Almost to Easter Break

This Thursday my long exile in my home will come to an end- THANK EFFING GOD! For the past month, because I've been strapped for cash, I have been absolutely stuck in my house, eating my stores of American food, and supplementing it with pallah (porridge). I keep a little calendar of the next two years on my wall, but I make it a point to only cross off days when I've had a particular rough time feeling lonesome- and a lot of times I can go weeks without crossing off days, but for the past month, I've pretty much crossed days off first thing in the morning. Yeah, I need to get out of the house.

One kind of crummy thing happened this week- one of our English teachers is leaving the school, the ministry of education gave him a new posting (in the middle of the semester, mind you, way to go ministry, way to put the students first). I've been asked to pick up some of his classes, which isn't a huge problem, since I am a teacher and all, and teaching more than two courses doesn't really phase me, I just wish I'd been given more warning. Also, my headmaster asked me to go with him to some training over the break, so all of my plans have been canceled, I may tell him that I can't go because I have things to accomplish, which is true, but I don't want to let him down.

Actually, this week, I got really frustrated at work. I went home to grab a bite to eat between classes, and while I was there, Hector got out. I should have chased her and brought her back inside, but instead I rushed off to the library, because I could see students were there to check out books, and I wanted to get that done, plus, she's been out while I'm in the library before, and usually she just sticks by me. One thing led to another, and I had to go teach, and didn't have enough time to put her back in my house, so I just shut the door to the classroom, and she sat outside until I finished. Unfortunately, I was teaching the last class of the day, and when the 'open school' kids start to show up, they crowd around the door, and when the bell rings, they trample in like people outside of a wal-mart on black Friday, regardless of whatever teachers, other students or even puppies might be in the way, sleeping on the doorstep. They trampled my dog. The little shits trampled my dog. Hector, however, is resourceful, and somehow managed to get away into the arms of one of my day school students, who handed her off to me in the scuffle. I was pissed. Afterwards, my headmaster asked me to be more careful about keeping her in my house, because people here don't really care about dogs, and don't really feel the same about trampling them- so I told him that regardless, the students shouldn't treat the classroom like a bus terminal, and should act like students when they come in the room, because they are going to hurt each other, and I stormed off to go teach computers, which also sucks, because it takes an hour to create a new folder.

The next day, I was still feeling a little pissed off about it- I live alone for the most part, and basically, when things go wrong, there really isn't anything to distract me. I think my headmaster knew I was still feeling a little sore, so he came to talk to me- he didn't mention the dog or anything, we just talked about Obama, and the health care bill, and other things in America, but I could tell he wanted to make me feel appreciated. I work for a nice guy. That make me feel a little better.

I like when people ask me how Obama is, as if he and I are friends or something, oh Malawi.

Note to Kitty: Ciel (heaven)