice, daal soup and a curry of some sort) is Tk30 – approx 45c while the more ‘conventional’ meal (a daily change of about 20 different meat, pasta, salad, fish and vego options) is Tk120 – about $1.70. Makes life easy too, but will definitely have to work to find time to exercise round here. Good food + limited spare time = fatty boombalada. Can’t wait to be able to ride to school (apparently about 3 more weeks til our shipping gets here)
Much love,
Andrew
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