A Day in the Life of....

This morning I woke up and the birds were chirping and it was already pretty hot outside, and it smelled like fresh grass… it was the perfect spring day.  Then I checked the weather forecast for Calgary.  Snowfall warning with a high of -5.  Sigh.  There were so many days in January last year that I was shoveling my car out from under the snow in the dark at 6 am, and I dreamed of this moment.  Here it is.

I (this is Gabby writing) am a visual person.  When someone close to me is away on a trip, I quite often stop during the day and try to visualize where they are at that moment, and what their surroundings look like.  It often causes me quite a bit of stress or anxiety when I am heading into a new situation and I have not seen pictures of it- thus I cannot visualize what it will be like.  Well, for those of  you who sympathize, I am going to give you a visual journey of "A Day in the Life of Gabby..."

My day usually starts at 6:15, when my phone chimes out in a very British-sounding female robotic voice: "It's time to get up, the time is SIX FIF-TEEN."  Often I lay there for a few moments, tempting the lady to tell me that it is six sixteen. Then I throw on my jogging clothes and dash out onto the verandah to meet my running partner, Hana.  I'm usually quite groggy, but by the time we have started out down the gravel road through villages and huts and rice paddies, greeting everybody we pass in various Swahili greetings, chatting and laughing as we go, I am quite awake.  This is the first time in so many years that I have had the time or the energy to go running before work in the morning and it is wonderful.

 The porch outside our door in the morning, with the school in the background.

Running partner Hana, with work partner Marcel.

After my run, I wake up Brent, stretch, shower, and have breakfast.  Then it is down the dusty path across the field to work.  As I am walking through campus, I hear the beautiful voices of the students singing praise songs (often in 3-part harmony) for their homeroom class.  Sometimes I drop in and listen, but I feel too awkward taking a picture of such an intimate moment.

The walk into the campus

The students' washroom, where they are reminded of our school values each time they go to "answer the call of nature" as one boy put it.

Students heading off to class

From the stairs up to my office, this is the central "amphitheatre" where the students sometimes gather.

The library next to my office.

I sign in at the office, where the lovely faces of Grace and Joyce greet me each morning.

Grace.  Administrative assistant extraordinaire!

Then usually head to my office to check my emails and get ready for the day.





Most days I have a combination of meeting with the teachers, being in the classroom with them, administrative meetings and sitting in my office preparing materials for the next PD session I am leading. 
My partner, Marcel, is one of those genius-types who is often found hunched over something at his desk, spouting mathematical formulas or profanities.  But he doesn’t actually SAY the profanities… he says “bad word” instead.

The teacher mentor office.  My desk is on the right, and my partner Marcel on the left.  We will have more mentors joining us in January.  Hooray!

These are the teachers I work with most closely…

Issa is a kind, gentle soul with a brilliant smile.  He is a great teacher and the students love him.  He and I work on ways he can use “practicals” (lab exercises) in an effective way in his teaching.

Issa in his office

Paul is an enthusiastic, keen teacher as well.  He and I usually plan lessons together, and I might help him with some of the background knowledge behind the subjects he is teaching.

Paul

Osempia teaches Biology.  She and I also work on how to use practicals effectively in her classes.
I head to the dining hall for lunch, which is usually some combination of the following: rice, beans, lentils, spinach, okra, or ugali (a floury paste that looks like mashed potatoes but tastes like blech!).  My favourite day is Wednesday because they serve either rice and lentils or pilau (a spiced, fried rice).

On Thursday afternoons is the school assembly.  It is student-led, and a beautiful thing to watch… they sing the Tanzanian national anthem (again in 3- part harmony), followed by the school song.  It’s basically telling the story of St Jude and our mission (“Fighting Poverty Through Education”) and our school motto.  It’s quite funny hearing them squeeze the word “education” into a single beat of the song.  They also hand out student awards and the kids present skits and songs to each other.  It is a highlight of my week.

The start of assembly

A student skit.  They're mostly  in Swahili so I don't really understand much, but the kids are killing themselves laughing.  Nice to see them unwinding a little, as their academic life is very rigorous!

On Wednesday afternoons after school I run a typing class for the teachers.  They  were all offered the option to lease-to-own a laptop, which they are very excited about, but their computer skills are mostly pretty weak; especially when it comes to the hunt-and-peck typing they often do. 
Then Wednesday evening is my favourite part of the week… Kiswahili class!  Yes, I have been pulled right back into my nerd university days, and my geekiness is in full force.  I love learning new languages, so I am always eager to crack open my exercise book and write sentences, or memorize words with my flash cards.  It has been the source of much mockery from Brent.  As you may be well aware, school isn’t exactly his thing.  But he is trying hard to learn the language as he sees the benefits when we are out in the community.

Other than Wednesdays, I leave school at 5 pm, enjoying my 3 minute commute back home.  Often my colleagues are in the kitchen and we enjoy an aperitif and a chat while chopping veggies for dinner.  The sun sets around 6:30 pm, and this dusk period is such a lovely time of day… the sky turning orange behind the silhouettes of the banana trees and the birds singing out.  It is lovely. 
This is the part where we reveal our senior citizen-ness… dinner is usually finished around 7:30 or 8, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open.  Brent and I head back to our room to read books, mend clothes, check emails or watch an episode of “Big Bang Theory” before I’m falling asleep anytime between 8:30 and 9:30.  Pathetic but boy do I love it!  Just before falling asleep I set my cell phone for 6:15 so the little British lady can once again tell me that it is time to get up the next morning….

There you have it.  A day in the life of me. If you made it this far, congratulations!