Planning Ahead

On Monday 5^th March I had the following conversation in the booking office of Weesam Ferries:

Matthew: Can I buy an advanced ferry ticket for 8^th April

Ticket Salesman: Yes, what date?

Matthew: 8^th April

Ticket Salesman: Ok sir, 8^th March

Matthew: no, 8^th April.

Ticket Salesman: Yes sir, 8^th March

Matthew: No, 8^th April.

Ticket Salesman: 8^th April?

Matthew: Yes.

Ticket Salesman: you can’t buy tickets that far in advance

Matthew: But it is only a month ahead

Ticket Salesman: Yes, but it isn’t possible

Without doubt the aspect of life here which I have found most difficult to cope with has been the lack of organisation and planning ahead. The total lack of forward planning here is truly phenomenal.

When we arrived at DBTC in October we were asked us to teach English and Maths and to put together a curriculum for these subjects. Naturally we asked for more details. How many weeks is the course? We don’t know. When are the school holidays? We haven’t decided yet. Can we see a list of the public holidays when the students won’t be in? There isn’t any list. When will the Semester end? We don’t know yet. Can we see their exam papers from last semester? No, we haven’t got them anymore.

As I write we are unsure as to whether or not the students will be having a week’s holiday or not starting less than a week from now.

At the beginning of April we were eventually given a date by which all the different courses must be finished, the final deadline for everything to be finished and completed was Friday 11^th May. So very diligently Steph and I planned our lessons and exams, leaving enough time to fit in any re-sits, to be completely wrapped up by this date. Not so anybody else! To speak of a deadline in May at the beginning of April is just too far ahead. Some teachers immediately reacted and gave their students an immediate final exam finishing their courses prematurely; others seem likely to carry on way beyond this already passed final deadline.

Another example of this extreme lack of looking ahead can be seen in their attitude to maintenance. The building we live in suffers from an infestation of termites. Little piles of wood dust periodically appear in little piles fallen from the ceiling, this dust is the result of termites eating into the wooden ceilings. When we first arrived we took to reporting these piles to the Salesian in charge of maintenance assuming that, if the ceilings of the first floor in a two-story building were being eaten, then it was quite serious, he seemed uninterested. Maintenance work tends to be left until there is a crisis rather than problems solved earlier.

Such disorganisation permeates life here to an extent which I find quite difficult to cope. One lesson I have certainly learned is that I have a very low tolerance for disorder and chaos!........aaargh