After
I got back from Bushfire, my school started giving exams. So far, I’ve given
two out of three. I gave the form B exam and paper 1 for form C. I have a gap
of a few days where I’m not giving exams, so I decided to leave my village for
a few days to get some business done, as well as do some grocery shopping, and
of course meet up with the usual suspects. Paper 2 will have to wait until
after I get back, then I just have to grade it, then I’m done done done with
the semester.
On
Tuesday, I gave the form Cs their paper 1, then after school I stayed late to
copy paper 2 so it would be ready for next Monday when I would be back at
school. I graded like a fiend that night and put all the scores in my computer,
then early Wednesday morning, I dropped them off in the deserted form C
classroom, then caught the taxi to Quthing as it came down the road. I stopped
at the immigration office in Upper Moyeni to get my residence stamp transferred
into my new passport. Good, now I won’t have to carry around 2 passports
anymore. I decided to grab some enormous makoenyas [fried bread balls] and a
banana from the ladies who set up shop outside, who called me ntate (thanks,
herdboy hat). My new kick is making makoenya sandwiches. I’ll rip open the
little bread ball and stuff in whatever is convenient- a piece of banana,
Russian (sausage), cheese, whatever. It’s all delicious.
After
stopping at the hotel down the hill to attempt to upload photos using the
non-functioning wifi, I headed north from town to get a hitch to Mohale’s Hoek.
I got a ride with some oil delivery guy who picked me up a few months before. I
didn’t even flag him down. I was walking along a curve, and I thought it unwise
to try to stop cars there, but he stopped anyway because he recognized me and
stopped. Cool beans! I love it when stuff like that happens. I got into
Mohale’s Hoek and finished uploading my stellar Bushfire photos with their
hotel’s actually-functioning wifi while I hung out with Jen and Taylor at the
hotel’s public bar (as opposed to their private bar, which is only open to
hotel guests I guess, and is much more expensive). I ventured out with Taylor
to this quite unreliable tshirt shop to find him a Mohale’s Hoek-themed shirt
to bring back to the US with him. He successfully bought one saying Mzuku,
which was the original name for Mohale’s Hoek. After a cringe-worthy, but very
necessary, shower with only a trickle of glacial water, Jen and I headed back
to her village. On the taxi, the dude in front of us wouldn’t stop just staring
at us, and the guy next to Jen thought I was a 16 year old boy. Cool. Thanks
again, herdboy hat.
The
next morning, I went with Jen to her school. I watched her Standard 7 in her
Life Skills class give presentations on their “findings” of a survey they gave
to people in their respective villages about HIV. I have heard legends, but I
witnessed first-hand how difficult it is to communicate with primary students
in English. Jen had to speak super slowly, and her box talk game is strong. She
says she especially struggles to communicate with the grade 4s. I can’t
imagine. I don’t think I could keep any shred of sanity if I taught at a
primary school. When the students greeted us, it was so robotic. “How are you?”
Jen would ask. “WE-ARE-VERY-FINE-THANK-YOU-HOW-ARE-YOU-TEACHER.” they’d
respond. Jeez.
After
those presentations, we escaped (to the disappointment of her teachers, even
though she literally had nothing else to do at school, since they had already
given exams and this life skills class was the only thing she taught all day)
into town for some chicken baskets and groceries. I also had a little incident
where I sliced my hand with a pocket knife whose tip snapped off and the knife
went diving into my thumb while trying to pry open Jen’s broken computer
charger. Thankfully, I was able to wrap it up pretty fast, but let this be a
warning that this is what happens when you try to do jungle surgery on
electronics.
We returned and met
Cassie on the road, and Jen made some awesome black bean and cheese empanadas
for all of us. I’ve gotta get more creative with my cooking! I have the same 4
meals of lentils/rice/soya mince/eggs with whatever vegetables I have (mainly
onions) on repeat. Boring. The good news is that now that it’s orange season,
I’m absolutely stuffing myself with the things. I probably won’t get scurvy
after all…
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