I receive "I love you" letters from my P4 students. They are very short but super sweet!
P6 disappointed me. They didn't do the work nor do they know how to form the present tense or the present continuous although we talked about that for the last month. When I leave I tell them that this is the first time I am happy to leave their class. They seems stunned and mumble sorry when I pass their rows on my way out.
In the staff room I receive more "I love you letters" and when I'm sitting with a student for his reading exam I hear P4 screaming "Teacher Loreen" but I don't know why.
John (name’s changed) has problems in spelling and writing he was the one who cried last month and he even cried during the spelling exam. Today, I think I have an idea: I let him spell a word and then ask for the pronunciation if the word is easy like ‘it’ or ‘is’ I expect him to pronounce it perfectly. If not it's a mistake. But words like ‘affordable’ don't need to be perfectly pronounced but they are so long that he can't even spell them properly although he is reading the letters from the paper. If he says ‘they’ instead of ‘the’ I write what he said in on different piece of paper to show him the right spelling to the pronunciation. He seems very happy that I give him all the time he needs and encourage him with even the most simple words. When he finished spelling the word I tell him "Exactly, good job. Do you know how to pronounce this?" Sometimes he says ‘no’ but the longer we read he gets more comfortable and says "May I try?" I'm glad he wants to try. It's mostly wrong but he shows that he is eager to learn. I'm so proud of him. Not a single tear and it's even possible to have eye-contact for once. He smiles broadly when we finish and I clap for him. He did a really good job considering the fact that he usually cries and hides his face in his hands. He reached 50% this is still a failure but he usually gets just 40% from any teacher because they let him read but don't bother to correct him since "he has a problem". And if someone reads "comparative" instead of "cooperation" they don't know how to correct it or mark this since this is not just a mispronunciation but a completely different word.
I look at my watch this took 34min. But it were the best 34min he could have as an exam.
MM comes in and says: “You know how to teach. Your previous volunteer didn't.”
I'm felling very very pleased.
I write answers to the "I love you letters" and within 10min the three girls stand in the staff room with their answers at hand. They kiss me and I take out my phone. I need to keep this forever with pictures!
Back in the staff room I see that BM tries Gs suit jacket on and asks me afterwards why sharing clothes is a bad attitude. I say: “I don't know.” I consider Memorial which is the huge market including a big second hand part and I think second hand is a good idea. He puts the jacket of and says: “It can give you skin cancer, isn't it?”
“No, cancer is not contagious."
Oh someone seriously missed a huge part of common knowledge. This together with him last week telling me that the finger tricks I showed the students are sex signs makes me feeling uncomfortable when I think about him being in charge of children… I get the urge to ask the head teacher to quit him or put him as a student in P3 again. Cancer is contagious… honestly.
When I leave the school a P6 student asks me whether I have forgiven them. I am glad that they care about me being disappointed or not. I tell her they have to deserve my forgiveness before I leave. At the bus stop I wait for a DalaDala and when it stops and the conductor opens the door I see that there is nearly no space inside. He tells the other passengers to squeeze together for the Mzungu. I understand this and when I enter I tell him I'm not Mzungu. Everyone looks amazed that I say this in Swahili and smile broadly at me. When I'm home I have to finish my notes from the last two days and I have to wash a lot of my clothes. I'm so exhausted but the memory of my students hugging me and giving me a kiss on the cheek without me doing anything but being present, is the best drug in the world that keeps me working and smiling at the same time.
When we go for dinner it rains. We go without an umbrella but I don't care. I tell J everything that happened and he tells me funny stories about a 5 year old patient at the hospital. We laugh in the rain and enjoy it. Still it feels pretty weird to wash your hands at the same time as big rain drops fall on you. (There is no roof above the tab.)
The next morning, I enjoy the wet ground because it puts the dust together and the air is clear.
GM tells me I know how to dress and he wishes to get a girl from abroad knowing how to dress. Then he asks me whether I have considered marrying a Tanzanian person. He asks me whether I can make some arrangements for him to get one girl. Funny enough BM sits next to us and I tell GM I have a deja-vu because I had the same conversation with BM.
