Bohemian Rhapsody

Last Friday teaching. There was such a Friday buzz in the air. Amy and I have often wondered if the kids know we’re leaving them as abruptly as next Wednesday – I think they must because they’re putting together something very exciting for us that we’re not allowed see. I don’t know if the boys’ class has much to do with it but I know the girls have been rehearsing for the last half hour before we go home for the last while, so for the last few days we’ve been going to the room next door where the girls sew, and making sweat rags to pass the time. It keeps us occupied, and it’s fun in a way, the sewing teachers says that the rags will be something she can remember us by. God, it’s sad.

Here, look I’ll get to all this at the end. I’ve got to get through the day without getting all teary-eyed on you, so I’ll start with the class. I took the boys this morning. We did revision over the tenses we’ve been doing – I got them to come up one by one to write on the board. Today and yesterday we’ve gone back to the marker and the whiteboard, which made a fun transition. One of the kids who’s only joined our class since the start of the week called Shadab has only one arm – his left arm ends in a stump a couple of inches down from his shoulder. He leans on it when he’s writing and I’ve seen him hold pens in his armpit if he’s using his right arm for something else.

I got him to come up to the board today to write something and I handed him the marker. He looked at it for a second and I realised I’d left the lid on and he couldn’t take it off – it gave me such a jolt. I took the lid off and gave it back to him, but for a second I was kicking myself that it happened. I don’t know when or how he lost his arm because he’s only been here for a while, and the teachers don’t know either. It’s more common here than it is at home, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less big a deal. He seems pretty used to it, but it gets you thinking about how debilitating it must be. It was just another one of those shock-moments that are so common when you’re over here.