217. Lazy teachers (5/6)

I had been in the rainforest hall for too long. People were going to wonder if I had gone AWOL. I had pretended an extremely important phone call and had squeezed in between the rows of desks with what I hoped was a look of worry, distress even.

Funnily enough as I sat down below the huge palms and let out a huge sigh my phone - which I was holding in my hands to show everyone how urgent the matter was - started flashing.

'Hi! How are you? What's up?'

It was a colleague of mine I used to work with and ... she had received a call - while tending to her flowerbeds. The call was not a problem (unlike me this colleague of mine is never lazy), the problem was the 'mission' itself.

'What's impossible about it?' I asked and laughed out loud but then remembered that I was out here because of a very very serious matter and looked around feeling guilty of fraud  Apart from our bunch of grumpy teachers the place was utterly empty. I could relax.

Her 'mission' was truly an impossible one. She had been sent to a school to test kids on some curriculum she had never taught. 

'I really haven't got a clue!' She cried in despair. 'And I've checked the syllabus and it 367 pages long! I don't want to be up all night reading this!'

We had a good moan about the ridiculous missions we were supposed to accomplish. And then the chat drifted onto less professional matters ... until I realised this was enough time now. I felt better. I could tackle the impossible tasks. But when I got back into the main hall everyone was gone. I started a trek around the building, up and down the stairs, across the passages over the jungle (I wondered if they had birds in there) until I found a room with teachers  peering over charts and numbers and percentages, comparing and wondering whether to adjust the figures or not. I pretended to show an interest for a bit but then decided that they were quicker and more efficient without me butting in. Soon we were done. We stood up and decided to claim our free lunch.

'We have to wait for the person responsible to collect the data.' Mrs Goody-Goody said.

'OK. Press print. And let us be done with this.' An other very hungry teacher said.

The person responsible - which everyone is beginning to hate - tells us that there is a specific forme to fill in and that someone is getting it ready for us. So we wait. And we wait some more. We wait standing around in a circle again and again I am thinking we look like Anonymous Alcoholics.

We wonder how long they will take to get this form to us and some of us are even thinking about skipping the free lunch! 

Eventually it comes! We fill it in and sign it. At that point we could have signed anything. Then we all rush to the dining hall to get our - very disappointing - free lunch. Or how to empty the freezers for the summer break. Outside the sun is out and the gardens of the school are just as impressive as the indoor jungle: wild country flowers in all colours, grass left to grow wild in patches while trimmed to perfection in others, huge pink and blue hydrangeas line up the back wall. Butterflies and bees are busying themselves all over the multitude of blossoms. This sight puts everyone in a good mood and we even sound happy at the thought of meeting up again the following day. We hope it will be an other half day and we all agree to skip the offer of an other free lunch, just in case they might be that generous.