On Thursday, January 31 my class was
scheduled to perform at the weekly assembly.
I wore my new traditional Efik gown.
I received the fabric from Her Excellency and another mom of one of my
students arranged to have the dress made for me. I was so nervous that morning both about the
performance and the dress. I felt like
Marie Antoinette in it. I wasn’t sure how the dress would be perceived. Would people think I looked ridiculous
wearing an African style or would they feel honored that I wanted to wear it? What I felt like was a bit of a princess which
was appropriate. This style became
popular when Great Britain occupied this area around Calabar. The Efik people here wanted to look like
royalty. You can read more about it by going to Calabar Attire
When I arrived at school and entered
my classroom I heard a strange sound. It
sounded like a rodent eating paper. My
teacher partner came in and had the same thought. I went to get help and she went looking for
it. Students started arriving and so we
asked them to sit on the tables. I
stayed out of the way as well and my teaching partner managed to scare it out
of hiding but it simply ran behind a different bookcase. Of course all my students saw it run and
started screaming. I was not too
thrilled either. I have one little bully
who immediately capitalized on the situation and did his best to make things
worse. Thankfully, the assembly was at
the start of the day so we did have somewhere to go.
My students sang “Our World’s Family”. It is a song I learned from a teacher in
Barrow, AK. The song teaches geography
starting with your school, then city, state, country, continent and finally
planet. The last verse is about how we
can all live in love and peace. My
principal really liked it. I love using
music to teach concepts. I used Google
maps to get a map for each part and printed them for the kids to hold up as we
sang the song. I made one mistake. I had my student who is learning English hold
the continent map. When we started to
sing about the country she must have been nervous and heard the /k/ sound and
so she raised the continent map. Some
kids in the audience laughed. I felt so
bad. I had hoped the kids were too busy
worrying about what to sing next to hear the laughter but of course you know
who heard it and said something back in our classroom. Why do some kids delight in making others miserable? He owed some recess time for that.
The maintenance man said he took care
of the rodent problem while we were gone.
During reading we heard the sound again.
It was oddly loud and I was so surprised it didn’t appear to be afraid
of us being in the room. I took the
students outside for a writing lesson and my teaching partner found the
maintenance guy again. Thankfully we
went to lunch right after that so it all worked out for us to be out of the
classroom again for an extended period of time.
This time when we returned everything was away from the walls and a
mess. I think he must have had a chase
on his hands. I still doubt he caught it
even though he said he did because the next morning two rodents were on a
sticky pad in the nursery. He had put
down one in each classroom. I was very
glad to see ours was empty.
When we walked to lunch we walked past
the outdoor play equipment for the older grades. We usually don’t see kids out there during
this time of day. I noticed there were
no adults. It was one of the 1st grade classes. I asked where their teacher was. They told me the specialist teacher left them
there. I had my teaching partner take
our kids to lunch and I stayed with the 1st graders. After 5 minutes I asked them all to sit in a row
on the ground. One of them said he had
gone to the snack shack. This is our
school store. I walked over to it and
there he was. He said he was giving them
a break. I said it looks to me like you
took the break and it is not acceptable to leave students unattended. I was so angry I could hardly speak. I saw the class’s substitute teacher coming
to get the class so I was able to return to my own students. There is no way he could see them from where
he was sitting inside the snack shack.
It was probably 50 yards from the playground. Teachers need to be trusted to always keep
students safe. If he had gotten right up
and come out I would have let it go but he actually gave me an attitude about
it and didn’t move so I reported the incident to our principal. As a parent I know I would be really
concerned if I knew a teacher was doing this.
All day I received compliments on my
dress. People said I looked beautiful
and I was described as the pale African.
I had several people taking photos of me. It was kind of fun. The dress was not as hot to wear as I thought
it might be. It was lined but was made
with all cotton and because it was not really fitted tight it felt pretty cool
and billowy. It was interesting trying
to sit on the carpet in it. My lesson
plans for math was to do some attribute sorting with shapes. I needed to get down onto the floor to show
them first by example.
After school it was shopping day. Clint was not feeling well so he stayed
home. I went in the van with the others. I had to pick up a pair of shoes Clint had
left at the cobbler in the open air market.
I was with him when he dropped them off for repair. The man recognized me right off. It is so funny everyone does because we are
so unique being white. Anyway, he asked
for double the price he had told Clint.
I said no I was pretty sure it was half that. He tried to tell me it was not. I said I will come back with my husband
another day. He chased me and said he
would take the money I had brought. I
feel bad but we just cannot give charity to everyone. I know there are so many people in need here
but we already pay the higher white price for everything and so I am not about
to get swindled for more. I feel a lot
better about giving my donation to the orphanage where I know it will be used to
benefit children.
The teachers in the van shopping with
me were both originally from the Caribbean. We were talking about what we had to do for
all the end of the quarter stuff. I am
under the Early Years director but they are both secondary teachers. I was required to turn in all my stuff early
and was given a new list of things to work on during our work day at school the
next day without students. It was then
that I said the worst thing I have ever said in my life. I still cannot believe it came out of my
mouth. I was profoundly sorry and just
sick about it. I actually said, “My
slave driver . . .” As soon as I said it I apologized for my poor choice of
words. Words however cannot be taken
back once they are said. Here I was in a
van with a black Nigerian driver and two male black expat teachers and I said
that. I haven’t used that phrase more
than a few times in my life but it never hit me until that crushing moment when
I used it what it really meant and why it should never be used. I kept talking after my apology to get my
real point across but it never left my consciousness and I doubt it did theirs
either. I was trying to avoid the
awkwardness of the situation. Both
teachers smiled when I said it and I knew they knew what a grave mistake it was
but they gave me grace I sure didn’t deserve.
I couldn’t wait to get home. I
just wanted to crawl in a hole because I was so ashamed of myself.
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