Snow Days

Growing up in Virginia, some mornings we woke up to the glorious surprise of snowfall. My brother and I would immediately turn on NPR, listening attentively as we munched on our Cocoa Puffs, waiting for "Traffic and Weather on the 8's!" Finally, the moment would come.

 "Inclement weather advisories for the following counties: Montgomery County... Prince George's County..."

We'd hold our breath, our spoons of soggy Cocoa Puffs stopped mid-way to our mouths, all attention turned to the radio.

"... Loudon County... Arlington County..."

Come on! COME ON! Fingers crossed!

"...and Fairfax County."

YES! SNOW DAY! NO SCHOOL!

We'd jump up and down in excitement, and immediately dash to the closet and pull out our jackets and boots, prepared for a busy day of snowball fights, sledding, and fort-building. The second we heard those fateful words, our hearts filled with joy.

This is approximately the feeling I can imagine my students are feeling today.

It started out as any other Monday might. I headed over to teach tenth grade at 1:30, as usual. The trimester is coming to a close, so we were doing some graded group work before our test next week. They were supposed to write sentences about healthy living. "You should always wash your hands," and "You should never eat trash," that kind of thing. I explained the assignment to them, answered some questions, and then they dutifully started working.

Then one of my colleagues knocked on my door.

"Classes are canceled today. We have an assembly. Have your students pack up and go to the village center."

"Wait, what?" I said, "But we're in the middle of an avaliação. They're not finished!"

"Director's orders, sorry. You'll have to finish next week."

I scowled.

"OK, class, I know you just started but please hand in what you have done and go to the assembly. I'll only grade what you managed to finish so far."

There was a communal "WHOOP!" and the class emptied within ten seconds, leaving me with a dozen unfinished assignments, and a thoroughly messed up lesson plan.

Now, usually, I am a very flexible person. I know that things here run differently than in the United States. Classes have been canceled on a whim before, but never mid-class, and never while I was giving what was effectively a test. I was peeved.

I happened upon my director as I was leaving the classroom.

"What is this meeting about?" I asked him, "And why is it so  important that we have to cancel classes for it? Why was there no advanced notice?"

He laughs. "A representative from the Provincial branch of the FRELIMO party is coming to visit. We forgot to tell the townspeople, so there's no one in the village square. We're making all the students go so that there will be a crowd there."

I fumed.

"You're telling me that I had to stop my test because someone screwed up and now you're sending all my students to a meeting of a political party!?"

"Yes. It's very important. You need to be there too."

I had to tell myself to take ten deep breaths.

The meeting was long and useless. I used the time to re-arrange my grading scheme for my tenth graders. And while I was sitting under the shade of the giant tree that marks the village center,  I thought back to those days in Virginia.

I always assumed that everybody loved snow days. But now, looking back, I'm realizing that teachers probably don't always love snow days. Teachers don't love surprises like canceled classes. It messes things up.

But what can you do? Not much. You take it in stride, you remember to breathe, and you think on one of the favorite sayings on Mozambicans.

Vai passar. It will pass.