You're in my class?

So I was looking through my blog and spoted this old post from my first term that I actually never posted. Reading it now brings a smile to my face. I hope it will for you as well. Enjoy.

Although I have 3 weeks of teaching under my belt, I still can’t tell which kids are in which class. Friday’s schedule has me going to class 6 for PE for 35 min and then class 7 for PE. So, I went to class 6 and played some volleyball. My kids love being outdoors and when I said class was finished, one boy( I know, 3 weeks and I STILL don’t know all their names and sign names. You try mastering 60 students names AND their sign names. And that is JUST for your class, you also have to be familiar with the 150 other students names and sign names. It’s not easy!) So this one boy, kept giving me a hard time by pleading for more time. I had to lay my foot down since I was going into another teachers time. So we all went in, I dropped off my class 6 and headed to class 7. Well, I walked in and who should be sitting at HIS desk? The boy from class 6 who was giving me a hard time about coming in! I must have had a really funny look on my face because the entire class started laughing. The little brat was complaining to me about bringing him in early and he was in PE next block! Hopefully this means we have bounded and there will be no more tricks from here on out. I’m nervous how the kids see me sometimes. I know we get along and they have been so patient with me while I am learning their sign names and everything but I KNOW I am not as “ strict” as the other teachers. At home, I know how to be firm and playful at the same time. I know what works and what doesn’t. But here, a teachers idea of firm is using a stick to spank the kids and sometimes it‘s for big AND little things that really don‘t deserve punishment. I haven’t found a happy medium yet. Right now I am just being myself but sometimes I feel like being myself is too lenient, like it’s closer to being their friend then their teacher. I think I just have to remind myself that I will be the worst teacher during these first 3 months. Then after that, I will have figured out.

Saturday, one of the teachers wanted to take me to her home in Kisii. I have the next 2 months planned with visiting different teachers homes. Unlike kericho which is in the rift valley, Kisii is to the west near lake Victoria. It was fun to get out of Litein and travel to a different place. If you stay on the compound for to long, you can get island fever. I got a lot of shopping done for my house and had a blast with the ladies. On the way home, I found out, you can still get a lot of shopping done and you don’t even have to get out of the matatu. The minute the matau stops, men and women rush over and circle the matatu selling their produce. If you are sitting by the window, they will open it and push ripe pineapples and mangos in your face. “6 for 100, 6 for 100” they say as they push 6 pineapples inside the window. All of a sudden whether you were going to buy them or not, You have 6 giant pineapples in your lap and all of a sudden you feel like your drowning in pineapples. And of course there are different people selling the same things, so if you say yes to one pineapple lady, the other pineapple ladies flock to you expecting you to buy 12 pineapples, like 6 is still not enough. It’s a hurricane of pineapples, mangos, bananas, and passion fruit inside one very small matatu. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted. I cut up my pineapples( yes, I gave in and bought one) and went straight to bed. Plans for tomorrow???? Im sleeping in, working on my schemes and lesson plans and finishing my wash, I’m wearing my last clean pair of panties.
 
* I can now see this is the start of my pineapple obsession. I laugh because I bought one. Now I buy 6 at a time. Also, I still don't know who all is in my class and it's been a yr.