The last three days have been quite hectic — we’ve zipped around to different campuses, getting classroom applications set up and finally receiving our laptops (at last, a school that provides proper flip-to-tablet touchscreen laptops!).
Our school staff bus has quickly turned into quite the morning social, shuttling us off to the Boys’ or Girls’ Campus. I’m based at the Boys’ Campus. I’ll talk about the labs in a later post — needless to say, they are very well appointed, and it’s the first time I’ve been in a school lab with all the proper safety paraphernalia installed.
Interestingly, instead of going to a clinic for our health checks, the clinic came to us — in the form of a truck. Everything was neatly arranged in a production-line style: in one end, out the other. All the tests — blood work, X-rays, HIV, Hepatitis B, TB, and more — were done in under 10 minutes.
The bank also comes to you to open an account, right at your apartment, and the school even handles the ID application. Now I just need to do my fingerprints on Monday, and then everything will be set.
Amid all this activity, there still needs to be time for cleaning and errands. Luckily, the local grocer on the corner delivers until midnight via WhatsApp, though I don’t mind strolling down myself. Anything further, though, and you risk heat exhaustion. Here, almost everything can be delivered straight to your apartment — groceries, massages, cleaning, laundry and ironing, manicures, pedicures, haircuts, even blood sampling. Competition among providers is high. That said, for me, the most economical option has been the stroll to the corner shop, especially for household goods, which are cheaper there.
All in all, life here is proving to be a blend of fast-paced efficiency and surprising convenience. Each day brings a new adjustment, but also a sense of how quickly one can settle into a very different rhythm.
The main image is an aerial view of the primary school. The tent-like structures are the large indoor play areas and the staff accommodation, located just behind the school, top right in the image.
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