One of "Those" Days (the surprisingly good kind)...

... begins with begrudgingly rolling out of bed after snoozing for upwards of 30 minutes.  There is a relatively 'ordinary' breakfast of bread with butter and jam. Twenty minutes later there is a staff meeting in the faculty room.  Mundane stuff.  Class is also kind of mundane, except for the fleeting (yet somehow very powerful) "a-ha!" -moment which is the realization that at 8:30am, all of the grade 8 learners are REALLY zoned- (zen'ed- ?) out and fully absorbed in their math assignment.  Immediate result: a glimpse of happiness.  One class later in the faculty room, a very intensely happy emotion arises which is accompanied by the mental phrase: 'I enjoy teaching'.  The afternoon consists of cancelled classes due to the "sports day" which was supposed to take place earlier in the week; too much rain prevented said sports day until now.  Ever get upset about cancelled classes?  Nope!  Not me!  Children are running around, yelling and being merry.  Comraderies are flourishing, a healthy competitive spirit is enabled and is enveloping the school. Not too bad for a work day.

It wouldn't be one of "those" days unless it consisted of extreme bouts of randomness.  Chasing donkeys out of the mahangu fields felt kinda random.  SMS'ing friends to share news of being excited about said donkey chase: random.  Climbing in a tree after donkey chase to read a book and sharing news of being in a tree to friends: random.  Sharing said news again in German; you get the picture.

It was the kind of day in which you randomly find a swarm (read: thousands) of dragonflies hovering over your house.  No wonder the mosquitos aren't biting today!  The dragonfly swarm entices you to run in to grab a camera; documenting random dragonfly swarms can be fun and exciting.

Woes about starting a secondary project? No problem!  Not if a random tatekulu (old dude) walks up to you and asks you to type his CV (resume) on the computer, and your response is "I won't type it for you... but I will help YOU to type it".  Result: computer literacy class #1, and the beginning of a potentially fun experiment.

Then there is one of "those" runs where everything feels right; you haven't ran in a while and just gotta pull a Forest Gump and start runnin'. One of "those" runs (when it happens to take place on one of "those" days) means that you don't care if everyone is still staring at you for being weird and running.  You wave at these people because hey, you are running and it feels wonderful.  They wave back.  You smile.  Everyone is a winner today.

In one of "those" runs, your 9th grade learner drops her hoe, leaves her family who is busy cultivating, and runs with you for the next 2km or so.  You become aware that you will forever see this learner as "the girl who dropped her hoe and came out for a run with her maths teacher".  Her neighbor accompanies us on a bicycle; her friend joins the run as well.  We laugh at their being tired.  They laugh at my shoes (Vibrams).  The people who waved earlier are laughing at the slightly larger group of runners.  They wave again.  They are drunk, because they've been at the Kuka shop all afternoon. 

Who cares?  You giggle at the randomness and wave again.  Everyone is smiling, because everyone is a winner today.

The run culminates with a sprint home to grab the camera.  The sky is about to be on fire and the clouds are beautiful today.  There is an AMAZING flower that looks like it is also on fire.  Result: a picture of the flower (which looks like it's on fire) against the sunset-lit sky (which also looks like it's on fire).  In the meantime, my body is on fire (due to the running), and I happened to bring a bottle with ICE in it and melted ice-water.  Score.  Win?  Whatever.





One of "those" days ends quite peacefully.  A bucketbath under a full moon, perhaps.  Maybe a BOMB meal consisting of lentils, rice and potatoes, which was prepared the day before.  An abundance of fire-flies, which haven't been around very often.  An email from a friend containing new music... (you know who you are).  The day ends with the realization that tomorrow could also be one of "those" days; fatigue has set in, lets try to not give ourselves a reason to snooze for upwards of 30 minutes tomorrow morning.  Wouldn't wanna miss out on some prime randomness.