During the lunch break I'm alone in the staff room. I fill in the lesson planer and listen to my music only with one headphone so that I can hear everything around me in case a student needs me. After 20min or so G comes in and sits down and starts playing GTA. The staff room door is open as usual and I'm annoyed because he is a bad role model for the children who pass by and stay in the doorway to watch what he is doing. When I finish filling in the lesson planer I take out my calendar to write my To-do list down. A female teacher comes in and looks at me. She just takes my headphone out of my ear, put it in hers. I ask: “Can you ask first?” and she places them roughly back in mine. In my opinion rude! And outch her fingernails scratch my cheek.
I don’t wan to stay in the staff room all day so I go to P4 and start playing with them and I hug them. I let them play with my hair. They ask me whether I'm going on the trip with them. I say ‘no’ I will go with P5 and P6 if I go at all. As one they scream: "But P6 doesn't have good manners." Hahaha...
When I'm back in the staff room GM asks me what I was doing. I say I'm playing with P4 he asks: “What do you play?” and I answer: “It's called being nice.” I tell him that I talk to them and hug them. “Can I hug you too?”
“Sure, if you want to.”
“No, I'm afraid.” (Obviously he wants me to come to him and hug him now.)
“Oh are you shy?” then I leave.
The other residents of the White House asked during the last days whether we are going to play Black stories again. When we sit down in the evening in the hallway just like last time no one is there but it doesn't matter we didn't expect anyone. We keep on working and when the girl from last time comes she tells J that she asked other people to guess the solution from last week. But they didn't want to think they just tried once and wanted to have the answer afterwards. I say: “That is because of your education here. You are raised to choose one right answer out of multiple choice but you're expected to use your brain after school. That doesn't fit together. Give your children something to work on and to actually use their brain. In school they are expected to repeat exactly what the teacher has said no matter whether the definition with other words would have the same meaning.” J agrees with me and means I'm going to change a lot and it starts with Black stories.
We play "A woman goes in a pub and orders a glass of water. The man behind the counter grabs a rifle and points it at her. She says thank you and leaves." After a few questions one girl asks if she is a thieve. I say no.
“Is there a thieve behind her?”
“No.”
“Is the man a thieve?”
“No, there is no thieve.”
Two guesses later: Does she look like a thieve?
“No.” But now I can’t hold myself anymore and start laughing hard and so do the others.
When we are on our way for dinner I'm supposed to make the DalaDala stop. I say "Oy, conda." To get his attention. A few weeks this appeared rude to me. To address someone by saying "Oy" I can't do that. But I come to realize that those sounds are a big part of the communication here and it's not rude at all. When I tell J about this realization he makes "ah" and I say: “Yes, that's what I mean.” Then we laugh.
I walk to have a nice breakfast. When I walk back I see a DalaDala which says: It easy to me but harder to love me. I laugh and take a picture. When I continue walking a boy is standing at the edge of the street peeing. I am scared to say hello in case he will turn and pee on my shoes…
When we go for the dancing lesson I ask J whether he thinks we are going to meet the girl from last week again. He says the chances are 6%. When we pass the school and the school busses are about to leave J laughs and says we are about to hear that again. The girl from last week says hi. I say hi back and she seems happy. But J is not satisfied, I say: “Be patient.” We pass another school bus it's the same where the children put out there hands last time. Today they say hi and hi over and over again and I reply over and over again. The students I have eye contact while saying hi act amazed like it's super cool to get eye contact with me. We keep walking and J asks me whether I want to shift sides because the students we just saw are all on the right side of the bus and when the bus passes now they are on the "wrong" side. I say no, they will shift. I'm right. When the bus comes by the students shift and say hi again. As the other bus comes by the girl puts her head out of the window and says: “Tell me your name?” J says ‘thank you’ and I scream: Loreen.
When we reach the dancing place a teakwondo competition is on and we bet who wins the next fight.
Two new girls attend the class and our teacher wants to show them the dance. Afterwards one girl says that I'm good and whetherI'm a dancing teacher. I'm super happy and proud of myself. After the dancing class we talk a bit. She works with deaf people and invites us to a work shop which takes place every Saturday where different people come together and exchange experience and show someone else different life skills. We love that idea but my schedule is already so tight. But I really want to attend so I tell J we can go every second Saturday to this workshop and every other Saturday to the orphanage. J loves the idea and we plan to do that. When I complain about no time for my blog entries he remembers me that those are all important things. He is right and I'm so happy to be a part of those things.
