Letter

Hi!

I'm the Teacher on Duty this week which means that,
along with another teacher, we're responsible for
everything that happens at the school. Which sounds
like a lot more work than it really is. For example,
this morning I was just sitting in the staff room
reading when a secretary came in and started talking
to me. The thing about understanding another language
is partly getting the words right but it's also about
anticipating the trajectory of the conversation and
I'm not very good at that. It took us about a minute
to sort it out.

At first I thought she said I had to write a letter
and then send a student to town with the letter. Then
it turns out I was to write the letter and send the
student to her house. Then I wasn't to write the
letter, the letter had been written. So I assumed the
student was being expelled from school but she said
no. Then I got a long explanation of how graduation is
on saturday which was confusing because everybody
knows that graduation is coming and what does this
have to do with anything. Well, it all came untangled
but it seems to me the whole thing, from the letter
(the man already knows he's to represent the parents)
to sending the student (the post or an email wouldn't
suffice) to telling me about it, was not really
necessary.

Interestingly, they always have graduation before the
national exams so that the students can't riot after
the graduation. And by the time they finish their
exams they are mostly tired and simply glad to be free
so they go quickly and quietly.

Last night I was surprised to see the volleyball team
because they were supposed to have left in the
afternoon for the capital. It turns out "the plane
was broken" but I pretty sure I overheard people
saying that there just wasn't any money to support
them. It's not that money isn't there, it's that the
planning happened either the day before they were to
leave or possibly the morning they were to leave.

A similar thing happened to me once. A student had
written an essay and she wanted me to proof read it.
The deadline came and I hadn't seen her so I assumed
she had found somebody else or just sent it off as is.
In fact about 10am on the deadline day she came into
the office just as I was about to go to teach and
asked me if I could read it over just then and there
and then she would try to get someone to mail it that
day. I told her I'd have more time tomorrow and when
she looked crest-fallen I said maybe later in the
afternoon and she said it had to be mailed that
morning and I told her I had to go teach. As I walked
to the classroom I thought about the time in 9th grade
when I started my leaf project at about 6pm the day
before it was due. And the millions of people who
stay up all night doing their taxes the day before
they are due. That's why the world should be run by
machines.

Ryan

Nothing is sometimes a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.

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