End of Semester

On Friday we started end of term tests. Actually, Olivia had a few starting already on Thursday. We had two tests on Friday (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). And the same thing will happen Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Olivia is scheduled to have another test on Thursday morning, but Roxy is not and each class is also having a Christmas party that day. And the test Olivia has on Thursday morning, she took already on Friday. So, that seems a bit confusing. The tests are held in a big room with everyone in the whole school sitting together. People from different forms (grades) are put next to each other to prevent any cheating (e.g. someone in form 5 next to someone in form 2). The test in the morning was scheduled to be two and a half hours, but all the form ones and twos, including Roxy, finished before an hour and a half was up. But, they were not allowed to leave or talk or do anything except sit silently for the next hour or more. The form fours and fives, including Olivia, took most of the time. We think that the form one and two test should have been scheduled for an hour and a half, but the form fives and fours was about good for two and a half hours. Our school is so small that there are no form threes and we have not quite figured out what the 3 form sixes do all day (when they even show up in uniform). We are hoping that Roxy won't be so bored the next few mornings.
~Olivia and Roxy

While the girls are finishing up their term with tests, the classes that we've been teaching are already done. WITC has two weeks of finals, November 30-December 10, but the finals for all of our classes were this past week. So now we are busy grading final papers and exams. The semester ends with a luncheon this Friday, the 11th at the college. Final grades are due on December 17, but we are planning to turn ours in at the luncheon so that we will be able to enjoy our holiday in Tobago the following week. Teaching philosophy has been a very interesting and rewarding experience for me. I'm sure I learned more than my students did this semester. I'm looking forward to next term when I will be more familiar with how the school operates and will also be teaching homiletics (preaching), which is much more in my field.
~Richard

This week I gave one final, had a last class (which did not have a final, only a paper due) and preached today at the Diego Martin Church were we will be attending regularly next semester. It was good to be involved in all those activities, and it is good on Sunday afternoon, to enjoy the completion of them all for the week. Next week I grade final exams and papers.
The other activities dominating our week had to do with the car. Each day the traffic seemed to worsen this week stretching the normal one and a half hour morning commute for Richard to two and a half hours. It climaxed on Thursday morning when a truck refused to yield as he was changing lanes and hit the car. This was shortly after they had stopped to pick up one of the girls' school friends who has begun catching a ride in with us since her family does not have a car. Thankfully no one was injured. The speed at which this happened was a morning crawl. Still, Richard will have a fender to see to next week. Then this morning on our way to church we had our third flat tire since we've arrived. The one that was flat this time was one we had already replaced once. I don't know how much of the problem is the crazy condition of the roads and how much is the condition of the tires. In any case, that will also be something to attend to. When we finished changing the tire (and by we I mean Richard), I called the church to let them know that we would be late. By then the rain had started.. They thanked me for calling and then told me that they were still out of water (now they are in their third week of that) and were also out of electricity. When we did arrive the church service had already begun and the electricity had been restored. Our late arrival was not a big deal in any way to anyone. It's just part of how life works here.
~Barb