Nov 5, 2016
Nov 2, 2016
Week 10 part 1: Body language is international
When we walk back to the White House after our dancing lesson I stop at a shop and say: “Subiri, nataka kununua biskuti.” (=Wait, I want to buy some biscuits.) J is surprised. He didn't know that I knew the vocabulary. When he tries to trick me into being speechless I find another solution. Instead of making me speechless he get’s speechless himself. I grin and I'm super proud of myself! Then I realize that I remember mostly everything perfectly well without having written down anything since he started teaching me. My pride rises.
During dinner I check my messages and see that my mentor posted a WhatsApp message into our group saying that a volunteer in Butiama got seriously sick and will leave for Germany and won't come back. Her roommate doesn't want to stay alone and will leave to another project. Our mentor asks us whether someone would shift. This is a strange question in my opinion since we just finished the settling-down and no one would like to start all over.
I also got a message from volunteer who works in Lesotho telling me that he saw a lot since he arrived there nearly three months ago. He has been on a safari and has been here and there. He sounds like Lars. I don't understand why they live the life of a tourist instead the one of a volunteer. I enjoy my life here, I don’t need to see as much as possible in a short time. I want to enjoy everything and when the time comes I can go to the tourist attractions but first I want to live here and not make a very long vacation. When I complain about these tourists to J he tells me that I'm just different. I was the only person answering: “I want to help.” When he asked me why I am doing this. All the other volunteers he met said: “I don't know, why not?!”
I text my mentor back and tell him about my school work, my Swahili improvements and tell him also what my friend from Lesotho told me and what J told me afterwards. He is proud of me as well. “Honestly, I am impressed. When I saw you the first time I thought: ‘This little girl will have a hard time to connect to life and culture here.’ But it is completely opposite.”
The fact that family and friends from Germany are proud seems natural to me. But I would never have believed that people here, who I just met two months ago, would be proud as well.
On our way home, I surprise the conductors when I tell them to not touch me during their usual competition. It's funny, one month ago I was so new that they didn't even talk to me. But it seems like they know me now a bit and start to talk and touch me. So I have improved my answers for this. J is enjoying it very much.
When I'm sitting in a restaurant to write my blog entries I order my lunch and something to drink in Swahili. The guys at the next table look astonished at me. While I am writing I can see one guy pointing at me and I know they are talking about me. When I look at him a bit annoyed because of his finger he puts it down and a few seconds later he nods in my direction. He must really be stupid. Maybe I don't understand everything in Swahili but body language is international!
A few minutes later he comes and tells me that he is a tourist guide and wants to improve his English. Oh my goodness you are number five or so. I tell him that I don't have time and I am sorry. I think he just wants to meet and show me something so that I will have to pay him later. He asks me when I will have time. I say: “Not at all. I don't have time and I won't have time.”
“But you have time right now.”
“This is my lunch time.”
“So you can teach me during your lunchtime.”
“No, I won't. This is my lunchtime and as you can see I'm still working (my iPad is right in front of me).”
“So… I'm just a tour guide and I want to improve my English.”
“I can perfectly understand you. Everything's fine just keep speaking whenever it's possible.”
“I don't have friends speaking English. I want to really speak it perfectly.”
“Then you should ask native speakers. I'm not a native speaker I'm from Germany.”
“Can you teach me the lifestyle of women then?”
(Now I have to look up from my iPad. Did he just say that? How did the topic change from “teach me English” into “teach me the lifestyle of [German] women”?)
“Did you just say women?” (What a sexist.)
“No, I mean both sexes… a genders.”
“Sorry, I really have no time.” (J comes into the café and sits down next to me.)
“Why don't you have time?”, says the tourist guide.
“I have a tight schedule and I want to finish my work.”
“So right now you have time?”
“No, I'm working and making a short break to get to know you but you make a bad impression.”
(J asks to be excused. I think: Oh no, I asked him to come and now he has to watch this.)
“I can't teach you. Sorry, maybe you can ask someone from Tanzania.”
“But those are not good. I need someone like you.”
