Sunday was a great day. It started with a good, simple jog around a wealthier (thus safer and cleaner) area near the house. I went out in the morning (2 hours after sunrise) for just about 30 minutes, and yet I STILL managed to get burned to a crisp. Silly me, neglecting the fact that being closer to the equator also means, in a way, being closer to the sun. So I learned my lesson, and got home to cool down my burns and apply SPF 55. Denise and I meandered through town for a few things, and headed to Gorillas Golf Hotel. We had planned with our British friend, Maxine, to have a day at the pool. The hotel is brand spanking new, and no one goes there yet, really. Much to our pleasure. What that meant for us on Sunday was, we had the lounge pool all to ourselves all day. All. Day. It was pretty fantastic! We had doting servers trying to make sure we were always getting what we wanted or needed. Need us to move the umbrellas? Sure! Need a new towel? Great! I happened to forget a bathing suit for my stay in Rwanda, so I normally have to forgo the fun of wading in the pools here. But, because there was no one in sight, I slipped into my bra and running shorts and took a (cooooold!) dip in the nice, big pool. And I napped under an umbrella for a little bit.
Sadly, the food was lackluster (I think the best description of their menu and meals is, meh) and pretty damn expensive. We got the bill, and...let's just say, we'll be thinking thrice before going back again. While it was great to have the space to ourselves, it wasn't worth the immense tab. It's something business owners seem to often forget here - if your product isn't good, but your prices are ridiculous, no one will come. I wouldn't be surprised if it's empty at the hotel because the prices are ludicrous, given the quality of food and the options.
Now, let me kvetch.
There are a few things the last few days that have made me either say, "huh?!", "grr", or "you've gotta be kidding me".
Huh?! = The fashions here are pretty strange, sometimes. Yes, there are people here with a good amount of money and they dress very, very well. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am a slob, because they're so well put together. But most commoners, such as myself, seem to have the mentality to wear whatever they find, or whatever they were able to pull off of a Salvation Army truck. I've seen little boys in pink skirts; I've seen teenage boys in bright yellow polyester blouses; I've seen grown men in Cross Country High School logo shirts, with mittens on that say "Princess"...or what have you. To be fair, a lot of them aren't literate, and a whole lot of them don't know English - so, for the most part, they don't know what their shirts or pants or gloves or whatever says. I'm sure that grown woman walking around in the shirt that says, "You are cordially invited to go f*** yourself" has no idea that she's actually wearing a whole lot of sass, and some swears, so I'll often look, smirk, and pass by. But it's still a sight for me to see grown men in hot pink track pants, walking around like they're something else. And I always look twice when I see a clearly American high school name on someone's shirt while they joke to a friend in Kinyarwandan.
GRR = Dirt. Dirt dirt dirt. It's everywhere! The roads are dirt, the houses are dirt, the babies are dirt. It's so prevalent that it's caked into everything. My shoes are turning from stark black to some kind of beige because it's covered in dirt. My socks have dirt clouds when I pull them off and on. My pants are lined with dirt now, which makes it look like my black pants have a pattern on them. And my face. My face is disgustingly dirty. I wash my face twice daily, but it doesn't really seem to matter. I can put a napkin to my face at any time of day and smear off a smoggy, blackish, oily residue from all corners of my face. It's nasty, and it makes me really concerned that I'm inhaling this stuff and might forever be congested. Which, I am...forever congested.
You've GOT to be kidding me! = I have problems with students and the education system here. Every day! I know this isn't across the board for education here - I moonlight and have some AMAZING students...but for my day job, the students and the level of comprehension in education is dismal. What schools crank out my students?? Because I want to go meet them, and tell them a thing or two. These students have never learned!
I can tell them to bring out their notebooks to take notes, in slow English, and I'll still receive blank stares and inaction. I have to actually wait and then say, "TAKE THEM OUT!" before anything is done. It's almost as if, for some of them, motivation is a foreign concept that they never have considered being existant. Their motivation levels are practically zero, often, unless it means they're doing something not related to school. Which makes teaching very hard.
Another issue...critical thinking. I can't count how many times I've heard, "Teacher, the computer is broken..." to find that, really...no, the computer isn't broken but you're not doing the action correctly. Or, also..."Teacher, this math problem is impossible." No it's not, you're just not thinking about it. Hours of my day are spent showing them the path towards thinking a bit, a hair-length, more critically. And it just stumps me. How can people not think critically? It makes them look clueless, even though I know they're smart. Why don't they think just a little more, think of more possibilites, and find the answer? When I try to get them to think this way, they tell me it's too hard or they don't understand. I feel, daily, like I'm reliving Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
And lying is acceptable! I get lied to routinely, and I never understand why they are alright with lying. Sometimes I even second-guess myself, until I remember, no, I know that's not true. I know I taught them how to make a graph at least three times...and yet they tell me they never learned! How is that possible?? And with this, plagiarism is something they seem to be alright with, as well. I checked out a few of my projects in class, and I noticed that they were clearly copy (not coppy) and pasted (not pest'd) from a website onto their project template. It upsets me that this level of laziness, or carelessness, is accepted somewhere - they had to have learned it somewhere!
They just gave me something called Sombe here at school. It's apparently cassava leaves, ground up really fine and boiled somehow. My colleagues laughed hard at me when I put some in my mouth and my face immediately changed. Oh goodness, I cannot eat that again. They told me I would learn, but I don't know...if I want to?
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