Six Months

I opened my planner this morning and there it was, dutifully written in: "March 27th: Six months in Mozambique."

However, at the time, I didn't have time for quiet self-introspection. I was too busy being overwhelmed with my grading frenzy.

In my last post, I expressed annoyance at having my 10th grade class randomly canceled mid-evaluation. Well, if that was at a level 3 on the Mozambican Frustrations scale, I am currently at a Level 10.

I was talking with one of my colleagues about how peeved I was on Monday. He shrugged and told me not to worry about it.

"Yeah, I'll just do the test next Monday instead." I said.

He looked at me, head tilted. "Uh...you know there's no class next Monday, right? It's Easter holiday."

I stared. "No, no one told me about that either. Hmm....I guess as a last resort, I can do the test on the final Monday of the trimester..."

He looked at the floor awkwardly. "Yeah, about that... that's Mozambican Women's day. There's no school."

I closed my eyes and breathed deepy. Don't let it get to you, I told myself. Stay flexible.

"Ok. Well they have last period on Fridays off, right? I'll tell them that we're doing the English test this Friday. They'll complain about it, but its really my only option left at this point."

He was silent. An apologetic smile started to form on his face.

"Oh, jeez, now what?" I asked.

"Well, Friday is Good Friday... there's---"

"Let me guess. No class." I rolled my eyes.

"Exactly."

So I have no more class with my tenth graders this semester. Somehow I am supposed to fill out grades for a class that I currently don't even have a class list for yet, much less complete grading information.

I was justifiably upset. My school administration doesn't tell me anything -- dates for important meetings, school holidays, curriculum changes... these things are always springing up and surprising me. Maybe they think I'm psychic? I don't know.

I went home and I complained to my friend, another teacher, about how frustrating it all was.

"Still, I guess its only tenth grade," I said to her, "Tenth grade is always challenging. At least I'm on track with the other grades. Our final next week is the only score I still need for them."

 She gave me a strange look. "Your final... next week?" she asked carefully.

"Yeah. We're doing  review this week and then I'll give the test next Tuesday and Wednesday.... oh no, why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

She gave me a pitying look.

"Didn't anyone tell you? We have provincial exams next week.... there's no class. Just exams. Besides, why were you planning on giving a test next week? Grades are due today."

WHAT!?

At this point, I am at my wits end. Not only am I not able to give my test next week, but my students have to take some other test that they have not studied for and probably won't pass. I haven't prepared them for the Provincial Exam because I didn't even know that it existed until this morning. I also have not prepared grades for any of the classes because I was under the impression I still had three weeks to put them together.

This was all about 12 hours ago. Since then, I've been running around, trying to collect as many grades as possible to try and complete my grading. I've collected and graded about 350 notebooks. I've hastily made up new grading schemes that will stretch the number of grades I can put in the gradebook. I spent hours on end at school, copying names so I'd have an accurate class list, only to find that most of the lists were outdated and have since changed.

I'm exhausted. And there's still so much to do.

So on this date, marking six months in Mozambique, I'd love to sit and think about what the last six months have meant, how I have changed, and what I hope to accomplish in the next six months -- but I'm too busy. Right now, I have time only for grading.