“Do you mean white?” (Why is everything about the skin color?)
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They are mother tongues.”
“You mean they are native speakers. Not everyone is a native speakers, just like me, I told you: I'm from Germany.”
“So can you teach me?”
“No, I don't have time.” (J comes back.)
“Can I talk to him then?”
“Feel free.”
(Am I supposed to forbid him talking a friend of mine?) They talk in Swahili. I understand a few parts for example when J points at another white person to tell the guy he should ask someone else who is not busy. I laugh. The guy asks me for my E-mail address so that we can make out a place and a time when I will teach him.
“I won't teach you, I won't give you my number, not my name and to clarify something for the future I won't give you money.” (J starts chuckling.)
“What?” (J laughs even harder.)
I repeat it.
“What?” (Is this a game now to repeat this endlessly?)
“You make a bad impression and I don't want to spend time with a foreigner.” (J bites his lip and watches the guy.)
He finally leaves, I realize that the staff members were watching us. They think this is quite amusing. I look at J and burst into laughter. He joins me. He tells me he only got out to laugh out loud and the guy is super weird and I confused the guy when I laughed as I understood what J said.
I'm marking. JM asks me to fill another cumulative mark record sheet for P5. I say I can do this as soon as I have time. He says: “I really appreciate it. Thank you.” (I have a tight schedule having a lot of work. You're just sitting there: Do this yourself!) But I somehow like this cumulative record sheet they look so smart because of all the numbers. I tell him that I can't promise anything since I have a lot of work myself and he shouldn't say “thank you” just yet. He says again: “Thank you.” Before he can add: I really appreciate it. I say: “JM, I have too much work.”
“Just imagine my work.” Oh goodness is this a competition? And if so, I think I win.
In order to mark your exams you mark one and write all the right answers at the edge and then you give the papers to someone else. I think: ‘Just like you [JM] did on Friday when you gave me your history exam. Right now, you seem pretty relaxed and doing nothing except moving one paper from the left to the right and another one from the bottom to the top of a pile of documents.’ However, I just keep concentrating on myself.
The street-stranger and I are going to meet in Uhuru park. I saved me one hour so that I can mark the rest of my English papers. When I'm halfway through I take a look at my watch. It's 17:12 he was supposed to be here 12min ago. Alright I can wait, I have enough to do. I continue working but my eyes are getting super tired and I get annoyed by reading the same words over and over. I feel sympathy for the teachers in Germany: Marking here in Tanzania is much easier because of the multiple choice. Here I don’t have to check whether they included all the important point in their summary of a newspaper article. I think the government made the marking easier because of the amount of students here. In Germany the students are less and so the teachers are expected to spend more time with single students who need more help. Crazy! I have more respect for (my German) teachers now!
17:33 I call the street-stranger. Last time he came two hours too late but I don't have that much time. I already planed to spare 2,5h for him I can't spare more. I have to mark my exams and I want to write my blog entries. I am in my tenth week now and I only published until week four. He doesn't pick up. I continue working and think that I just use the time to finish this. 17:37 he calls me back and says he will be there in 15min or less. At 18:05 I leave and go to the meeting point with J. I gave the street-stranger time to show up and I have to move my legs again. I'm used to stand in front my class and now that we have examinations and I was only supervising I miss standing! But when I'm marking I can't stand…
When I arrive at the meeting point for J and I, I take out my exams and continue. Oh goodness this looks horrible (horrible!!! not horable, hurribul or harubla)! I receive a text message from the street-stranger saying: You're gone. I think: Yes, I know. And funnily a message from him from yesterday reaches me now saying: I like that. This fits perfectly together. I chuckle. He sends me another message saying: I'm late because I'm from Africa. I don’t think that this is the reason for being late. Otherwise every teacher would come late and J as well. But again I don't respond. A few exams later he sends: Do you get any of my messages? I'm like: Yes, but I don't want to respond... I continue marking. He calls me but I don't pick up. Why is he suddenly all over the phone? Then he sends me a message saying: I think I'm annoying enjoy your evening. Wow finally he stops. I continue marking. Can you believe this I'm still not finished. They had 33 words and 17 sentences. I get tired of reading and trying to read the handwriting. Just as I am about to give up for today I see it. One student voted for Hilary Clinton. I laugh hard and take a picture.
