Exams Day 4

Last night I didn't grade a single exam. That's going to come back and bite me later. I fell asleep early, then woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep for a long time. And my stack of ungraded exams keeps growing.

One of my third years hasn't come to school for the last two weeks. I wasn't sure what I could do, and since I had enough to worry about, I hadn't taken any steps. Well, he came to school with his father today to meet with the principal. I couldn't be there for the meeting, since I was giving the third year chemistry exam. Also, I was pretty sure he was going to be caned a lot, and nothing I would say or do could stop that, so I just avoided that scene. After about an hour, he came into the classroom (during the exam) to collect his books. I think we all thought the same thing. I followed him out and he was crying a little bit (probably he was in complete agony). I tried to be motivational and wish him the best wherever life was going to take him and tell him that he had a lot of potential. He looked back at me and said that he would be back next term. I just hope I can get him to be a little more serious about his studies then.

I went back into the exam, and the students were all watching him leave instead of working on their exams. I told him that he would return next term and that they needed to return to their exams. One of the girls in the class forlornly mumbled "good-bye boyfriend" (dating is banned at the school, but the students trust me enough at this point). I couldn't suppress a little laugh, and then the whole class started laughing together. It was pretty funny (even Mercy was laughing at herself), and it took us a whole minute to settle back down. I knew about Kent and Mercy (actually it's pronounced like Marcie, which always confuses me) but I make sure that I don't meddle in the personal lives of students. Still, I think that I may need to give her some relationship advice (for those of you who know anything about my past, there's no need to make fun) to help her make mature decisions.

We finally managed to focus on exams again, but it was pretty short lived. There was a commotion outside as local parents were chasing away elephants that had wandered towards the school in search of water. At this point, I lost most of my faith that the students would ever be able to focus on their exams (good thing it was 90% finished at this point). I actually found myself doing the Funky Chicken at one point. Few of them saw because they were all trying to see the elephants. Still, it must be pretty distracting to take an exam with me in the room.

At lunch, the physics teacher was teaching me a traditional Luhya dance (the Luhyas are a tribe from Western Kenya), so I started dancing with him while singing Chava Ngila (sp?). That was fun. Most of the rest of the day has been grading papers and helping people use the computer for recording grades. They seem pretty sold on the idea, which is nice. Now I just need to help them learn how to use the computer.