The Journey Inward

Some little anecdotes from the start of this week…

I sent G2 and T a picture of me wearing his sweats on a walk and told them a part of Colorado is here in South Africa. G had flown out to see him for the weekend at the halfway point. They stayed at Larry’s in South Carolina. Six more weeks to go for them.

G3 sent pictures from her boat off of San Diego. She is the morale officer and does cute things to keep everyone upbeat and positive. She also got to work out on the front of her boat! They even had a Coast Guard dog visit!

When I came in on Monday morning, one of my students had made me that beautiful flower. It’s still wet, but so pretty!

Landscaping does not have mulch here. It is all dirt that is turned regularly by the gardeners.

After binging all of Season 5 in Oregon and watching the finale with G3, I can’t help but see the cactus around me, in particular, as freaky creatures!

Our Olympic brain breaks continue, this time with the 3 legged race. They could not understand why we kept calling it 3 legs. No amount of counting their joined leg as one seemed to get through. Kids today just don’t play the games we did!

Tuesday was G1’s 28th birthday, which is incredible to believe. I was 28 when I got pregnant with her! I think everyone was shocked that I had a 28 year old and that I didn’t have her particularly young! One of the kids guessed my age at 36 on Friday, but none of them did the math when I told them G1 was 28 today and realized I would have been a third grader like them!!!

My team celebrated my birthday at our team meeting today. Chan brought pumpkin bread, which was delicious. Amazingly, it was the first time we didn’t do chocolate cake!

I made an omelet tonight with peppers and lettuce from my garden! I was so excited! Between vegetables and a bird feeder, I feel very official. The other veggies were all store bought.

I asked the music teacher, whose son I have, if I could come into the band room after school and play the piano. She said it was fine. I had my first session yesterday. I hadn’t played in 6 months and could only think of two songs I knew by heart! Two 3rd graders heard me toward the end and came in and danced while I played!

I bought coffee for my team today instead of yesterday because I had to get the new eating/meds/supplements routine down. I can’t have dairy, either, so I got my dirty chai with almond milk. Nothing ruined there. Avishkar joined me for my lunchtime walk today, but did ruin my 13.5 minute mile. We only got 1.35 miles in instead of my usual 2. Avishkar teaches 4th grade next door to me. He and his wife are expecting their second baby in just a few weeks!

Our principal asked us to sign up for 10 minute check ins with him. I went yesterday and shared how happy I am here, how much I love classroom teaching, how excellent the curriculum is and other rave reviews. It was a nice 15 minutes or so. My partner went in after me, as she wanted me to warm him up! It’s quite a different experience being a local teacher here than a foreign hire.

It sounds like I’m lucky to be here specifically and in this time more broadly, because the days of foreign teachers receiving comparable pay to the US and having their housing paid for is coming to an end due to the high property cost and lagging numbers due to so many US diplomats being pulled from positions, generating much less revenue.

My school is very expensive compared to other private schools in South Africa, or ZA as it’s referred to here in country. It’s getting harder and harder to keep that number high and the loss of students has hurt us, too. I was lucky to get this position when I did.

The greatest compliment Eunine has paid me is to say how pleasantly surprising I am. Americans don’t have the best reputation work ethic wise at the school and she is always impressed at how many questions I have and how much I want to know/already know about South Africa. She said most Americans aren’t that interested and don’t particularly like the lack of “amenities” here.

I love to ask her questions about her experiences. The other day she was telling me about the private school options for kids. She’s chosen an Afrikaans/English school. They have part of the day in each. I was asking what percentage of the white population here is English and what part Arikaans. She told her best guess, but said she went home and looked it up. She said she and her husband and daughters are talking more about South Africa as a result. That makes me so happy.

Last night was my version of Body Pump alone in the big room of the gym. I am officially bored with it. Tonight was just straight up heavy lifting and a run, but tomorrow I may take one of their fitness classes and see what I think. I miss the camaraderie and the accountability of Body Pump in Clinton. Stay tuned!

I got to talk to G1 today, which made me very happy. She and A were in south Jersey for a wedding this weekend and stayed an extra day to celebrate her birthday in Philly. They were headed to the Franklin Institute, museum of her childhood! I told her to take A through the heart to see if he might want to change his specialty! They looked so happy and glamorous at the wedding.