10 things that make me happy in Zimbabwe right now

I am attempting to teach my Form 3s (15 yr olds) that anyone can write poetry and to inspire them to write and use words creatively. We will see how it goes; as soon as I mentioned the word "poem" in the same sentence as "you" and "write" there were horrified and dismayed faces all around. Who taught them they couldn't write? Sometimes I think good teaching is mostly un-learning (thank you, Calvin College) what they have already been taught before they get to the classroom.

Anyway, I'm using a list idea to get them started and to help give them ideas that are relevant to them. Yesterday they had to make 2 lists:

1. Ten things I know are true

2. Ten questions I have (for____/about____)

I'm interested to read those lists.

So, inspired by my own lesson (other times I think teaching is to a large extent how much I learn and change!) I've decided to make a list:

Ten things that make me happy in Zim right now

1. Hearing the sound of sprinklers as I pull up to our gate - a sign the power is on! (The beep of the microwave when it returns brings similar delight).

2. Being let in by a kind person when I am trying to turn right (across traffic ) off busy Second Street extension at 7:30 in the morning on my way to school. The level of happiness of this experience increases when you have sat there as car after car after car drives slowly past without letting you through, and you are about to give up on anything good left in the human race.

3. Ponyo - our ginger kitten who likes to leap onto your leg and claw her way up your trousers as you flail around trying to shake her off without doing further damaged to yourself.

4. Greeting the man who helps in the gardens at Arundel in Shona each morning. I was concerned that our relationship - which is based on my limited greeting knowledge and a comment on the cold weather - would end with winter but fortunately, he is a patient teacher and it is now hot and that is worth commenting on, too.

5. The weather itself - the sticky heat that is beginning to fill the air some days and the smell of coming-rain that tantalizes with hope.

6. Being called "Miss Bell" - it still catches me off guard every now and then.

7. Those rare and beautiful moments when it is not too hot outside, it is not a lesson after lunch or break time, there has not been a visit by a distracting male to the school, there has not been drama in the year group where one or more of them feel unjustly treated, the leaders of the class are for some reason on my side or too tired to lead a rebellion of whispers and looks from the back, the class has not been reprimanded by a previous teacher or come from a test, my lesson plan connects with my students, and suddenly they are all engaged and with me in learning.

8. Being totally stumped by a very simple but ridiculously complex question about a word, a grammar rule or the syntax of a sentence by my Chinese ESL student and laughing together as I admit that I have no idea of the answer and that, no, it does not make any logical sense.

9. Being in a place that is so familiar to me that I usually am not caught off guard by what people say or do. That, of course, is not to say that everything people say and do is positive and does not frustrate me endlessly at times, but that at least I am not surprised by it.

10. Teaching and being taught in my classrooms - the absolute joy of my life right now.

Here goes

So, a little known secret: I have always wanted a blog. Actually, I’ve kind of had three already. Well, almost three. Way back in the day, I tried a family blog when I was in the States and the rest of my family was in Zim. We were all supposed to contribute to it and keep ourselves and all the rest of our friends and family, on both sides of the equator, updated. I don’t think we had one post.

Then I decided to try another collaborative one with various friends who didn’t know each other (but all knew me) and we were supposed to all write a blog about great, important, soul-touching topics that we were all encountering in college and other places. Yah, no posts there either.

My most successful blogging endeavor was with a group of Calvin friends. I started this blog after we all graduated and left for wonderful and different parts of the globe. The blog was called “Patchwork Eats” and the idea was for all of us to regularly post recipes and stories about posted recipes from the different places we were eating. Good idea, hey? I thought so, and it started off well, but this most successful collaborative blog was 7 posts – 4 of them mine – last one 18 September, 2010.

So, I gave up my dream of ever being a blogger. But sometimes late at night the idea still haunted me. And then I started reading Nard Choi’s blog and I was both thrilled, inspired and terrified by the possibility. So even though I know I can never write like Nard and I fear failing with yet another another blog attempt, her commitment to writing and to honestly exploring and recording life through her words makes me want to try too.

And recently that dream that I buried with my recipe for Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie has started to sneak up on me in the day time when I’m not prepared, and I've been composing blog posts in my mind.

So here goes. A blog. By Rebekah Bell.

The goal: at least one post per week (barring extended travel/work in remote areas, a terrorist attack on Harare, major injury to my right hand, or city-wide power cuts by the Harare city council – just covering my bases) for one year (got to push for some sort of goal).

Wish me luck.