Today has been the first day of revision. It has been quite hard work. I did not really know how many students to expect. I told both groups that I would be in the classroom from 8.30 until 4.00pm, ready to answer any questions about the course content or exam, help them with revision on any subject we have covered, go over sample exam questions, return marked work and so on. I must have had at least two thirds of each class today, which was more than I expected. After assembly this morning I was told in a rather offhand sort of way that the school would be closed today for the funeral of an old man who used to be the school guard. I assumed that this meant it was a guard from some time ago. It was not until mid day that I discovered that it was the guard who has been working there every day since before I first arrived, Mr Gesari (don't know whether I have spelled that right). Vince said at the Open Day, when he saw a photo of Gesari sitting on a huge sheet of paper and having his feet painted scarlet by David so that he could have a go at foot-painting, 'Mr Gesari was always rather an unhappy character before you all started having your classes at the school. You lot have really livened him up!' Maybe we did a bit! I hope so. He was always very kind to me in a curmudgeonly sort of a way! Provided that I locked up the room to his satisfaction he grunted approvingly and bade me goodbye until tomorrow in Chichewa. He made me reply in his own language and it is because of him that I know some of the days of the week, for on a Tuesday he would not let me say 'Goodbye until tomorrow', I had to say 'Goodbye until Thursday' as we had no classes on a Wednesday! One of the teachers was acting as guard whilst the Headteacher and many others were at the funeral this morning. I should have gone myself had I known about it in time. I sat with the teacher for a brief while and during this time a man came and asked whether the school was looking for a new guard, such is the shortage of jobs. I guess sudden death is always a shock even if we do not know the victim very well and I have felt more upset than I would have expected today.
I had to leave the class to their own devices for about an hour this morning while I went on a fruitless trip to try and print out some documents I needed. We have been plagued by problems of lack of power in the last week or so. The dry season, evening power cuts at Mitsidi are back to the three times a week pattern of last September and October, and added to that there have been power failures at the site all last week, and a shortage of diesel has meant that the generator has not always been able to make up the shortfall. When I returned I was very proud of all the students because despite the large class size the only noise was a healthy buzz of controlled debate, not the riotous assembly that I half expected. I had left them with three practice exam questions which they had written on the board and MacCloud was at the front of the class leading a discussion about possible answers. A number of students made very sensible answers and I slipped in and sat at the back and listened for nearly a quarter of an hour before I felt moved to make any kind of contribution to the discussion myself. They had asked me to talk to them a bit more about planning and I had prepared a very brief summary of all the types of planning we have mentioned throughout the course over the weekend. After lunch (still no power at site) I went over some of the input on PSRN and then the students gradually departed, some lingering to ask individual questions or for more details about my comments on their reflective diaries, or to borrow library books, until at last I was left alone to continue the task of marking the final assignment of this part of the course. The question was: 'Write a short paper, saying what you think are the most important things you have learned on this course. For your own professional development, what aspect of child care and development would you like to study next and why?' The purpose was two-fold. To try to get some idea of what they have learned and to find out their aspirations, ambitions and interests in order to make sure we get the right people into the different kinds of jobs in the Children's Centre, and to begin to plan the ongoing training programme for the first six months of their working lives in the Centre. I think I wrote about this a bit yesterday, so forgive me if I am repeating myself. I have started to put together a couple of Excel spreadsheets to collate the results. It is amazing how many different 'Most important things' there are!
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