The street-stranger comes in. He acts like nothing happens. Oh shit, I wanted to send him a text message saying: Why do you have an excuse to come 1,5h too late but I don't have an excuse of not answering my phone for 20min? Well, I continue marking. He pats me weirdly on the back and says: “You're busy as usual.” Then he sits on the couch. When I'm finished with marking I take out my iPad so that I can put the marks into my own record sheet. He thinks I'm done and comes and starts talking. I tell him what I wanted to text him in person and he says he is late to everyone. I say this is still not an explanation for him being impatient as long as I don't answer my phone. J arrives and the street-stranger feels obviously uncomfortable and before J starts laughing again he pretends to get a call. The street-stranger invites me to a day trip to a lake tomorrow because he is going there with six other German women. He thought… (He stopped speaking there.) I tell him I'm in school and afterwards not fit enough. Then the food for me and J arrives and the street-stranger says enjoy and that our talk was really nice. I will never understand those people.
J sits down and asks me about my day. “Too much unsatisfactory things.” I tell him about the reading exam and the spelling results and JM expecting me to fill a new cumulative mark record sheet although I told him I had too much work and that his response was simply that I should imagine having his work. Then I tell J what happened with the street-stranger and he says he really doesn't get that guy. "You have such a tight schedule and so much work and then you spare time and they do not understand that you stop your work just for them." I look at him with a slight smile as he says this. "You get up at 06:30 you work between 08:00 and 15:00 where you have a lot of students to teach, a lot of papers to mark and then you have the other teachers who do not help but make it even more difficult for you to do your work properly. In your lunchtime you are supposed to regain power but that doesn't work with your school food so you need your own. Then you get back pretty exhausted buy the food for the coming day, eat just a bit and then you wash your clothes, prepare your next lesson or you mark something. Then you make your notes of the day and when your finished I'm coming and we go for dinner. When we're back it has already been a long day and still I ask for your shoulder blade." I have to laugh. The fact that he puts his daily request whether I will show him my shoulder blades again into his numeration of my daily activities really pushes my mood. (Showing my shoulder blades doesn’t stand for something offensive but my shoulder blades are extendable. One day after our dancing lesson I stretched myself and J saw my shoulder blades standing out and since then he’s surprised how that works.)
Then I show J the exam from my P6 student who voted for Hilary Clinton. He laughs hard and says I have to give him an extra point for that.
During dinner I check my messages and see that my mentor posted a WhatsApp message into our group saying that a volunteer in Butiama got seriously sick and will leave for Germany and won't come back. Her roommate doesn't want to stay alone and will leave to another project. Our mentor asks us whether someone would shift. This is a strange question in my opinion since we just finished the settling-down and no one would like to start all over.
I also got a message from volunteer who works in Lesotho telling me that he saw a lot since he arrived there nearly three months ago. He has been on a safari and has been here and there. He sounds like Lars. I don't understand why they live the life of a tourist instead the one of a volunteer. I enjoy my life here, I don’t need to see as much as possible in a short time. I want to enjoy everything and when the time comes I can go to the tourist attractions but first I want to live here and not make a very long vacation. When I complain about these tourists to J he tells me that I'm just different. I was the only person answering: “I want to help.” When he asked me why I am doing this. All the other volunteers he met said: “I don't know, why not?!”
I text my mentor back and tell him about my school work, my Swahili improvements and tell him also what my friend from Lesotho told me and what J told me afterwards. He is proud of me as well. “Honestly, I am impressed. When I saw you the first time I thought: ‘This little girl will have a hard time to connect to life and culture here.’ But it is completely opposite.”
The fact that family and friends from Germany are proud seems natural to me. But I would never have believed that people here, who I just met two months ago, would be proud as well.
On our way home, I surprise the conductors when I tell them to not touch me during their usual competition. It's funny, one month ago I was so new that they didn't even talk to me. But it seems like they know me now a bit and start to talk and touch me. So I have improved my answers for this. J is enjoying it very much.
