Office practice

One mouth before the school year will finish, five new teachers were hired. Their influence on the school is positive. Some of the classrooms were split up, it means less pupils in one class. My Grade 1 stayed as a whole but got a new teacher.

            I moved back to my sunny office to continue the paperwork – copying, typing and printing. My one or two offices has electronic equipment specially from Germany. I suppose, they came to Africa as a kind of charity help. Like most of these presents, it lives here in really different terms than it should be. People here can scarcely use it and do not care for it correctly. I think, this is fate for all electronic equipment, which is sent to Africa. African people are happy to get it, but unfortunately they don´t have as big a relationship to it as the people who bought it. Always we value more the things which we bought ourselves than the things which we received. In the same way work all the offices in City of Hope – for example the German endings are plugged in the British sockets.  

 For more fun sr. Prisca took from my office one of my two extension cables and put it in the conference hall for a new fridge. For the one which is left I had to plug my two copying machine, the computer and the monitor. My office is a square and from each of the three sides are coming cables which meet in the middle of the room. Here the extension cable continues to the socket on the left wall. Moving around the office is more interesting now, because one wrong step and my computer or monitor will fall down on the floor. Some days the situation is more critical, because the floor is waxed. I still don´t understand why African people wax the stony floor, probably only to have some fun to watch people fall down. 

Fortunately my difficult situation was solved. In one day the computer was stopped working and the copying machine added on three lines to every copy made so you couldn´t read anything. The second copying machine I can not use it, because the toner for it is really expensive.

Both of the machines were checked by a local IT technologist. With each he spent some time, but nothing changed. The computer was installed again, but he forgot to back-up the data and all of my three months work was gone.

Because the school year is ending the African secretary is busy. I type and print exams for all school. During this work I learnt a lot about Zambian history and geography, and also I improved my English vocabulary and studied really original African English. For example in all documents they write numbers by numeral and next it lexical form.

Typing minutes of a meeting is really popular in Africa. There I can read every detail which was discussed during the meeting. Also I´m fascinated of the number of copies which I have to print for these reports. Seem like it is a really popular reading for the teachers.

Also local tradition is morning roll call of the pupils in front of the school, where they sing the national anthem. We have two groups of pupils. First primary education – they have roll call in front of the school. And second secondary education – they have roll call in the school yard. There they listen to morning talks of the teachers and singing the national anthem. My office is located exactly between these two places. Both groups are singing the same song, but each in different time. Often they sing the anthem twice, because first time it was not loud enough or not correct. Its mean I have a music accompaniment for my typing and the Zambian national anthem I already know very well.

A few days ago the printer joined the equipment mass strike. It decided to print only one page from each document again and again. This situation continued a few weeks. I think, here is nobody who can repair it. In my offices already were all European male volunteer, because computers and electronic stuff is only for man (African opinion), but nobody fixed it.

Sometimes is may be better, let Africans go their own way. For example they cut the grass, which started to grow quicker with rain season, by scissors. It is rally useful -  the scissors they can repair and if not, you can buy a new one everywhere.