So I am now into the depths of my first Tinejdad summer, and am learning why often times people in desert summer photos look pissed off. The best way I can think to describe it is that the sun has made everyone and everything under it, well, its bitch. Days are now averaging 105 degrees, which starts at 6 am and continues until nightfall, at which it only drops about 15 degrees. This leads to high levels of discomfort, and thus makes people not want to do...well anything besides avoid the sun.
The desert sun is very unlike any other I have ever come close to experiencing. It is as if a giant laser beam from space were to come down everyday, frying everything in its path. You can tell when a beam of it is touching you, in that it feels like that part of your body is about to catch on fire. It also does not help to live in a house made of cinder blocks. This has a temperature trapping effect with weather, and in effect turns my house into a refrigerator in the winter, and an oven in the summer. A day of the dealdy rays soaking into my walls leaves me to bake like a roatisserrie chicken.
There are however, tactics that one can take in sure dire conditions. I have bought 2 fans, both of which stay on me constantly, along with a nearby bottle of frozen water, which I am forever filling up and replacing in my freezer. As for sleeping, soaking a sheet in water, and wrapping it around my naked body before lying inches away from the fans, and in front of an open window helps. Another option is to sleep on my roof, which is extremlely refreshing, yet has the drawlback of the sun from hell raising its flesh eating head at 6am, at which point I must quickly run back dowstairs in an effort to keep all of my skin.
My work schedule, while still technically existent, has dwindled down to one class with about 6 students, all of whom I can expect to always be at least 30 to 45 mins late. I suppose I can't blame them, in that the heat has seemed to make everything move in slow motion, and their movement clearly ties into that. As a result I have pushed the starting time for class up a half hour, in hope that the half hour of alotted movement time will be enough to get a full hour and a half out of class. I have also kept in mind that it is their summer vacation, and can't hold it against them if going to my English class isn't at the top of their priorities.
As for the journalism club, which basically consists of the 6 remaining students, it looks like we will get at least get one issue of the Tinejdad Times out before the summer is over. This will hopefully be enough to set an example for my new students that I will get in the fall, and be enough to continue its publication. I will be losing most of my current students in the fall to the Universities they will be attending, which, while a little sad, is a great thing. I can say that everyone of my students who graduated from highschool this year will be going to college. While this is a very small sample group of students from Tinjdad, it is still a much better percentage than my highschool.
The work with the world mural still painfully drags on as well. The hardest part with its completion is undoubtably the fact that it is on the other side of town, and thus req
uires either a 5 mintue taxi ride or a 15-20 minute bike ride to get to. As simple as this seems, it is much harder when you have to rally up the same students who can barley make it to my class, which is no more than a 5 minute walk away for most. Last week was the second time that I had successfully gotten most of my students there to work on it. Since everyone, including myself, was in such a hurry to get it completed since doing so would mean not having to come back, the drawling of the uncompleted countries was hurried, as was the painting of them that followed. As a result of the hurriedness, and my inability to supervize everyone at once, all of Eastern Europe and half of Asia was painted the color of the ocean. Oh the joys of learning!
Well, I'm off to unstick myself from the couch and shower some sweat off. Until next time...
The desert sun is very unlike any other I have ever come close to experiencing. It is as if a giant laser beam from space were to come down everyday, frying everything in its path. You can tell when a beam of it is touching you, in that it feels like that part of your body is about to catch on fire. It also does not help to live in a house made of cinder blocks. This has a temperature trapping effect with weather, and in effect turns my house into a refrigerator in the winter, and an oven in the summer. A day of the dealdy rays soaking into my walls leaves me to bake like a roatisserrie chicken.
There are however, tactics that one can take in sure dire conditions. I have bought 2 fans, both of which stay on me constantly, along with a nearby bottle of frozen water, which I am forever filling up and replacing in my freezer. As for sleeping, soaking a sheet in water, and wrapping it around my naked body before lying inches away from the fans, and in front of an open window helps. Another option is to sleep on my roof, which is extremlely refreshing, yet has the drawlback of the sun from hell raising its flesh eating head at 6am, at which point I must quickly run back dowstairs in an effort to keep all of my skin.
My work schedule, while still technically existent, has dwindled down to one class with about 6 students, all of whom I can expect to always be at least 30 to 45 mins late. I suppose I can't blame them, in that the heat has seemed to make everything move in slow motion, and their movement clearly ties into that. As a result I have pushed the starting time for class up a half hour, in hope that the half hour of alotted movement time will be enough to get a full hour and a half out of class. I have also kept in mind that it is their summer vacation, and can't hold it against them if going to my English class isn't at the top of their priorities.
As for the journalism club, which basically consists of the 6 remaining students, it looks like we will get at least get one issue of the Tinejdad Times out before the summer is over. This will hopefully be enough to set an example for my new students that I will get in the fall, and be enough to continue its publication. I will be losing most of my current students in the fall to the Universities they will be attending, which, while a little sad, is a great thing. I can say that everyone of my students who graduated from highschool this year will be going to college. While this is a very small sample group of students from Tinjdad, it is still a much better percentage than my highschool.
The work with the world mural still painfully drags on as well. The hardest part with its completion is undoubtably the fact that it is on the other side of town, and thus req
uires either a 5 mintue taxi ride or a 15-20 minute bike ride to get to. As simple as this seems, it is much harder when you have to rally up the same students who can barley make it to my class, which is no more than a 5 minute walk away for most. Last week was the second time that I had successfully gotten most of my students there to work on it. Since everyone, including myself, was in such a hurry to get it completed since doing so would mean not having to come back, the drawling of the uncompleted countries was hurried, as was the painting of them that followed. As a result of the hurriedness, and my inability to supervize everyone at once, all of Eastern Europe and half of Asia was painted the color of the ocean. Oh the joys of learning!Well, I'm off to unstick myself from the couch and shower some sweat off. Until next time...
3 comments:
Save me a copy of the Tinejdad Times? I'd really like to see how you handled the project.
I expect the searing heat you describe. It's the cold that has me scared. When is the winter season there?
And how much Darija did you learn before arriving? I have two months to study up, but just took my first stab at it yesterday and am intimidated, to say the least.
Hope you're enjoying your summer despite the heat!
"in an effort to keep all of my skin" hahaha... hilarious, mister.
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