The days have been upsettingly cold lately. When I was told pre-departure that it gets cool in the winter months of June-August I thought maybe a light jersey would do or a long-sleeved shirt. No. It is cold. Granted, I have always been cold-intolerant, but the mornings are uncomfortable. Since housing is not heated or insulated the temperature inside my house is invariably the temperature outside of my house..and as soon as the sun starts to go down, until mid-day the next day when its warm morning embrace has had time to heat the cold white sand and dull the July breeze..that temperature is cold. I have taken to drinking about 3 cups of tea a day to warm myself from the inside out, as well as sleeping under 3 blankets at night and sporting socks (soon to be slippers-my next investment) around the house on the cold concrete floor. The warm clothes that I brought along are all informal: hoodies, ratty long-sleeved shirts, and I've been given skeptical once-overs by my colleagues who daily dress in their best professional attire. So..I believe that a trip to town is in order to purchase Miss Jennifer some more suitable winter work clothes. I'm glad that I'm not the only one finding the weather unfavourable. Colleagues are literally coming to school in puffy jackets, boots, scarves and toques..you would think it was 40 below. Learners are bundled up as well, sporting two or three sweaters (jerseys) if they have them and often in toques and/or scarves or donning blankets over their heads and shoulders. Most of them wear gloves also:on one hand. I thought perhaps so that it wouldn't interfere with their writing, but no. I think it's a blend of style here, as well as consideration. In Namibia we share. How is it fair for you to have two gloves when your classmate has none? One for you, one for me. It's only polite.

School continues to go well. The term is already half-over, which I can't even begin to understand, and we have already nearly completed our first round of exams for the term..mastery tests (as blog-ranted about previously), and term examinations are set to start at the beginning of August. It seems as though a third of each term is dedicated completely to examinations, which makes the actual amount of teaching in a year drastically less than what I had anticipated/hoped for. I feel like just as things begin, they are already beginning to end. In other words: I'm still adjusting. I am enjoying myself nonetheless and find that the daily kinks, idiosyncrasies and general frustrations no longer bother me nearly as much as they used to. I'm much more malleable in my planning and expectations, which has helped greatly in the lowering of my blood pressure this term. This might also have to do with the fact that I have been enjoying morning smoothies thanks to my frivolous purchase of a blender a couple of weeks past. Words can not do justice to the pleasure that I get out of being able to have blended fruit to start my day. Think of the smiles on the faces of people in coffee commercials as they have that first, revitalising, sip of delicious coffee in the morning, and that is me, in my cold little house, revelling in my morning smoothie, counter-balanced with coffee so that I maintain a relatively warm centre. Life is good.

I was just marvelling this morning about how generally uneventful this term has been in terms of excitement and chaos around the school so, inevitably, all hell had to break loose. The principal, in our morning briefing, scolded us for not having better control of the learners during the day and that they can often be found running amok around the grounds when class is not in session or when a teacher has conveniently forgotten to attend their period at that time. He charged us with having duties to keep learners in their classes-chasing them if necessary (which it often is)- and to take record of those who are found to be not in their classrooms while school is in session. We begrudgingly accepted this new duty, and the teachers to be starting duty that day were named.

It was a relatively quiet morning and I was teaching English to one of my grade 9 classes. The boys in the back corner by the windows were doing their usual, occasional glance in my direction and then returning to stare outside longingly. Except this time they were all looking out very intently, and some of my girls were also engaged in what was happening outside. They were looking perplexed/shocked/concerned/excited and I was expecting to see a fancy car or special guest as I paused my lesson to see what could possibly be more enthralling than gender pronouns. There was a full-on battle at the front gate of the school between our security guard and a man on the other side of the gate, wanting in. The man is known around town as being disturbed (they often say "mad" or sick in the head) and having mental health issues. I am also fairly certain that he is either deaf or otherwise unable to understand, and well as speak, spoken language. The man was outside of the man gate, beating it and attacking it with what seemed to be a large pipe, demanding entrance by force, with our security guard beating the door from the other side refusing to grant the man's admission onto school grounds. The door went precariously back and forth as it was beaten and pushed and kicked and swung violently from both sides. This went on for a number of minutes with the man advancing then being beaten back, then advancing and so forth. By this time learners had started to congregate at the gate, cheering, taunting and anxiously watching it all unfold. My learners knew by looking at my that I wasn't going to tolerate any of them leaving the classroom, so we watched from the peace and safety of our room. Eventually the man went off, with learners jeering and running apace with him on the opposite sides of the fence, the teachers powerless to stop the chaos despite their best efforts screaming, threatening and literally chasing learners withsticks. It was a spectacle to behold. Needless to say very little teaching occurred during the morning.

The fun doesn't end there. Our security guard, either by duty, injury or general frustration had abandoned his post shortly after the brawl had concluded, leaving our opportunistic friend to enter the gate without any hesitation and take up post as security guard, sitting in the chair leisurely, monitoring the door as though he had been there all along. He just sat their peacefully, gloating with his triumph. The police were called shortly thereafter and arrived just in time for break, allowing for all of the learners to watch in elation as the man put up chase, brandishing a heavy club/stick with about six police officers following in tow. The learners ran along the inside of the fence keeping abreast with the action as the police scrambled to surround the man, coming at him from three sides and eventually loaded him into the back of the police pickup truck to take him off. My heart went out to the poor man who was obviously confused and disturbed, and I hope that he is going to receive the help that he needs. I think I may have been one of the only ones in attendance feeling any sense of compassion however, as it was a topic of much excitement and laughter throughout the day in the classrooms and staff room alike. I look forward to tomorrow's morning briefing onour first day of effecting learner management in the school.