It is Wednesday its short periods and I lost 2 of them to the FLAG RAISING CEREMONY. This was actually a nice event, with all the middle year grades (5,6,7,8) attending a ceremony to show respect to the Colombian Flag, The Union Jack and the School Flag, with the relevant national anthems. It also highlighted 1 pupil from each mentor group for an award as a responsible pupil. I had chosen the pupil from my Mentor group which felt kind of nice.
In class I am trying now to get kids through basic machine tools and losing periods like this throws everything else into a level of chaos.(and buggers up my planning) and of course I have to take into account that next week I lose classes on Thursday and Friday for "Culture Day" They are teaching the kids Cricket !! (Albeit we made the bats or should we call them paddles, so I can't really moan too much)
So with all that going on you'd think I wouldn't have time to worry about anything else...
I went in early this morning to make sure the department workshop was set up for the few classes I did have and within the first 5 minutes I bent down to pick up a drill bit and heard a resounding ripping sound... You know that moment when you tentitavely reach down to check the damage, only to discover your greatest fear, its not a couple of stitches its actually like the grand canyon ! Grabbing the stapler and dashing off to the staff toilet I had to improvise and stapled the gaping hole together. This allowed me to survive the day, However I can not recommend this course of action to any but the most desperate, staples and sensitive body parts are not a good mix...
When I got back to the flat I repaired the torn seam properly - actually thats probably not true as any self respecting seamstress and my Grandmother in particular would be turning in their graves if they had seen the Frankenstein stitching I used to repair the offending garment. Sewing is not my best skill the fact I actually own a small travelling sewing kit is just as shocking as my skill with a needle.
It happened by accident, I was out and saw one for sale in a shop but didn't buy it then a few days later I was in another store of the same group and searched high and low to find the sewing kit I had seen in the first store, none was to be found, so eventually I took my hat in my hand and asked the nice assistant if she spoke English, alas it wasn't to be, but she wasn't going to be defeated on the thought of a sale (even though she hadn't a clue what I wanted)she led me to 3 other assistants who all failed to react to the standard Hablo Inglese, but they were equally keen not to be defeated and soon I had the manageress and store handyman as well, all looking expectantly at me for this massive sale I was going to make. Bravely I held out my arm and calmly pointed to the careful stitching around the cuff while miming the art of sewing with a needle. To a great gasp of sudden awareness the manageress disappeared off into the back shop before returning with a small travelling sewing kit at the ridiculous price of 2000 pesos or 50p. But after todays trouser incident it was well worth the effort and the extortionate cost.
Sometimes buying things with sign language and miming goes sadly wrong though !! I went into my favourite store Pan Americana a few weeks back and asked an assistant for BluTack, all I got in return was a blank stare - so I mimed pushing a bit of BluTack onto the counter with my finger.. Ah sudden understanding he led me off to an aisle where he proudly pointed to what I needed - a small portable ink pad for placing finger prints onto documents. Oh well I didn't want BluTack anyways, finger printing is much more fun.....
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