Crazies and cheats

In my area there are two people that I am always a little scared when I meet either they are happy and the encounter is neutral or good or they are not and yell at me for no good reason. The first is “culture man” he is an old man that sometimes mines the rock from the hill next to the school and has built a house next to the school. He is a little crazy and typically his antics involve speaking the tribal language either he is happy that I am able to greet with it and tries to show me to anyone nearby or he mumbles it mixed with Swahili and English and complains that I haven’t learned the local language. Sometimes he is drunk and wants something like beer or a cigarette, I usually offer to buy him vegetables this rarely makes him happy but usually placates him. This week his antics went a little further than I was comfortable with. When I first saw him I could tell he was intoxicated and at first the greetings went well, but then two year old he was holding wouldn’t give me the proper greeting which made him unhappy. Then he gave the child to me and walked me towards the mother fortunately not far away. This was a bit out of my comfort zone but probably I was happy. Then he asked for a cigarette which of course I offered vegetables, when we reached the turn for store that sell them he tried to pull me up to the store was stupid and held my place which of course made him more determined and angry. His grip became firm and I contemplated actually pushing him or hitting him but thought it is never justifiable for me to fight an old man additionally since he regularly does manual labor (which typically builds a strong upper body) and I regularly do only mental labor should push come to shove I may find myself on the ground. So simply continued to stand my ground and verbally discourage him. This is when some others came riding on one of the few tractors. They were not pleased to see the crazy man pestering me and stopped him from grabbing my arm and told him to leave me alone. When he tried to come back they again interfered and told me to move on. Culture man tried to follow me but they pushed him off the road. It sad that he was treated this way but his persistence was definitely unsettling. On the plus it is very clear that the villagers have my back.

The other person is crazy man with a gun, who speaks incoherent English. He is a night guard at a farm nearby and on a good day he buys me soda and on a bad day he chews me out for no reason. It is never pleasant seeing a man carrying a riffle unhappy with you, at least he never threatens with it or plays with it, so I feel safe. Just another oddball in the neighborhood.

This week was midterms and I have earned a reputation as a vigilant invigilator. I started with the form 4 A’s and they were pretty good I only caught one or two cheating. The form 1 A were the worst as is typical. I caught cheat notes on four students desks not to mention several people giraffing. When I entered the form 3 A classroom there were murmurs of “Sodoku” which is apparently my codename. Before filled half the board with the exam I caught three people with notes, each time there was silence as I approached the student and laughter after I pulled their cheat notes. Although, formally when the students laughed I felt angry that they would laugh when somebody got caught; this time I very nearly laughed too; whether their laughter changed tune or subliminally got that in the game of cat and mouse the cat just caught the mouse, I’m not sure. But after the rough start there was no whispering and at the end I caught one student with notes causing the rest to quickly hand in their papers. For the last class the form 3 B students there were again the “Sodoku” whispers, and even a few gasps/groans. However, they were very well behaved and aside from a few early whispers I didn’t catch any cheaters, but would not be surprised to find that some still managed to cheat. Regardless, cheating has dramatically decreased since one year ago when there was a whisper when ever you turned your head and even an answer sheet was seen thrown through the window.