Here, nothing is predictable. I’m learning to take everything moment by moment, to be prepared for everything and to expect nothing. Each week I plan my lessons for upcoming classes, I prepare exercise and activities, review material in the textbooks. Last week I wrote the terminal exam for my math students, planning to teach up to logarithms but only to cover through FOIL on the exam. Last week Friday we had a sports match against a neighboring school in preparation for the upcoming umiseta, the district tournament; the school was an hours’ walk from ours so the last two periods, my math periods, were cancelled with little warning. Monday I planned to make up for it by teaching after lunch, but because of some guest visitors who needed to be fed we waited and waited for lunch to come, only to eat an hour after the usual time while the students had already begun their cleanliess duties. After cleanliness begins teaching is out of the question and another day went by without me giving my students important lessons. Yesterday I was told that today we’d have matches all day, again in preparation for the umiseta, so this time all periods would be cancelled; this morning I awoke to heavy rains and upon arriving at school was told the periods would continue as usual. Then the rains stopped, and just as I was leaving the staff room to teach the students all emerged from their classrooms to being preparations for the games.
At this moment I plan to have two days left to cover what will be on my student’s terminal exams, though I won’t be surprised if that changes to one or ten. The exam schedule has already changed twice, I have no idea when my vacation will begin and neither does anyone else — and nobody else seems to mind, I seem to be the only one with an itch to know what the future holds. The school will be closed the day we see it fit to be closed, the break will begin when it begins, be it May 23rd or June 3rd, and that decision, like all other decisions, will be made not a moment too soon.
