No Power

Today the town of Nagykovacsi, where my school is located, was doing some electrical work. So we were without power all day at school - no computers, no email, no projectors, no lights, no internet. We knew about it in advance. We made our copies the day before. We planned to teach with no computers or projector or internet access. We opened the curtains to let in light. We went on with business as usual (for the most part). And still the complaints!

"I don't like this no electricity thing."

"No computers?!"

"School should have been canceled."

That was all from teachers. Really?! Give me a break. Go to most countries in the world and you don't get advanced warning about power outages. My comment to a colleague moving to China next year when he was frustrated was, "Get used to it."

For me, teaching with the power out made me a bit nostalgic today - an "I miss Kenya" moment. Hearing all the complaints made me miss my old co-workers who would laugh about their interrupted lesson due to black outs and my students who wouldn't blink an eye as generators roared to life, cut off, roared, cut off. Ahhh... How different my life is than it was 9 months ago.