When I'm sitting in a restaurant to write my blog entries I order my lunch and something to drink in Swahili. The guys at the next table look astonished at me. While I am writing I can see one guy pointing at me and I know they are talking about me. When I look at him a bit annoyed because of his finger he puts it down and a few seconds later he nods in my direction. He must really be stupid. Maybe I don't understand everything in Swahili but body language is international!
A few minutes later he comes and tells me that he is a tourist guide and wants to improve his English. Oh my goodness you are number five or so. I tell him that I don't have time and I am sorry. I think he just wants to meet and show me something so that I will have to pay him later. He asks me when I will have time. I say: “Not at all. I don't have time and I won't have time.”
“But you have time right now.”
“This is my lunch time.”
“So you can teach me during your lunchtime.”
“No, I won't. This is my lunchtime and as you can see I'm still working (my iPad is right in front of me).”
“So… I'm just a tour guide and I want to improve my English.”
“I can perfectly understand you. Everything's fine just keep speaking whenever it's possible.”
“I don't have friends speaking English. I want to really speak it perfectly.”
“Then you should ask native speakers. I'm not a native speaker I'm from Germany.”
“Can you teach me the lifestyle of women then?”
(Now I have to look up from my iPad. Did he just say that? How did the topic change from “teach me English” into “teach me the lifestyle of [German] women”?)
“Did you just say women?” (What a sexist.)
“No, I mean both sexes… a genders.”
“Sorry, I really have no time.” (J comes into the café and sits down next to me.)
“Why don't you have time?”, says the tourist guide.
“I have a tight schedule and I want to finish my work.”
“So right now you have time?”
“No, I'm working and making a short break to get to know you but you make a bad impression.”
(J asks to be excused. I think: Oh no, I asked him to come and now he has to watch this.)
“I can't teach you. Sorry, maybe you can ask someone from Tanzania.”
“But those are not good. I need someone like you.”
“Do you mean white?” (Why is everything about the skin color?)
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They are mother tongues.”
“You mean they are native speakers. Not everyone is a native speakers, just like me, I told you: I'm from Germany.”
“So can you teach me?”
“No, I don't have time.” (J comes back.)
“Can I talk to him then?”
“Feel free.”
(Am I supposed to forbid him talking a friend of mine?) They talk in Swahili. I understand a few parts for example when J points at another white person to tell the guy he should ask someone else who is not busy. I laugh. The guy asks me for my E-mail address so that we can make out a place and a time when I will teach him.
“I won't teach you, I won't give you my number, not my name and to clarify something for the future I won't give you money.” (J starts chuckling.)
“What?” (J laughs even harder.)
I repeat it.
“What?” (Is this a game now to repeat this endlessly?)
“You make a bad impression and I don't want to spend time with a foreigner.” (J bites his lip and watches the guy.)
He finally leaves, I realize that the staff members were watching us. They think this is quite amusing. I look at J and burst into laughter. He joins me. He tells me he only got out to laugh out loud and the guy is super weird and I confused the guy when I laughed as I understood what J said.
I'm marking. JM asks me to fill another cumulative mark record sheet for P5. I say I can do this as soon as I have time. He says: “I really appreciate it. Thank you.” (I have a tight schedule having a lot of work. You're just sitting there: Do this yourself!) But I somehow like this cumulative record sheet they look so smart because of all the numbers. I tell him that I can't promise anything since I have a lot of work myself and he shouldn't say “thank you” just yet. He says again: “Thank you.” Before he can add: I really appreciate it. I say: “JM, I have too much work.”
“Just imagine my work.” Oh goodness is this a competition? And if so, I think I win.
In order to mark your exams you mark one and write all the right answers at the edge and then you give the papers to someone else. I think: ‘Just like you [JM] did on Friday when you gave me your history exam. Right now, you seem pretty relaxed and doing nothing except moving one paper from the left to the right and another one from the bottom to the top of a pile of documents.’ However, I just keep concentrating on myself.
The street-stranger and I are going to meet in Uhuru park. I saved me one hour so that I can mark the rest of my English papers. When I'm halfway through I take a look at my watch. It's 17:12 he was supposed to be here 12min ago. Alright I can wait, I have enough to do. I continue working but my eyes are getting super tired and I get annoyed by reading the same words over and over. I feel sympathy for the teachers in Germany: Marking here in Tanzania is much easier because of the multiple choice. Here I don’t have to check whether they included all the important point in their summary of a newspaper article. I think the government made the marking easier because of the amount of students here. In Germany the students are less and so the teachers are expected to spend more time with single students who need more help. Crazy! I have more respect for (my German) teachers now!
