MU MU AND THANKSGIVING

30th November 2008

Yes I know I said it was the last blog, but the chaos experienced yesterday is worth relaying.I hope we can find some steam for John while we're home, or he'll surely explode!!

It all happened on Friday.Please bear in mind that by 3 weeks ago we had given the staff at least 3 in-service sessions dealing with the preparation and completion of the new reporting system.Please also bear in mind that John and I, plus other volunteers, spent hours of time in their preparation and delivery to all schools, allowing them at least 3 weeks to get them completed before the end of term.

Friday was 2 working days before the reports are due to be given to students.Mr Incompetent has been banging on for the last week, asking staff to submit their marks to him, so the reports can be completed.So, Friday morning, no students around (they have more sense!) and a few staff lurking , when John asks Mr Incompetent if the reports have been finished.'Finished!' - he hadn't even received all the marks, so no members of staff had even started them!John turned a worrying shade of puce and I had to steer him in the opposite direction for fear he might just land one on Mr I's nose!!Once he had returned to something resembling his normal colour, he went in and offered to help, by printing off the front sheets of the reports - he had given Mr Incompetent the master weeks ago (bad move).'You haven't given me the master' he said.'I gave it to you weeks ago,' says John.So a 'yes I did,' 'No you didn't' altercation took place, whereupon John suggested he search his desk draw, which he did, to reveal the paper in question.

Meanwhile, another member of staff was sitting in the staffroom and I asked him if he needed any help to do his reports - not really he said, because he had lost them!!!!!!!Not only that, but he hadn't been to any of the in-services and didn't understand how to fill them in!! I tell you, they are so simple my granddaughter could do them!

After a few deep breaths, we returned to the computer and printed him some more off.I returned to the staffroom to find he had disappeared.He wasn't in his office, he wasn't in his house, so I left a message telling him if he wanted help he could find me at home, as I had work to do!!!I later found out he was hungry and had toddled off to town to find some food.John says that in looking at the marks, they all look pretty much fabrication.Talking of which, at one point, there was a delegation of students waiting outside Mr Incompetent's office.Apparently, they were there because they had been given marks by him for an assignment no-one had undertaken!!However, another teacher came along and barked at them and they slunk away with their tails between their legs, they are so docile.And where was Mr Notaclue during all this?Helping staff with the reports you might ask?Not a bit of it.We came across him later in town in a pick-up truck.We asked where he had been all day and discovered he'd been spending time chasing round buying food in the form of vegetables and a pig, (bear in mind this was a normal working day - what's one of them you might ask?) as there was to be a Mu Mu.We're invited, and it's to decimate, dessicate, denigrate, no, sorry, dedicate the new truck, which was given to the school.If they expended as much time and effort teaching the students as they do preparing, planning and executing their celebrations, the school would be more like a learning institution rather than a circus!It's a joke!

However, we have been invited to the Mu Mu to-day.Quite by chance, we have also been invited to a Thanksgiving party being held by two American volunteers this afternoon, so sadly we will miss most of the Mu Mu.We will put in an appearance later, once the killing has been done and the meat finished!We have to have parties in the afternoons here, as we're not allowed out after dark!

Right, that's definitely it.I'm now off to don the party frock!!

Tomorrow is packing day! What that means is, I put things in the case and John takes them out.Such fun!!

Love to all

XX

PSSorry no piccies - did this in a rush