Farewell and more
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| Rescuing victims in the mock earthquake drill |
Wednesday
28th
The day started with assembly – unusual for
a Wednesday but as it was our last day they wanted us to make a speech. Joan requested to go first – as she was
less happy with the public speaking aspect. By the time the students had sung their prayers and the
National Anthem, and announcements had been made, and both our speeches and a
thank you from a student had been made there was not time left for reading
period; a shame, since it would
have been a chance to consolidate the “mastery reading” program I was working
on. At least Trish would continue
it.
My final lesson with 7A on advertising was
semi successful. Some of the
students got that what’s on the front of packets in not necessarily consistent
with the fine print! Though not
all. A substantial number did not
actually submit work, which was disappointing.
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| Games with narrative tenses - obviously enjoyable! |
A class 8 lesson before lunch – finishing
off some work on the present and past tenses with some games on the narrative
tenses - was interrupted with earthquake drill.
I did not initially hear the siren but the students dived
under the desks. I was pretty confident that it was
drill and not the real thing, as I had felt nothing. I’ve experienced earthquakes in Bhutan and I know that a
nothing feeling is not the experience!
Anyway, at the students’ encouragement I
found a desk to dive under while they counted to 20 and walked with them,
sheltering my head under a provided book (after having collected my laptop bag
and double checking with the 3 boys who were not moving that they were
designated victims) to the assembly ground – the designated safe area. It did occur to me that Joan would be
wondering what on earth was going on but then realized that she had gone down
to the hotel – we’d been told the previous evening that we would need to bunk
up – they’d an embarrassment of bookings that they could not adjust. Shame, they’d fixed the other 2 days
that were going to potentially be a problem.
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| Narrative tenses game continues during earthquake drill |
I’d had enough time to start the students
on the narrative tense games I’d prepared (these were the laminating excursion
some days previously) and students had been rather engrossed with them, which
was lovely. 2 of the girls were
sufficiently enamored to take the game with them, which rather amused me!
The students were milling about rather
aimlessly and I suggested that the class ought to be lined up and the captains
ought to be doing a head count – which they did and duly reported to the
disaster coordinator that there were 3 missing. I then got to observe the wonderfully entertaining “search
and rescue” – the rescue being the most entertaining as the bigger boys carry
victims – in their arms, fireman’s lift or piggy back style. The victims often not being much
smaller than the rescuers!
By the time drill was over, so was the
lesson but I asked 8C to return to the classroom – I not only wanted to collect
the games back intact but also to present a couple of pins for good work. The class did, of course, oblige, and I
also received quite a few thank you’s and wishes for safe journey and
mini-speeches.
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| Bossy E lesson |
The thank you cards from the students were
wonderful: Joan’s name was
misspelt as “Jone” – most gratifying given my lessons on “bossy E”!
I had thought my last lesson on writing an
essay with class 6 had gone well until I saw some of the finished
products. The idea of introductions
and conclusions as per the model I had presented them had not been whole
heartedly adopted although the young man who was trying to shock me with his
essay topic My Girlfriend was
progressing reasonably. My refusal
to be shocked, but to just ask him what 3 main point he was going to discuss
about her elicited the confession that he didn’t actually have a girlfriend, so
I told him he could write about his ideal girlfriend – she is, apparently a
good student who does not use bad words and is kind to animals and other
people. Nice.
I returned to the hotel part way through
Library club as I needed to change and organise one or two things before we
went to collect the cakes – and very attractive they were!
We met the staff at a café some time
after the appointed meeting time and were rather pleased to find about half the
staff already assembled.
Joan had thought that cake might be a
dessert type course but I suggested that it was most likely to be served with
tea – as the starting point. I was
correct – she had consulted with the staff secretary and he took them away to
arrange cutting – after we had made the first cut. Joan looked as if she were ready to fully cut the cake but I
suggested she allow it to be taken to more suitable surface for the real
cutting. Although there had been
protest that one cake would have been enough, two were disposed of easily –
there were more than 30 people present and one 2kg cake would have needed paper
thin slivers to go round the numbers.
Tea and cake was followed by momo – lots
of, and I managed to score a second plate which was delicious. I think that the principal was rather
amused that I said I definitely wanted ezy with them – the standard chilli that
goes with it. Joan’s question
about whether the chilli was hot received my standard eyebrow raise!
Then of course the alcohol was served and a
beer was put in front of me – which is fine by me; it’s the safest of the options given the tendency to top my
glass up while I am not looking, but at least the top up is from the bottle
that is sat in front of me!
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| Principal sir, and other staff at our farewell |
After a fair bit of chat some of the staff
started to say their farewells and I made an effort to finish my glass and
suggested to Joan and Trish that it was time for us to move also - to my eye we were clearly keeping a few
of the staff there when they were ready to leave; in due course we did leave, and Joan acknowledged that maybe
I was more used to reading those signals than she was – she still had the best
part of a full glass of beer and some of the ladies protested that they would
stay while she finished it, but she didn’t actually want to do that!
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| Farewell party with staff |
Once again we walked Madam Yangtse home, as
she lives very close to the Hotel Vara and does not like to walk alone at
night.
Back at the hotel we opened our farewell
gifts from the staff: delightful
woven bags. I did comment to Joan
that I liked the colour of hers better than mine – and as she preferred mine to
hers, we swopped, but kept the scarves which were originally presented. Given that each gift was given in an
identical carrier bag, I don’t think anyone would be offended and we were very
happy with the arrangement.
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