February 12th:
Went to class this morning, only to find that the students were busy decorating their classrooms for Valentine’s Day with their homeroom teachers. My 11am class teacher asked for a little extra time, so I watched her class for a few minutes. The students were excited about their “very nice” classroom (“it is nice, Miss?”). I took them down to the art room where it was difficult to get them settled down and paying attention. Once they started working on their posters, the rest of class went fairly well.
I walked home, ate lunch and caught up on correspondence. For dinner, I thawed chicken stock and made chicken and dumpling soup. Skyped with my family in the evening – it is always fun to hear about the things the brothers come up with and write down on their “lists.” Went to bed early as I was tired from all the traveling over the weekend.
February 13th:
Walked to school at 8am. It was pretty windy, even though the sun was shining. I got an extra workout since my skirt acted like a giant sail making it harder to walk against the wind. My first class of the morning begged me to let them finish decorating their classroom for Valentine’s Day. Being the softy that I am, and since I know they wouldn’t have been very productive anyway, I agreed. This is the same class with the drama issues last Wednesday. As it turns out, the sassy student, “Prissy” who had to stay behind last week, is also the student who drives a lot of the classroom drama. I had noticed it on a few occasions before, but today she and I ended up in a showdown. It reminded me (again) of Anne of Green Gables - this time when Anne is teaching at the girl’s boarding school and has to overcome all the family prejudices through the school play. I agreed to let the girls decorate and even offered to play a game on the whiteboard with the boys. “Prissy” wanted their homeroom teacher to come help them (and even made a point of telling me that they especially didn’t want my help). I ignored the latter comment and told her that their homeroom teacher was with another class and couldn’t come, but they could try to do their best without him. She fussed and complained to all the other girls, making it clear nothing would be right without the other teacher. When she left the room on an errand, the other girls started putting up some of the decorations. I encouraged them and the boys acted like they were interested in helping. The moment “Prissy” returned, the atmosphere changed. She pointed at the decorations and told the girls that it was terrible and didn’t look good. They stopped immediately and the boys went back to kicking around balloons (which of course she didn’t like.) I decided to break the class into teams so each team could decorate a part of the classroom without Miss Prissy’s criticism. The boys thought it sounded good, but “Prissy” declared she didn’t want to decorate anymore and they’d rather do work. I decided to take a class vote, but each time one of the girls raised their hands to decorate the room, “Prissy” shot them a threatening look and they lowered their hands. After asking each student individually what they preferred and getting the same subservient answers from the girls, I decided I was not going to back down. I told the girls to get out copy paper and write sentences while the boys decorated. “Prissy” tried the “I don’t have any copy paper” trick (I wasn’t born yesterday), so I ripped some out from my notebook and set it down on each of their desks. I told them that if I did not get one from each of them by the next class, I would send them to the principal’s office. They were too stunned to refuse. The only sentence that came to mind was “I will love my neighbor as myself” and because I was so fired up, I told them they had to write it 50 times (there was 15 minutes left in class). Two of the girls turned theirs in by the end of the day. We will see what Wednesday brings. The boys happily decorated the classroom.
Even though this was originally “the best class” on my caseload, I have often been compelled to pray for them. Once I had to stop writing on the board (before class had started) just to sit down and pray. I think there are some character lessons to teach them though they may not even be through art. I pray that my disgust with “Prissy’s” manipulation and consequential reaction will be used for God’s glory though I regret not seeking His face at the time.
Stayed at the school and visited with Mary for a little while. From 10:15 to 11am I substituted for a second grade teacher. It was interesting to be in another classroom. While I enjoyed working with new students, I left thankful for already having established rapport with my students. During the break, my afternoon class eagerly showed me their decorated classroom and begged me to let their homeroom teacher take my afternoon session so they could finish decorating. He agreed, so I did not need to come back at 1:45pm.
Went home for lunch with Stacy (we picked up a rotisserie chicken) and took a short nap afterwards. In the afternoon, I went to the market for some fruits and vegetables. I found a shortcut to the market (more scenic) too, so the walk is nice. I still have to brace myself for all the stares (and when I walk alone some of the younger men will whistle, or they will try to say “Hello” even though it would not be proper for me to respond. Sometimes I will even hear them whisper something about “Cheena” or “Yapan.” I told Stacy about this and she jokingly responded that I should snap back “Kurdi,” but of course that would only cause more problems. It’s fun to laugh about the annoyances though.) At the market, the vendors are more polite and it is always a relief to walk away with all the things I came looking for.
Cooked up a storm in the kitchen. Pulled apart the chicken and froze the meat for future enchiladas and curry; then made chicken stock with the bones. Boiled a half kilo of dates, pitted them and cut them up (I found a worm at the bottom of my bag last time, so decided to clean all of them at once this time). Baked some date bread (figured out the oven and didn’t burn it this time!), prepared some no-bake peanut butter bars for tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day party, and made granola. Phew! When I finished, I ate a chicken sandwich, then Skyped with Jessica! It was good to see her, but hard to know what to start talking about. Once we finally got settled into a conversation, the internet kept dying, so we had to cut it short. Seeing a familiar face from back home brought back a lot of memories and was really encouraging.
