Maybe this post has been a little long in coming. It has been easy for me to tell you all of only the big, exciting things that are out of the ordinary, especially after I have been here for a little while and the day-to-day things have become more normal and less noteworthy. So here is what a standard day in my life in Mabuleng has been like for the last 3 months.
I generally wake up shortly after it gets light out. I try to be up and about by 6:30. I rummage around for the cleanest, least wrinkly clothes I can find and hang up clean, but wrinkled stuff for the next day. I’m not a breakfast person, so I can cut that part of my day out. In the warmer months, morning is the best time to use the latrine – before the sun hits it and the stink and or flies come out – although mine is in the shade of a peach orchard so it stays pretty cool and odor free most of the time. I also bring my solar panel out and prop it up near my front window, and make the attachments. It gets near direct sun almost all day so it can charge my car battery. I scoop some water out of a bucket and pour in a mug for teeth brushing and do any dishes from the night before. I make sure I have everything I need that day at school – book, notebook, water bottle, keys and coat, umbrella, sunglasses and/or hat depending on the weather – and take off by 7:20 (except for Tuesdays when the whole day gets bumped forward a half hour and I leave at 6:50).
I stop by the pump on my way to school to fill up my water bottle. The nice thing about living high in the mountains, is the water is fresh and I don’t have to worry about boiling or filtering it. Clean and delicious right out of the tap. The walk to school takes 5-10 minutes depending on how many people want to chat and whether or not I have to stop by my principal’s house to pick up the keys. I arrive at school by 7:30 (7:00 on Tuesdays). Students must arrive by 7:00 every day. I sit at my desk in the teacher’s room/office and look over my schedule. If I have class first period, I will review my notes from the day before and see what I will be teaching in that class. If not, I’ll read, chat with the other teachers, or write.
Assembly is at 7:45. All the students line up by class, there is a prayer, sometimes singing, sometimes a Bible reading, and whoever is leading assembly makes announcements for that day. Normally the principal leads assembly, but technically we don’t have a principal, so we all take turns. I do Tuesdays (which is why I get there earlier). Aside from running morning assembly, duties include taking attendance for morning study, leading afternoon assembly and dishing out punishments for tardiness and speaking Sesotho at school.
Sometimes assembly takes 3 minutes, sometimes 15. I usually like to go shorter, but I also like to make them sing on occasion, especially if they were all late. I have also run the assembly at the Primary School next door which is way more entertaining. Classes start at 8:00 and last 40 minutes. There is break from 10:40-11:00 and lunch from 1-2.
I teach between 3 and 5 periods a day. Math has 2 double periods a week and science has 1. In between classes we are supposed to stay at school. I keep busy by grading homework/tests, reading, writing, and taking notes on what I did in class and ideas for the next day. Technically I should also be lesson planning, but it really doesn’t help me at all (if anything it throws me off when my lesson plans don’t go to plan) and instead I rely on my notes and observations from the previous class.
Everyday that it is nice out, I set up the volleyball net before the first break and there is always someday playing. Me and another teacher, Ntate Kao, go out a couple of times a week and play with them.
There are 2 periods after lunch on Mondays, none on Fridays, and 1 the rest of the week. School goes until 4pm, though, so there is always something else scheduled after. Mondays are Study, Tuesdays are Teacher’s Meetings (although these are becoming less frequent), Wednesdays are Debate (only every other week though), Thursdays are Sports, and Fridays are Singing (except the last Friday of the month which we all have off). Almost any free time after though (including studies, missing debates and teachers meetings) turn into sports when it is nice out.
Volleyball has turned into a favorite after none of the students knowing how to play at first. We play 6v6 soccer every once in a while with me, Nt. Kao, and all the boys playing. The girls play netball which is basically basketball with no dribbling or backboards. We have also had 3 sports days against the neighboring Primary School. I like to call it the Mabuleng Civil War because the two schools colors are grey and blue. We played yesterday (April 22) and because we were missing two boys from my school, had to recruit a primary students and me and Nt. Kao both played. I like to think that I brought the team to a new level after being embarrassed 5-1 last time out, but I think we won in spite of my goaltending.
After the afternoon assemblies we dish out the punishments. There is usually a fair number who fall into this category – mostly for speaking Sesotho at school. My students have never been beaten at this part of the day (although sometimes for continuously showing up late or terrible misbehaviors in class, but these situations are both rare). Instead we have the students run up and down the mountain, weed gardens, pick beans, run down to the river and bring back rocks, do wall sits, and one time we had an all out workout/calisthenics session. Lots of ways to corporally punish them without actually hitting them with a stick.
Sometimes I’ll stay late if I have work to do or if everybody else is staying and I feel guilty, but with the shorter days, I try to be out of there by 4:30 at the latest. On my way home I fill up my water bottle again and every couple of days my Camelback for extra drinking water on those thirsty nights. Sometimes I’ll stop by one of the shops to pick something up – flour, oil, tomatoes, onions and on special occasions sausage or a Coke. In the afternoon I might do some chores – dishes, getting water, doing laundry, burning trash – or more likely I’ll start dinner and relax. Listen to some music or read a book. The sun goes behind the ridge right around 5pm now, so I bring the solar panel in. Visitors might stop by anytime between my getting home and the sun going down – either just to chat, to play cards, or more recently to watch movies on my computer or look at the pictures from the Initiation Graduation (it seems like I’ve opened a small business selling these things with a record book, deposits, receipts and everything). After the sun goes down, I can be more at ease that I won’t get a random knock on the door. This is time for eating, typing these lovely blog posts, and bathing.
I’ve decided that baths at night are the way to go. Mornings are cold (and getting colder) so every moment tucked warm in bed is priceless. Plus more sleep. And I have to boil water on my stove which takes time. There is also the whole bathing production and setup to minimize the amount of water used (I lug plenty of it up that hill with out going through full buckets for each bath) and time spent nekked and cold. Plus getting right in bed after being clean to get all warm is awesome.
After 7pm is off peak hours on the phone, so any chatting with other people in country (mostly via text message) occurs then. I usually fall asleep listening to music or a podcast on my ipod. Bedtime is pretty early because after it gets dark, there isn’t much to do and it gets VERY dark here when I have my lanterns and candles and headlamps out. Like can’t see your hand in front of your face dark.
So that is pretty much what a standard day has been like. Training was obviously very different and more structured and now that winter is creeping in, my days are shorter and combating the cold is becoming more and more of a priority every week. Maybe I will do a winter time version of this in August. Weekends are also very different from the weekdays. Either the fairly hectic schedule of going to, being in, and getting back from town, or completely dead when I stay in Mabuleng.
