Classroom Daze & Cuban Cigars

Well.... Classroom space and punctuality continue to be extremely frustrating. This morning (mind you classes are supposed to start at 7:00 am) my regularly allotted classroom was taken by the nurses again, apparently because they need it more! Roaming around looking for classrooms every morning so far has not been fun, but seems to be part of the routine. I could not find any classrooms so I had to go the Dept Head again and ask for help… He walked with me down the hallways looking for a room and we bumped into the nursing faculty. A very short, intense conversation ensued… I was an outside bystander in what sounded like – at least from the tone – a very uncomfortable conversation (they were talking in in Kinyarwandan) between the two of them. It was obvious, I lost my argument for a classroom... so I was told that, "hey this is Africa... we don’t keep time well and everything is always negotiable."  What does that mean, I said? My Department head said, she (i.e., nursing faculty) told me that perhaps the room will be available this afternoon. So I asked, what I do with the class and my class time until then? Answer - give them a reading assignment and go back to your desk and wait till the afternoon... WOW - this can get real frustrating very fast... but, hey... I am in Africa... one could get the impression very quickly if not careful that no one really seems to expect much. The frustrating thing is that I spent time a week in advance preparing an hour-by-hour time grid for the week’s course content. The intent of the time grid was to avoid this exact situation. I was told if I create such a time grid turn it in an advance my rooms can be scheduled accordingly… I did that, but it did not help. So here I am, sitting in my office writing a blog, when I’m scheduled to be teaching… But, there are no classrooms available right now. So wait I must… (and I am typing in MS Word, cuz the internet on campus is down ;-)

Interestingly, on our way back to our desks (me and my dept head) he commented to me that this type of thing is exactly why "Africa" (specifically Rwanda) will never develop beyond a “developing country”... I nodded in agreement and bit my tongue…. 

Sitting in my office now for 20 minutes… A Student just walked in and said he found an open classroom. Yipee! We have classroom and I’ve got a good 90 minutes left of the morning time block…

Well… I made them skip their tea break, but I was able to get a good 90 minutes of lecture in – even did some clinical practicum as well… I feel like a professor on speed… trying to get in as much as possible whenever I have time – cuz you never know if your schedule will be honored tomorrow or not. Every lecture feels like a “last meal.”


Homework trouble

Here’s an interesting little scenario. Last Monday I assigned the entire class a reading assignment of a systematic review from a physiotherapy Journal.  I checked with them on Monday that they received it – of course they all verified that it was in their inbox. I double checked with them on Tuesday afternoon before I dismissed them and reminded them that Wednesday (today) we were going to have in class discussion about the reading and to be prepared to discuss it! Of course at no time on Monday or Tuesday was there any resistance or any attempt to even communicate with me that it would be difficult or hard to access the reading. I showed up today - for our second time block  - (we had a class this time) prepared to discuss the reading and of course – you guessed it – no one was prepared to discuss the reading. With a little bit of inquiry I was told – by the students – that it is not possible for the students to get the article because the computer labs and or their emails were not working properly… They tried to pull one over on me! But I was prepared…  I had written five short essay questions based on the reading assignment. I simply handed out the questions and said you have one hour to answer them. I will be back after lunch I expect every answer to be completed. Well, I show up after lunch… And wouldn’t you know it they were sitting in the classroom with laptops, tablets, copies of reading, all out in front of them frantically answering questions. Of course, you should’ve heard the moan when I walked in the room as to how difficult these five questions were! I chuckled, laughed, maybe even bellowed a bit… Told them they were easy and that there five minutes to complete them.

Once they realized I was serious… I gave them a very stern “come to Jesus” talk about not lying to me and trying to take advantage of me just because I am a white man who doesn’t know anything.  It went well! Because of my BGSU ATEP students J I am experienced at giving “come to Jesus” talks to students!!! They were sufficiently scared and made nervous, but the proof will come Friday when they have to present their group projects!! (I’ll let you know how it goes)

BTW - In that five minutes I gave them to complete the assignment I went to the department heads office told him about the reading assignment debacle and he just chuckled and told me to hold their nose to the grindstone and if they will try to get away with everything that they can and that I should not give them an inch. But, he did say to me again – note this is the second time today – that “this is Africa” and it just takes time to get things done. Even if I give everyone an hour-by-hour time block schedule, a week in advance of when we are lecturing, when we’re doing clinicals, when we are doing readings, when we are doing class discussions, etc., etc., etc.… We still can’t function and operate smoothly, on time, or on schedule.

The beauty of all this… Is that I’m learning to be much more flexible and easy going… well, maybe not easy going… but I am having fun! It may not sound like it, based on my blogs, but this truly a great place!  AND my faculty colleagues are wonderful! Extremely talented, helpful, and intelligent and have many of the same frustrations with students that we have in the States.

and one more thing... we all (the whole dept.) got one pack if sticky notes and 3 pens today... I think that is the allotment for the semester and it was a big deal for the faculty to get these "gifts" from the institute. They were hand delivered to each of us one at a time by the Dept chair.  Makes you wonder about who really needs collective bargaining... I am glad American faculty are not so spoiled and that we have no sense of entitlement :-)

Gifts from the Dept. head, hand delivered with a smile!!

Lunch
On a much brighter side note I did find my way to the Serena Hotel today for lunch! What an oasis and paradise – I can’t believe I have not found this place sooner. It is literally just across the street from the Institute and it is a very nice hotel – very nice even by American standards! The only downside was at lunch cost $20… But the salad bar was amazing, cheese and wine bar even – and steak… Chicken and beef kebabs… All on the lunch buffet and I was able to eat it overlooking a very nice hotel swimming pool! And bonus of all bonuses – the hotel has a wine and cigar bar! They even have genuine, authentic, the real deal Cuban cigars… Of course they are $40 apiece, but hey, just knowing I can get a real Cuban cigar and enjoy it in a nice environment… means I don’t really need a classroom after all!