Friday, December 18, 2009

Meat - Monday, 30 November 2009

The students were awful today. Mondays can be such a headache, they are a bad start to the week. I have the first two periods free, and then grade 5 math for one period. Then I have one period of English, one of math, lunch, and then two of science. Argh. I hate teaching science. They aren't in the mood to sit still, and the science books revolve around discussion--teach everything through discussion. Well, we can't do that so the books are useless.

Valerie received a call today from her fiance, saying that the electricity had been turned off. The electricity company had been hounding them about unpaid bills from the summer--well, they had just moved in at the end of September! Christie had lived in the apartment last year, but she had been gone all summer and had returned in August to another apartment. Who was supposed to pay the bills? The school, of course!

I don't know why it took this long for the electricity to get turned off, but it did. Valerie was not happy!

When her fiance called the principal, the principal called him in. He tried then called Valerie into his office and tried to talk both of them into staying longer. But, she explained, her fiance's visa expires on the 27th. They have to go to Almaty before then to get her a visa for Uzbekistan. They can't stay much longer than the 19th, the date she had given him.

I was in the teacher's lounge when the secretary came to see me about what I thought was a meeting. She called a few other teachers and before I knew it, she was leading us outside!! It was freezing.

By the side of the school, at the edge of the parking lot, lay dozens of plastic bags containing raw meat. We got to choose our own and take it inside.

And do what with it? I took a red-stained bag and carried it inside. Eric placed his bag on the floor in the teachers' lounge. OK. So I did the same.

I asked what kind of meat it is, and was told cow. Later, I was told lamb. That's okay. I'm happy to have meat--it's a heavy bag, maybe 2 kilograms is my guess? Maybe 5? I froze it and await a time when I'm in the mood to cook more than an egg (and remember to thaw it first!)


What an interesting present.

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