17:33 I call the street-stranger. Last time he came two hours too late but I don't have that much time. I already planed to spare 2,5h for him I can't spare more. I have to mark my exams and I want to write my blog entries. I am in my tenth week now and I only published until week four. He doesn't pick up. I continue working and think that I just use the time to finish this. 17:37 he calls me back and says he will be there in 15min or less. At 18:05 I leave and go to the meeting point with J. I gave the street-stranger time to show up and I have to move my legs again. I'm used to stand in front my class and now that we have examinations and I was only supervising I miss standing! But when I'm marking I can't stand…
When I arrive at the meeting point for J and I, I take out my exams and continue. Oh goodness this looks horrible (horrible!!! not horable, hurribul or harubla)! I receive a text message from the street-stranger saying: You're gone. I think: Yes, I know. And funnily a message from him from yesterday reaches me now saying: I like that. This fits perfectly together. I chuckle. He sends me another message saying: I'm late because I'm from Africa. I don’t think that this is the reason for being late. Otherwise every teacher would come late and J as well. But again I don't respond. A few exams later he sends: Do you get any of my messages? I'm like: Yes, but I don't want to respond... I continue marking. He calls me but I don't pick up. Why is he suddenly all over the phone? Then he sends me a message saying: I think I'm annoying enjoy your evening. Wow finally he stops. I continue marking. Can you believe this I'm still not finished. They had 33 words and 17 sentences. I get tired of reading and trying to read the handwriting. Just as I am about to give up for today I see it. One student voted for Hilary Clinton. I laugh hard and take a picture.
The street-stranger comes in. He acts like nothing happens. Oh shit, I wanted to send him a text message saying: Why do you have an excuse to come 1,5h too late but I don't have an excuse of not answering my phone for 20min? Well, I continue marking. He pats me weirdly on the back and says: “You're busy as usual.” Then he sits on the couch. When I'm finished with marking I take out my iPad so that I can put the marks into my own record sheet. He thinks I'm done and comes and starts talking. I tell him what I wanted to text him in person and he says he is late to everyone. I say this is still not an explanation for him being impatient as long as I don't answer my phone. J arrives and the street-stranger feels obviously uncomfortable and before J starts laughing again he pretends to get a call. The street-stranger invites me to a day trip to a lake tomorrow because he is going there with six other German women. He thought… (He stopped speaking there.) I tell him I'm in school and afterwards not fit enough. Then the food for me and J arrives and the street-stranger says enjoy and that our talk was really nice. I will never understand those people.
J sits down and asks me about my day. “Too much unsatisfactory things.” I tell him about the reading exam and the spelling results and JM expecting me to fill a new cumulative mark record sheet although I told him I had too much work and that his response was simply that I should imagine having his work. Then I tell J what happened with the street-stranger and he says he really doesn't get that guy. "You have such a tight schedule and so much work and then you spare time and they do not understand that you stop your work just for them." I look at him with a slight smile as he says this. "You get up at 06:30 you work between 08:00 and 15:00 where you have a lot of students to teach, a lot of papers to mark and then you have the other teachers who do not help but make it even more difficult for you to do your work properly. In your lunchtime you are supposed to regain power but that doesn't work with your school food so you need your own. Then you get back pretty exhausted buy the food for the coming day, eat just a bit and then you wash your clothes, prepare your next lesson or you mark something. Then you make your notes of the day and when your finished I'm coming and we go for dinner. When we're back it has already been a long day and still I ask for your shoulder blade." I have to laugh. The fact that he puts his daily request whether I will show him my shoulder blades again into his numeration of my daily activities really pushes my mood. (Showing my shoulder blades doesn’t stand for something offensive but my shoulder blades are extendable. One day after our dancing lesson I stretched myself and J saw my shoulder blades standing out and since then he’s surprised how that works.)
Then I show J the exam from my P6 student who voted for Hilary Clinton. He laughs hard and says I have to give him an extra point for that.
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