Sitting under a mango tree

Now and then, I sit back and wonder...what the heck am I doing here? Anyways, blame it on this andropausal phenomenon, this self questioning has been haunting me more and more lately. But then, it’s been kind of a crazy week. Make that a crazy two weeks.

The problem lies in the simple fact that two weeks ago we came back from the highs of Yaakaar and landed, or rather crashed back to life in Conakry, alone, just the two of us, physically exhausted but emotionally replenished after spending two weeks with our friends and colleagues in Senegal. We hit the ground running and immediately had to jumpstart another term of the school year. Report cards, parent-teacher conferences, teacher evaluations, school board meetings, budget planning, resources ordering... you know, all the stuff that a school administrator needs to do that has absolutely nothing to do with teaching kids. So I guess the time and circumstances were ripe for the more than usual plethora of those self doubting ‘what the heck am I doing here’ moments. One of these moments especially comes to mind. It happened while sitting under a mango tree.

Thursday is my turn to supervise swimming at our campus pool. No big deal, I usually sit in the shade under the mango tree next to our pool and just watch the kids having a ball. Sometimes, I have the urge to join them in the water, especially this week when temperatures reached 44 degrees. But then, I end up not getting in the water because, by the time I regain consciousness, swimming time is up and its time to get out of the water. Maybe I should explain.

For some odd reason, although the pool is open after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Thursday afternoons seem to be the time when most of the Kindergarten kids choose to go swimming (or rather floating). I’m starting to think that maybe there’s an organized plot out there by these kiddies to see how long can the director last before he passes out. Maybe I should explain some more.

These small ankle biters all show up in their bathing suits, which some of them wear backwards, (don’t ask) and always bring along an ever increasing array of very colorful floating paraphernalia. Nelda, my favorite little non swimmer, showed up with these humungous water wings this week. Some of you may remember Nelda from one of last October’s posts. He’s our littlest and youngest student and, back then, he scored a winning goal for the opposing team at our first ever school-wide soccer tournament. Nelda is still a bit of a space cadet when it comes to sports...or maybe he’s just too young to appreciate the intricacies of kicking a ball and running without falling down. The picture at the top of this blog is of Nelda and I (Nelda is the one with the orange t-shirt). He had just run a race at last Saturday’s Sports Day, where the temperature was a mere 38 degrees, which explains why I'm sweating and he’s sucking up that Caprisone with a vengeance. I had just told Nelda that he had run well and that he was my hero. Nelda ran in the wrong direction, but that’s ok, he still scored points for cuteness for his team, the red team. By the way, he’s wearing an orange t-shirt because he thinks orange is like red. I think Nelda is the coolest thing that’s happened to me this year. Anyways, back to me hyperventilating under the mango tree.

I may be wrong but every week, the number of these floating apparatus seem to be increasing and they appear to be getting bigger and huger, necessitating more and more wind to blow them up. Again, I reiterate, I think there’s a plot out there. Sometimes, my lungs can’t take it. By the time I finish blowing up all those water wings, I’ve worked up a sweat and start hyperventilating. It’s quite a sight...the director of the school hyperventilating in front of a line of 4 and 5 year old kids waiting for their water wings to be blown up. Hey, someone has to do it, and lets face it, they are not paying me the big bucks for nothing.

So here I was, sitting under a mango tree, recuperating from a hyperventilating seizure, induced by the blowing up of swimming apparatus. Like I said, what the heck am I doing here?