03/06/10

Last night I was so exhausted I got into bed and forgot to set my alarm clock. Luckily, my body has become so accustomed to waking up at 5am everyday that at 5:28am I was wide awake, wondering what was wrong.
Today my homeroom (the class I hate a little bit, coincidentally) kept speaking in Txitxopi which made me so frustrated because speaking the local languages in secondary schools in Mozambique is strictly prohibited and they know this, but they think they can get away with it with me. In hindsight I should have kicked the first person out immediately, but then too many people were speaking it and there is no way I could have gotten each of those people out. I am really at my wit’s end with this one class—I don’t think they respect me much and I hate every time I have to go in there. Today during weekly homeroom meeting we had to read a 4-page message from the government about children’s rights and I told them that I had all the time in the world, so we would only read when everyone was quiet and we would leave when we were finished reading. This would have worked with any of my other classes, but with this one we just ended up staying far past the bell to go home.
Today in all my classes I told people to open their notebooks so I could check to see if they had done their homework, which I do almost every day. Getting frustrated, I said “let’s not waste our time, those people who didn’t do their homework, save me the trouble and sit on the floor.” I had about half my students sitting on the floor in every class. Good for them for being honest, but really guys.