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Sunday, July 19, 2009

In Desperate Need of a Teacher

At first I had decided to wait until October when I move in to the new school building or even possibly until next year to hire another teacher. Right now I'm teaching and Hadijah assists me. Recently, though, I've noticed that I'm not having enough time to get everything done that I need to get done. When Jacque has hospital appointments, Hadijah is left alone with the kids. I don't have time to get all the administrative and social work stuff done that I need to get done.
So, I decided that I would go ahead and hire a teacher so that I would have the mornings free to do other things besides teach. Another advantage to this would be that Jacque would start differentiating school from home.
I hired Teacher Sarah. She was to begin last week on Monday. I let her read all about the curriculum that I'm using, explained how we all worked together at the school (everyone does everything), and let her know what times she would be working and how much she was to be paid.
She agreed but promptly began complaining on Monday morning. My kids were not disciplined. They don't sit still. Of course they don't. They're mostly 2-3 years old. Then she told Hadijah that I wasn't paying them enough. I'm paying the same as other schools in the area but possibly because of my American nationality she thinks I should pay more forgetting that the school is ministering to children who can't pay school fees so I don't make any money from the school to pay her or anyone else.
The next day she (Tuesday), Teacher Sarah informed me that her job was to teach. She doesn't take children to the toilet or wipe mucus from their noses. And forget helping to serve lunch or mopping at the end of the day.
On Wednesday I wasn't around but my cook (who would make an exceptional spy) informed me that when taking the children outside Hadijah and Teacher Sarah sat down to converse leaving the children to climb the walls, literally. It happened to be the cooks son doing the climbing as she screamed from the 4th floor balcony of my home for him to get down.
On Thursday, Teacher Sarah asked me when I would be giving raises. Am I nuts, or was that too early to be asking for an increase in salary, especially when you've done very little to show that you are worth the pay.
On Friday, when she arrived at work, I asked Teacher Sarah if she had brought the book I had lent here to be returned. I figured she would at least be responsible with that since I had told her I would be needing it over the weekend. Of course, the book had been forgotten at home. I asked her to go and get it. I gave her enough money to use a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to go and come back. That should have taken her thirty minutes at the most. Three hours later she returned. I think she decided to walk and keep the money. Upon returning, she told me that she was tired and needed some tea. At that time, children were heading outside for their recess so I went outside with them.
While outside, I was told (by the LC of our village) of a couple of kids that were sleeping on the street nearby. He wanted me to come and talk to them and check out their family situation to see if there was anything I could do to help. (They are now under my sponsorship program living with another family that I work with and will begin boarding school in third term which starts in September).
Back to the point of this post. When I returned, I found the kids back inside but teacher Sarah was asleep on one of the desks. I decided right then that this probably was not going to work. I told her that I didn't think I could afford her services so she should not return on Monday.
Please God let me find a young, energetic teacher that loves and cares about children. Someone who won't be concerned so much about money but will have a heart to be there for these kids.

1 comment:

Shelia H. said...

Be encouraged to know that God has the right teacher for His work there that has the right spirit. It is obvious that Teacher Sarah is not this person. I'll be praying for the quick manifestation of this person that loves God first, and then loves His people and these precious children.