Village Fever

So I am sitting in school. No learners, nothing to do. Yeah it’s the day before our month long vacation and I am so ready to get out of here and travel. I’ve been in the village for three weeks now. You know what you get when you do this? VILLAGE FEVER. It’s a common occurrence among those who cannot stay in a place with absolutely nothing to do for an extended period of time. I haven’t taught a lesson In two weeks I’ve only been monitoring exams and marking them for the learners to get their grades. After sitting in countless classrooms for hours at a time without being able to do anything except stare at the students taking their exams, and then having to sit for countless more hours giving them grades and watch most of my learners fail, I have earned this vacation.

Yesterday we had an assembly to hand out the grades. I had made some nice certificates for the learners that did the best in my English classes. Not only could I not pronounce their names in front of the entire school, after I was done the principal then announced that each class teacher would announce the two best learners in their class and then the worst. Thank goodness I’m not a class teacher because I wouldn’t be able to do that. I was told that it’s supposed to be a motivational thing, but I can’t stand when children are embarrassed and put down in front of their peers. Especially when the abuse comes from adults.

Exams have not brought out the best side in me or my school. I hope that this vacation will give me a fresh start for the second term. I am planning on going to Victoria Falls for the first week of the vacation and possibly to South Africa after that depending on how I feel after camping for a week. I’ve never really been camping in my life so this should be interesting. You would think I’d be less nervous about it considering I’m at a school with no running water and I live in the bush. Nope. Not the case.

I think that anyone living abroad has a breaking point where you go, “What am I doing here? What do you mean it’s only been four months and I’m here for another eight?” I’m at that point right now. I have been going back and forth trying to figure out if I’m going to stay here for another year or not. My mind set right now is telling me, “Get out of the bush!” but my heart is saying “Come on Chelsea, you’re suffering from village fever, just relax”.

So for lack of an optimistic blog post, here’s to a better day. I am ever hopeful that I will get over this little slump and move on with this experience.

Peace and Love,
Chelsea