I sat down, exasperated, at about 11 PM tonight in the first chair I could find. Blake locked up and we laughed - out of exhaustion. I sat in the same position for a while, desperately trying to put the day in some sort of box which it didn't want to fit into. I'm finding more and more of these days every week. Isn't time supposed to make the strange, normal? And routine? So why does this morning seem like it was forever and a day ago?
Maybe when Bert said he couldn't remember what he did yesterday, because he was confused, this was what he was talking about. But then again, I'm not a schizophrenic and he is.
But I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Maybe I started losing the sense of routine sitting in the secretary's office waiting for a secretary who would not show up today, to tal about the electricity bill. Men in an important-looking car came by yesterday saying that they wanted to cut our power. My school was supposed to pay the bill but didn't. And so I got up early to wait, ended up talking to my director, who said he didn't know about the situation but would talk with the very same secretaries about it.
Maybe it started when I was walking home from the store and received a comment on my food purchases which lay behind a thin plastic veil and were obviously of public concern.
Maybe it was when I found Bert waiting for me at my house. The brother of my Changana tutor, he has been in and out of mental hospitals and on and off medication. He wanted to learn some English, but I don't like to be alone with him as he has violent episodes - or so we've heard.
Maybe it was explaining bacteria and viruses to a former student of Tober's in Portuguese and with two cups, a length of string and a set of keys. He seemed to understand, amazingly enough.
Most likely, it had something to do with trying to give an ACS to one turma while another turma batted the windows and yelled inside the room through the windows after me - while smacking adjoining walls and taking down the questions that I had posed to the current class.
But probably it has more to do with the reaming (verbally) those students got from Laurenco. Making everyone stand up, one by one, he asked the rest of the class to say who were the provokers of this noise and lack of discipline. He made at least one girl cry. Tomorrow, they will be working in the school fields at 7 AM as punishment. The entire turma.
But above all, taking a walk with Bert and Blake to get Bert back home safely, and then realizing we were completely lost with this semi-acquaintance who had started talking to himself. So we arrived back at home with him, where we had started. Now who needed help?
So after I figured that out, I got up to write and then go to bed. And maybe tomorrow I won't be so confused about today.
Peace
John
