Lizzards and spiders and snakes oh my!

This week has been rather uneventful. The most interesting happenings
have been when I walked into my kitchen and saw a decent sized lizzard
(picture forthcoming) hanging out near the ceiling above the sink. Not
knowing if the lizzard was dangerous I called some boys over to see it
and instead of just looking they promptly killed it and took it
outside for me. Later in the week I killed a harmless wall spider with
legs that would have exceeded a 3 inch radius circle. I gave it a
chance to live by scaring it outside because of a recent truce that
was called due to an infestation of hardshelled bugs. Once the sun
heats everything up, they come by the hundred through the cracks
around the door. The biggest problem with these bugs is that they
smell awful when you step on them, and there are so many its
impossible to avoid crushing a dozen every time I come home from
school. And the snake, I was rushing around to get the grade 10
classes organized to write a test during the afternoon study time on
Wednesday. After talking with a teacher I walked across the sand
towards a classroom and there about 2 meters in front of me was a
snake, acting like it was about to make its way into the classroom.
I'm glad it was moving because its skin was the color of the sand. I
quickly decided my best course of action was to tell the kids that
there was a snake outside there classroom. My judgement was
immediately confirmed as three boys ran outside with a shoe, a stick
and a rock and killed the snake while the girls fulfilled their role
by screaming. Of course this commotion brought all of the other
classes outside to see what had happened, but that was a small price
to pay for the killing of a 2-3 ft long snake.

Academically the week went well. I got through some good lessons with
the grade 9 classes and am about ready to leave chemistry and work on
physics for the rest of the year. I am eager to switch gears but more
than a little bit nervous about trying to do basic algebra to
calculate work and resistance. Grade 10 classes wrote a test that I
haven't marked but I expect to see everything from perfect to zero. I
did attend a meeting to set the exam for the end of the term and was
given the responsibility of compiling the questions we agreed on
because I am the only one with the computer skills to do the job. When
I was in town I made a turn by the post office, nothing in my box yet,
but I asked the lady at the counter if she could look in the back room
to see if there was a package addressed to the school's private bag.
After a little bit of confusion I walked out of the post office with a
package from my parents that was postmarked January 31st. And I didn't
even have to show ID to get the package, now that might have something
to do with it coming from America but still... so now I'm sporting a
Tulsa Football Conference USA Champions t-shirt, jello is in the
refridgerator and I'm making chili tomorrow.

Right now I'm imagining what would happen if the kids that are
watching a movie in the library right now were at a real theater. My
guess... most of them would get kicked out by the management for being
too noisy and the rest would get beat up in the parking lot for the
same offence.

I hope you all are excited about the World Cup this month, I'd like to
know what Jim Rome is saying about it. We're in a tough group but our
side is pretty strong as long as we stay away from injuries. The most
interesting conversation I had this week was with a teacher who also
has a farm who is planning towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
He is betting that commodity prices (most importantly beef) will go up
with the huge surge in tourism in the region. Hopefully it will work
out well for him because he is planning to have several hundred small
and large stock ready for the feedlots and butchers as demand forces
prices up.