Night Duty

Under the full moon, I started off for school, for the rotating weekly night duty.  Walking across the football field, I was amazed that after eight months of residence in this country I was becoming used to walking in the dark, not completely comfortable, but comfortable enough that I do not feel I need a flashlight. 

Reaching the dining hall, I encounter a few students finishing the dishwashing and looked into the hall to ensure that all the duties were attended to.  After the floor was swept, I herded the younger children into the hall, spoke with a few, laughed at a couple, told a few to stop fighting, and played for a few minutes.  Greeting the houseparents who were dispensing medication to some students, getting word that all’s well so far, I took off to check the upper classes as they were supposed to be studying or doing homework.

Class 8 was first, I entered the classroom, greeting the head boy and head girl, as well as the bell ringer (yes I know – a bell ringer at a Deaf school – let’s just not go there), I asked if all was well, and they answered in the affirmative.  Heading into Class 7, I was encountered by a barrage of questions about a vocabulary list, and I spent a bit of time with them going over some of the words.  After exhausting the list, I moved onto Class 6.  The following classes asked me a few questions each, and then I headed to the dorms.  Checking the dorms and sending the few stray students to where they were supposed to be, I reached the end of the school campus, and turned back, passing the school chicken house, through the halfway functioning playground, and then to the temporary Form One classroom.  I looked into the classroom and saw the signs for “problems none” from several students, smiling, I flashed them a thumbs up sign, and then headed to the library to do a bit of work.  I dove into the world of books for an hour or two, organizing the books and jumping back into my childhood with each familiar title. 

Snapping out of the book-induced work haze, I realize that it was time to get everyone back to the dorms as it was getting to the kids’ bedtimes, so I repeated the tour, sending the kids to the opposite direction.  After getting the all’s well and sawa sawas from the houseparents, I set off back across the football field for home, stopping to admire the full moon for a couple of minutes.

All’s well, indeed.