Week Three

Saturday, September 22, 2012

            On the way to the school one morning this week I saw a woman just off the busy road standing in a plastic bowl, completely nude giving herself a bath.  The bowl was no bigger than a Tupperware Fix-n-Mix bowl.  The principal’s wife said she saw a man walking nude last month.  She said it looked like he was carrying his laundry.  This is a very different culture than what I am used to.  Back in the States, someone would get arrested for indecent exposure for this behavior.

            Another morning I saw a student carrying her school desk to school.  It was wooden and had the seat.  I wondered if it was a punishment or if she wanted to take it home to do her homework on.  Maybe the parents have to provide seating for their children in the public schools.  Someone said they had seen this behavior before.  Public school started this week.  All the schools have student uniforms.  One of the schools wears pink and burgundy.  It was really interesting to see the boys walking together in their pretty uniforms.  

            We went to the bank this week.  You have to go through a metal detector.  I was warned to not touch my face after handling the money because of the pink eye virus and other diseases which could be on the bills.  This next week is our first payday.  We each had to get payroll bank accounts and then get a joint off-shore account.  We can then transfer our money from the off-shore account to a bank in the States.  We have to pay $40 to make the transfer.  This is subsidized for expats.  It is usually $100.  I have had trouble getting onto my banks online banking service.  I was unable to get the mobile Internet stick today I need to do it.  Clint has no trouble getting onto his bank account.  They must have different security systems.

This week I received two new students.  One was moved back from the first grade and the other was new to our school.  I am up to 11 students now.  Our little classroom is bulging at the seams.  The new early years building still looks months from being finished.  I had a student go home with a temperature and then she missed a couple days after that.  Since our school is a private Christian school I told the kids we need to pray for her to get better.  I barely got the words out and my student named Godswill started a prayer on his own.  It was so full of energy like a Southern Baptist minister.  All the students bowed their heads as soon as he started.  It was so beautiful I almost teared up.  I know God was listening and smiling.

I had a funny request by a student this week.  She asked to leave the classroom to fart.  I have never heard that one before.  I guess in a way it was polite to ask to be excused rather than the alternative.  Most kids just request to use the bathroom without the details.  There is rarely toilet paper in the bathrooms so you have to unroll some for the student to take with them.

My principal told me this week that he is impressed with how I have trained my students to behave so well.  They sit quietly now in the cafeteria.  The first week was a nightmare.  They thought they could run around to get seconds, use the bathroom, fill their water bottles and take their dishes to the counter.  I have them now raising their hands to be excused one at a time.  Nobody runs, skips, hops, or dances along the way now either.  They are even walking silently in the hallway in a straight line with their hands behind their backs.  I call it the silent game.  We are trying to surprise the other teachers because they will not hear us coming.

My Classroom

Next week we have Dora the Explorer and Boots coming to our school for a presentation.  Our school is the only one in Calabar.  For those without small children these characters are from a TV cartoon.  The local media will be here also to take video for the news.  I hope my class can sit through the hour and a half show without coming unglued.  I need to think of a good reward for them if they stay in their seats.

It has been nice having our principal and his wife staying here at the guest house because he has a car.  Today we drove back out to Tinapa and went on a boat ride in the Cross River.  Along the shoreline the jungle hangs right over the water.  We only saw a little beach in one spot and it was mud.  We did not see any crocodiles.  The tour guide said they stay in the inlets and the unpopulated jungle regions.  We passed a huge cargo ship and an off shore oil rig.  It was so tall.  There were a couple half sunken ships sticking out of the water next to the newer ships.  We can see a half submerged large boat in the river from our guest house too.  This was just like at the Lagos domestic airport.  We saw expired airplanes off to the side of newer working ones.  I guess when something breaks down they do not dismantle it for scrap metal.

We were getting ready to board the board for our river tour.

Miss Li and I were in the front.

The old and the new both share the harbor.

The jungle hangs over the river bank.

We have purchased several things for our flat but still have not moved in.  We have bedding now, a rice cooker, a cutting board, a blender, and towels.  I bought a colander at the open air market.  It is a metal bowl that someone took a knife and punctured it in a pattern to drain the water through it.  The school is buying a dish set, a glass set, a pot and pan set, and a microwave.  We heard the school did provide pillows and one sheet.  

Shopping for household items for our flat

36,000 Naira

We are so way past wanting to live here at this guest house.  Today we were served coconut rice and catfish for lunch and I had to excuse myself from the table because I almost gagged.  I just cannot eat the same thing day after day.  It doesn’t taste bad.  It is hard to explain.  They just serve us the same thing almost every day.  I just cannot get it down anymore.  I want to relax in my own place and eat when I want and what I want.  My entertainment in the evening is waiting and watching for this unwelcome four inch red/brown lizard to run along the wall between the window curtains.  I hope to get a picture of it before we leave but I pray I do not find him in our room.

The electricity was out all night once this week and two mornings we got ready for work with flashlights and cold water.  The water was off in our bathroom a couple times this week too.  Our principal said our flat has good water pressure and when the electricity is off the generator or inverters (large batteries) in each apartment provide the electricity.  Tonight when we got back from the river trip the water from the bathroom sink was brown.  For such a fancy big guest house this really isn't a very nice place to live.  I am so spoiled having come from the U.S.