We're Covered in Sand

After three straight days of sandstorms we finally have a nice day here on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. A chilly 45 degrees in the morning and warming up to almost 90 by the afternoon, with a cool southernly breeze.

I successfully installed a DVD/CD burner on the schoolnet computer! It only took all my free periods. I had the pin setting set to primary instead of secondary. Could tell it was something with the setting when the computer wouldn't boot correctly. After fixing that and moving the computer table to better place in the room, the Internet stopped working. Checked and found that the phone line into the modem was no longer at the 43.6927762 degree angle (approx 0.2427376 pi radians) necessary to work. After some rigging I got it to dial, but it kept saying the line was busy. Plugged in a phone to see if it really is. Then did some other unconnecting and reconnecting.

Long story longer, I couldn't get a dial tone. Crap! About 15 more minutes of tinkering and reangling lines and then I realized I forgot to unplug the phone and reconnect the computer line. Yeah, I can be such a putz sometimes, which means most of the time.

I get to help invigilate KWP (Keyboarding/Word Processing) tomorrow for the grade 10s. I feel so bad for them because on Thursday they take all three exams for English (Directed Reading&Writing, Continuous Writing and Listening). They test almost all day from 8am until 4pm. The reason I am asked to help with it is last year the Ministry of Education came to investigate a case of cheating. Three learners got the exact same score with same questions wrong, having identical errors. It was alleged that the teacher helped them or allowed the learners to help each other.

Anywho, I get to miss the entire first four periods (or possibly longer) to watch the watcher and the learners. So much for teaching geometry. Was planning on starting three weeks ago but the computer took a lot longer to “fix”. Next I was going to start last Thursday, but it turned out to be a surprise half day to celebrate World Teacher Day. Friday, another half day to celebrate the last day for the grade 10s, see previous blog entry. Today (Monday) was trying to get everyone back on the same page. Oh well, geometry is going to happen sometime in the next three weeks.

Was reading about the Wild and Gopher men/womens' hockey teams. Great to see that Hirsch is playing for the men this season. After Kessel and the other guys jumped ship, they need him for some upperclassman leadership and scoring. Maybe they'll also have a stronger commitment to winning a national championship instead of just waiting to go to the NHL. Wish there was some way to listen to Franky M and Wooger call the games. Why do the Wild decide to get some offensive weapons the year I go to Africa? Happy to see they got Parrish back in Minnesota again. Fun to watch him when was at Bloom Jefferson & SCSU. Good gritty player in front of the net, like an old Dino Ciccerelli.

Before I go: word around the village is that NamPower is coming to cut the line to Tses tomorrow. Something about the village council not paying the bill. Looks like our probation period may be over. Darn that Dr. Evil! We'll find out tomorrow. Will make it interesting for the learners taking the KWP exam ON THE COMPUTER!

Take care everyone. Can't wait to see ya'll again!