From November 16, 2010 (too lazy to even post!?):
Dr. Pang was in town last week to check up on how things are going around the school and let me tell you…when the Dr. is in the house…shit gets did. He wasn’t on campus 20 minutes and they had water along the wall where he said they would be putting fish in the next few days (I am unsure how said fish will survive as there is no filter or drain in this little enclosed area), some sort of sculpture placed into the ‘water area’ and we were on our way to buy trees to give the garden some green while we are waiting for our plants to grow. Grades 6-8 were all involved in planting last week and we have already got some little seedlings sprouting after the weekend. I am really unsure as to how well some of these things are going to grow (i.e. the watermelon) but we can always dream of big melons. Hmmm…?
Carol and I visited the plant nursery up the street from the school with our tri-lingual secretary, Yolanda. We were informed that there were more trees at another location further up the street so Yolanda asked the workers if they would drive us there. Minutes later we were bopping along in the back of a tree delivery truck to some unknown location to buy trees. Not what I expected to be doing on a Thursday afternoon, but it proved successful. We returned with three trees which have really added to the garden.
Something that did not add to the garden was the dead bird I found lying mere inches away from our freshly transplanted tomato and basil plants on Sunday morning. Janna and I had hauled our butts out of bed bright and early to attend a yoga class and on the way back, I went over to the garden to water the plants which had been neglected the day before. This terrible teacher was having too much fun gallivanting around Hong Kong on Saturday to tend to the gardens. Oops. There is a large staircase that ascends from the 6th floor of the school down to the ground level which is enclosed by semi-circular glass. Birds assume it is a free-fly zone and ram into either side of the glass on the way through on a weekly basis. Luckily, the cleaners or SOMEONE notices dead bird carcasses before the dear children arrive for school most days. However, Jess O. told me once that her entire class saw one smack right into the glass and land with a thud on the ground in front of them once. Traumatizing to say the least.
Now we are almost half way through December and it has gotten to the point where I have demanded that the Grade 12s 'update' the blog for an assignment. I will be posting their comments regarding our progress and some photos of how we're doing.
As predicted, the fish project sank a bit. Pun intended. Except dead fish actually float for a while, so first it floated, and then it sank. Needless to say, there were a few mornings when I would arrive at school to have students run up to me exclaiming, 'Ms. Dingee! There are three more dead fish!!!!' They were placed in this area with no filtration system (i.e. no oxygen source) no food and no care (oh, that was my job?) for over a week until I finally asked if we could get some food for the poor things. They had started attacking each other so it was not a cool scene. I picked up some aquatic plants from a fish store down the street which the few remaining seem to enjoy. Well, they enjoy hiding from predators underneath them. We started with numerous fish, and we now have 4. Fish carcasses have been added to the compost, so at least they aren't completely going to waste. I have, however, become convinced that someone is playing with my mind and it's that damn cat Chairman Mao, I just know it! The cleaners claimed they found fish bones in the water the last time I had them clean it out. This cleaning episode also culminated in the extermination of 6 fish which I had to pluck out of the water the next morning before all the little kids could come and see their pets floating belly up :( Not a great start to my day.
Today, I arrived to find one of the bottom-feeders on the ground 5 feet away from the water and the water inside had almost completely drained out somehow! WHO IS DOING THIS TO ME?!
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