collaborate this

‘Help us, teacher.’  Ten minutes into the final exam for SOCI100 Oman Society 16 student heads are up looking to and fro like prairie dogs.  They had been fasting for ten hours by exam time and for many it was their second exam of the day.  In my humble opinion they were in no shape, physically or mentally, to sit down and think independently.  Yesterday I emailed the director and cc’d the ten teachers who would invigilate this notoriously difficult or irrelevant exam and suggested students be allowed to collaborate with each other.  It’s not cheating, it’s collaborating.  No mind this was the last exam I’d proctor in the asylum but it was the fourth time I witnessed oblivious and obstreperous behavior from a monotonous youth who didn’t care enough to listen to their amiable instructor for 16 weeks.

If section 4 scores higher than the rest of the sections I'll argue collaborative exam taking should be considered a new norm.  Those who knew a few of the answers shared them with others.  They all passed because they worked together.  If, however, they all fail, it will demonstrate what bothered me for two years; students  copying other’s work regardless if it is wrong or right.  What does this say about the student I’ve tried to impart a little bit of wisdom? 

This morning I had the car washed, filled up the tank, had new red seat sheet covers put on and had the oil changed and all the old Honda’s liquids filled.  All before noon may I add.  While the young Deccan was putting on the covers I looked at the car to my left and saw smoke blowing out of the cracked passenger window.  A few minutes later the young Omani man got out and introduced himself to me.  Sam.  Sam I am…nice to meet you.  Sam had amateurish tattoos of a syringe and an anchor on his arms.  On four left knuckles were four block letters.  I asked who SHAE was.  He couldn’t explain. 

I think Muslims should practice Ramadan the way Catholics practice Lent.  You can fast the way we have it outlined here, but if you want to fast your way that’s ok because it doesn’t matter what others think, what matters is your relationship with God in the process. 

The routers in the hall are off for the second straight day.  Yesterday I bumped into the landlord and I can’t help but wonder now if there is a connection here.  I just hope it comes back.  Another weekend is coming and I’d like to have access to the world. 

So, we’re down to 15 days left in the grotto slash dump slash flat slash litter box slash shithole.  Next week I’ll take the car to see a mechanic recommended by a colleague and ask him to check the once in a while squeaky right wheel brakes and I’ll ask if there is a sensor that shuts the engine off when it gets too hot and if so, have it replaced.  I can’t sell a car to anyone if I haven’t made an effort to get everything right with it even in a place like this where mechanics work on the sidewalk and use tire jacks to get under the engine.

The young man’s father in Sarangkot scanned and sent me a few dozen English questions and asked me to answer them.  The young man had already answered them I learned later, but I sent the answers back to the questions I understood because there were some written so badly I didn’t know how to answer. I learned a few years back if I point out the errors in the English textbooks the locals become terribly defensive and try, lamely, to explain this is how English is written.  Until the government issues work visas for native English speakers to teach in the government schools, the errors will perpetuate into fossilized unfortunates.  Ke garne? Chainakegarne. Sab kuchmalega.

I’ll finish Dalyrimple’s latest tour de force this weekend and today read the intro to Kay Redfield Jamison’s manic-depressive autobiography ‘An Unquiet Mind’.  I picked this up for a quarter at the Rochester Public Library and I don’t know if I’ll get through it, we’ll see, but when I flipped through the pages I discovered four pressed red maple leaves.  Wow.  I forgot all about these.  I was gonna give one to Kelly.  I don’t know what I was gonna do with the others and I don’t know what I’ll do with them now.