Saturday Morning Staff Meeting

Yesterday, I was informed that we were to have a staff meeting this morning from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. I knew that this schedule would not be adhered to, but I figured I'd be ready just in case.

The following is a timeline of this morning's events.

7:50 a.m. : I am ready to go. I step out of the house and no one else is even awake yet.

8:00 a.m. : The meeting's official start time comes and goes without incident.

8:15 a.m. : I am sitting on the front porch, ready to go, reading a book and waiting for something -- anything -- to happen. Lo and behold, some of the other teachers trickle out of their houses to go take a bath and get dressed. My next door neighbor starts washing his clothes.
"We have a meeting at 8 this morning, right?" I ask him, just to make sure that I'm not crazy.
"Oh sure. What time is it now?" he says.
"8:15."
"Oh, good. I'm not late yet." He continues washing clothes, still in his PJ's.
I raise an eyebrow, but continue reading my book.

8:45 a.m. : My director walks by, the first person other than myself that I've seen actually dressed and ready. "Oh, you're ready already?" he asks, "Boy, you're punctual!"

9:00 a.m. : My roommate and her friends are ready to go, so we walk to school together. So far, only female teachers are there. I am told it's the women's job to clean and set up the room for the meeting. (Though I wanted to, I made no comment about this.)
My roommate and her friends spend ten minutes debating where to put the tables for the chefes (the bosses) to sit at, how long the table should be, how many capulanas we will need to cover the table, whether the capulanas are sufficiently ironed, who the heck picked these ugly capulanas anyway, etc. Things are arranged, discussed, and re-arranged several times. I want to shout "IT DOESN'T MATTER. A CHAIR IS A CHAIR. CAN'T WE JUST ALL SIT DOWN!?" but I hold my tongue. I don't really know what to do with myself, so when I spy the shortest teacher in the room hopping up and down, trying to erase the blackboard, I eagerly offer to do it instead. I feel pleased that I've contributed and I take my seat. I twiddle my thumbs.

9:30 a.m. : The male teachers come in. Everyone else sits down. We preface the meeting with some small talk. ("Did you hear what so-and-so's daughter did yesterday!? Let me tell you!")

10:00 a.m. : We finally start the meeting. At last I find out what it is actually about -- we've been sent new guidelines by the Province about how to give and grade tests, and have been mandated to go over these new guidelines. They are exactly the same as last year except for one tiny change to the rules for which students pass and which don't. We gloss over this change and the teachers spend an hour and a half discussing a completely unrelated topic. They ask my opinion, and I realize I haven't been listening and have no idea what they are talking about, so I just shrug and say "I don't know. It's different in America."

12:00 p.m. : Now that we've thoroughly avoided doing what we came to do, the Pedagogical Director decides to wrap up the meeting.
"Well, we didn't exactly finish, but we'll just do it next week. Let's leave it here for now. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, each of you are going to be docked one day's wages from this month's salary to go to the flood relief fund in the south."
This sparks an incredibly heated argument about workers rights and "donations are supposed to be voluntary." I feel awkward and don't want to get in the middle of a political debate, so I try to make myself disappear into a wall.

12:30 p.m. : After much shouting and philosophical debate, the meeting is finally adjourned. More small talk ensues in the hallways of the school. ("I heard about so-and-so's daughter, but did you hear about her friend? No? WELL! It's quite a story.")

1:00 p.m. : I finally come home, from a meeting that was supposed to end at 9 a.m. I'm not even phased. I just get out my buckets and start washing my clothes.