Another week at the office

Well, the first week back to work was normal. And normal here has many different settings. I think I'll call it normal-crazy (which is closer to real normal than crazy, but more eventful than crazy-normal). Normal crazy looks like this...
Day 1: I arrived at work and was called home because the baby wouldn't stop crying. After 20 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic, I arrived home to discover she was sleeping. I hung out for a bit, fed her when she woke up and headed back to work. Learned about a crazy literature analysis essay with very few guidelines that my EAL students are supposed to write,

Day 2: Ran out of luku in the middle of the night (luku is prepaid electricity) around 2:30. Everything shut off. Had to send Ibra out to buy some or the nanny wouldn't be able to heat bottles to feed the baby. Took him an hour and a half to find a 24-hour luku station (almost nothing is 24-hours here). Returned around 4:15. Baby woke up. I fed her then started getting ready for work. So much for sleep. Head to work and pump, pump, pump.

Day 3: Off to work and pump, pump, pump. Tried and tried to help kids organize their essays. I think we all left more confused than when we started. Staff meeting mayhem after school where frustrated teachers get a platform to complain about the systems. Problems-many. Solutions-aaaaannnnd we're out of time.

Day 4: Off to school and traffic cop won't let me turn onto Toure Drive. All the right turners get frustrated and decide to go straight to the next street. I get cut off by a bus full of kids who overtake me on the right turn and force me into oncoming traffic. Their first lesson of the day was how to kill the teacher in the 4X4. Another day of pump, teach, pump, teach and pump. Starting to feel like a talking cow ("I.....can.....talk...")

Day 5: Two sick colleagues means cover classes. It's hard to teach three periods, have a staff meeting AND pump, pump, pump. Managed it somehow AND, by some miracle, had a wonderfully inspiring lesson whereby the mental fog cleared and the EAL students managed to successfully write their opening paragraphs for their lit. essays. Phew!
Then to a birthday party and staff party before heading home for the evening.

So that's a basic 'day-in-the-life'.