Skipping Thanksgiving

I know that the title sounds ungreatful and maybe even unAmerican and it is certainly a bit misleading but this year we will not be having a big Thanksgiving meal at our house. It just seems silly and more than a little wasteful (waist-full?) to make the turkey and fixings when it will just be the three of us on a pretty regular school day.

I guess what makes it easier is that we really already had our Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. We got together with some American teachers who live up the mountain and ate turkey (which Amanda prepared, cooked and transported the hour and a half trip) and all the fixings. We talked and laughed and caught up. We put on silly hats and danced to "Elvira" (a tradition in our host's family). We skipped the games this year due to the drive home but other than that, it was a typical, albeit early, Thanksgiving.

So this Thursday we'll give thanks and talk about being greatful with @. We will likely eat more than we need to - there's never too little food at our house, no matter what the meal - and we'll hopefully be with family on the internet. So it'll still be a good day. (Even if there isn't football on television.)

The one sick parent rule

Amanda and I have an unofficial rule that only one of us is allowed to be sick at a time. Until recently, this is a rule that have been totally in favor of since I, the unhealthier, normally get sick first followed by Amanda's much shorter illness. But now, there are allergies to contend with.

Since moving down the mountain, Amanda has done a great job getting the family to eat better, more nutritional meals. Sure, we indulge some with the occasional bucket of chicken or visit to Neighborhood on the Water (great lemon chicken) but normally this is offset by chickpea and pumpkin soup or Indian vegetables and rice. The end result has been that I may not be in peak physical form - I don't bike or walk to work unlike in Africa - but I do get sick less often.

Our improved diet, however, hasn't been able to stop Amanda from being allergic to something in our yard. When we tore out a downed manggo tree in our yard, Amanda could tell it was going to start soon. But she got a jump on the swelling and spots on her arms through the ample use of drowsiness inducing medicine. So for the last two days, she has fought a valiant but losing battle against waves of "do not opperate heavy machinery-ness." She'll do one more day of heavy medicines today after I get home from classes and hopefully be done with it.

Even dizzy, my wife does a lot. She manages to make meals, do laundry, get her boys off to school, send dessert to the neighbor across the street. She helps @ with homework (yeah, he has homework for preschool). She keeps the houseworker from comepletely rearranging the house. And in between this, she tries to get a couple of minutes in the airconditioning to help keep the swelling down and limit her recovery time. Exhausting.

I try to help out a little here and there and don't do nearly enough. And still I'm tired. I guess this is what I deserve for breaking my leg the month before @ was born. I owe her.

Cheaters

This past week I gave four classes their midterm exams. And, not too unexpectedly, I caught students cheating. But what was suprising was that these students were women. Not that I am an authority on the subject but usually I only catch men (boys?) copying answers. When I mentioned this to some of my colleagues, they weren't the least bit shocked. Boys don't care enough to cheat here.

Just a few minutes after the exam was over, I began running through the vocabulary portion of the test and noticed that one student had yet to get a single answer correct. Sure, I'm usually tough but not that tough. Looking more closely, I realized that the reason for the problem was that she had written the answers for the second version of the test - the version that a classmate sitting on either side of her. I was howling mad.

Later, I shared this with Amanda who took on the challenge of identifying who it was that this student cheated off of. With 80 or so students, I thought this was unlikely but within a couple of minutes, the co-cheater was found (their short answers were too alike to be coincidence). I think Amanda has a future in law enforcement.

The next day, I called in both of them where the first student admitted to the crime while the second acknowledged that she allowed but did encourage her friend to cheat. Neither student apologized or even indicated that what they did was wrong.

Both students recieve an F for the exam and the cheater will get an automatic 0 for the course.

Yeah, things are the same all over.