We have finished the first half-term of school and so now have two weeks of vacation. The students from other towns went home by bus early on Saturday morning and the rest dribbled out later on Saturday morning. They were SO excited to be going home and anxious to see their families and friends. They were relieved to have finished three days of mid-term exams, and of course are now anxious to see their results. I chuckle at them and their intensity. They agonize over the questions that they don’t know the answers to and the expressions on their faces as they think are memorable. Some of them lay their heads on their desks, I guess thinking that the answer will pop up through the wood! It will be good for them to have a little rest and relaxation from the stress of getting used to a new school, being away from home, new classmates, studying in a language not theirs, in short, all the new things they’ve been confronted with during the past three months.
I spent many hours marking their exams and once again it seems like 90 papers never end. There were some laughs along the line, however. One of the sections had to do with new vocabulary that we had just learned, and one part of that vocabulary was the names of places and another part was the names of young animals. One answer that I got for the place where bees live was “bees home”. Sure. And the answers for young animals were the best: A young cat is called a “catlet”; a young sheep a “sheeplet”, or the best for a young sheep, a “piglet”. We’ll need to do some revision of those words ……
I celebrated my birthday by being on the bus for 12 straight hours! We Maryknoll Sisters had a meeting in Arusha over the weekend so I had to travel on Thursday. I had called a taxi the day before to pick me up here at 6.00 a.m. for a 6.30 bus. When he hadn’t appeared yet at 6.15 I started to phone him, and after a couple tries he answered and said that he was on his way. He arrived at 6.22 and we flew to the bus station. We arrived, I got on the bus, and the bus took off. (The taxi driver found a flat tyre on his car when he woke up and had to rush around trying to find another car. That’s not easy to do when so few people own cars.) The trip was fine; safe and just long. The bus is big, can hold 50 passengers, but the driver seems to do his job effortlessly. At one point he was eating peanuts from the shell, talking on his cell phone, passing a long lorry, all while driving us. All the religious symbols he has near him on the bus must do some good as talismans for protection; he’s got some from every religion under the sun.
We have had some rain this week after quite some time of none so that is hopeful. There was needed a few more showers in order to bring the crops to their desired state, so this was very good. The weather is cooling off considerably, especially at night. We almost need to pull a sheet up at night now .
Do you want to know one thing I’ve noticed about getting older (notice I say “older” and not “old”) is that I can’t change a light bulb anymore! Now that may not be a problem for many, but we have a time trying to get someone to change a bulb. Why? Well, it seems they’re really high up. We find that we don’t have the balance that we used to have, and so climbing even a short step ladder and reaching up is challenging to balance. The youngsters we know who would be happy to help us don’t have these kind of lights at home and so don’t know how to remove fixtures and change bulbs. Others are busy, working until late at night and asking them to come seems like an imposition. I never thought I’d see the day when changing light bulbs was a big problem …
We’re in Holy Week now and may you all have a blessed one. When we arrived at the church on Palm Sunday, we found almost no one there. It was only after a little while that someone came up to us and asked us if we weren’t going for the Palm Sunday procession. Where was it? At the main road, about a ten minute walk away. We should have known that we were out of the information loop when no one else was in the church waiting for Mass to begin. Anyway, the procession was great. Lots of people, lots of singing, lots of tree/bush branches being waved.
Happy and blessed Easter to all.
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