This is going to be one of my least insightful posts ever. But to those who are used to more communication from me, this is what's been up in the last few weeks!
-Coaching two sports simultaneously has its disadvantages. It means lots of kids and lots of kids' baggage. One of my learners' fathers died and he was informed during rugby practice about two weeks ago, which made for a few more feelings than we normally have at practice..
-Coaching two sports also involves lots of injuries and caring for kids. (Maybe this means I'm doing things I shouldn't be as a coach...) We had the zonal rugby trials last week, one kid got a cleat to the knee and one kid broke a collarbone. Not to worry, he has already refused to wear the sling he was given. (I don't know how but he claims to not be in pain and I can't make him put the dang thing on. Oops.) The next day we started the regional track meet, where in addition to the usual bumps and pulled muscles and blisters, there was a technical problem with the high jump mat which led to a serious concussion. It might have been the most vocal I was the same weekend, when I had to yell at the medics not to lay the kid flat on his back because of the concussion. They didn't listen. So he lost the ability to see, and then to talk. Scary! But now he's fine and just in a neck brace and will return to school next week.
-Exams start tomorrow at school, so we are busy preparing. And the learners are busy cramming. We have two study periods at school every day (it's a new thing this year), from 3:30-5 and 7-8:30. I've been coming every time to assist with maths and physics as needed. It's kind of like my own little "Math Lab" (for the Grinnellians) that I host in my classroom! It's fun but a lot of work to address 250 kids' problems on 3 different grade levels.
-One of the new Catholic brothers at our school and I are trying to revamp the maths program. Part of what this means is that we keep kids who have failed a test (50% is considered passing) after school the next day to rewrite. But it took 3 tries to get everyone to stay, so I've had lots of detention to attend to. Yesterday was the most fun, one of my kids was angry to be held so she tried to fight me. Luckily it was not one of my 6' tall boys but someone who I could actually defend myself against!
-This has less impact on me personally, but for those of you who have seen the news, we lost a member of our PC family recently. http://www.namibian.com.na/indexx.php?id=10548&page_type=story_detail&category_id=1 Ashley Earl was a great volunteer and had an amazing personality. I loved the chances I had to meet up and talk with her in Windhoek and we are devastated about her loss.
As you can imagine, I'm definitely looking forward to the long weekend ahead. Namibian independence day is on Friday so we will have off from school that day.
That's all for now, folks, hope all is well where you are.
