Surprise, Surprise

You’d think that after 20 months here, I’d be used to having my schedule changed without warning.  Today I was teaching Year 6 and noticed a van had pulled up.  I didn’t pay much attention and just kept teaching.  Several minutes later, the teacher who is teaching her class as well as the Year 5 class.  She came in and asked if she could have my class.

“Because you want to teach three classes so I can have a rest?”  I joked.

“No, because the people are here to teach the students netball.” she replied.

From what they said, I think my boss knew they were coming.  But he didn’t tell anyone.  Planning and forward thinking are not strong traits in the village.  When it happens, it happens.  And if it doesn’t happen, oh well.

In any case, I figured it would be a good chance to learn to play netball, a sport that is very popular with women in New Zealand and Australia.  They unloaded bags of balls from the van and the kids settled down in the hall.  The session lasted half an hour and there was no ball playing.  They just explained the basic rules and demonstrated how to do a chest pass, a shoulder pass and an underhand bounce pass.  Uma.  That was it.  The kids kept looking longingly at the balls and I was right there with them.  If you’re going to teach netball, let’s get some practice.

But they left.  Someone said they’re coming back the 27^th and 28^th of June.   They mentioned a tournament with two schools nearby.  Maybe that will happen.  Maybe it won’t.  Samoa.

The bell to end school rang at 12:40 p.m., by the way.  Normal ending time is 2:00 p.m.   I don’t know why.