Catching Up

These are busy days here at St. Peter Claver High School.

We had 330 students test for 210 spaces and accepted 110 boys and 93 girls. As you can see, that brings us only to 203 students. There are some students on a "second selection" list, and we're having a second test on 22 October. This means that I'm spending time composing a second examination. It also means that I'm spending a lot of time talking to folks whose children weren't chosen ("hakuchaguliwa" is what the sorry news they receive -- "he/she was not chosen"). This is a tough part of the job, for there are stories that tug on the heart.

Preparing for next year's class means hiring teachers, and I've begun reviewing CVs to begin interviews in the next week.

As well, I'm busy reviewing our contract and our compensation package. We want to retain good teachers and have discovered our remuneration and benefits are not as competitive as we thought, so we're trying to address that -- and keep our school fees affordable.

Of course we also face the ongoing challenge of trying to keep at the construction in the face of an outfit that seems to have lost interest, really.

I'm working under a deadline because I head back to the States 8-27 November.

In other news, last evening workers tried to kill a HUGE cobra -- and only managed to wound it. Not only that, we've been seeing and hearing hyenas. So now we have poisonous snakes, genets, mongooses, hyenas, vervets, and baboons -- a veritable wild game park!