First Day With Kids Back.

Monday, St Brigid’s Day: The kids came back today. I met many of the parents before and after school. The whole community, parents, kids and staff have been most welcoming to me and I really feel that it is a home away from home. There is a whole Irish element to this that goes way beyond any exchange. I am in the area of Australia, excluding the cities, where there is the largest concentration of people of Irish descent. Murphies, O Briens, Lanes, Dalys, Lenihans… There is a confirmation photo on the wall from, it looks like, the Sixties, and of the twenty kids ALL have Irish names. Anyway that is for another day.

In school I felt like a Newly Appointed Principal. I was giving out to myself about having yard duty on my first day when I realised that it was I who did the roster! It was the first time that I had ever done yard duty in a straw hat-‘no hat no play’ applies to the teachers also. Strange going around wondering where the children were allowed to play and what were the procedures. After school, I went to the front to do bus duty only to find that the bus comes to the side of the school. Some sixth grade girls approached me in the morning and said that they had an important question for me. I was expecting something meaningful about Irish schools when they piped up:

“Were you at Vanessa Amorosa on Friday Night?”

Well, as everyone speaks like Nadia, more like:

“Weere yoou at Vanessa Amorosa on Friiiyyydaayy Nooyght?”

Well honestly, a fella can go nowhere.

At lunch break one of the second graders kicked another boy. I walked up and asked him what did he do. He replied:

“I kicked him in the nuts.”

I kept my cool and did not show my shock at the directness. I asked him how the other boy felt and he replied:

“Sad”

…and quick as a flash a fourth grader walking by added:

“I bet his nuts felt sad too!”

School starts at nine (noyne) but at half eight two of the lads had the school garden half weeded. They returned to it during the breaks and it was in good shape by three thirty, when we finished. The recess is from 11.00 to 11.30 and lunch is from 1.00 to 2.00. At 2.15 Teresa came and showed us all how to make St. Brigid’s Crosses; I filled them the kids in on some stories and finished with a prayer ‘A Bhríd a Mhuire na nGael’ which I said in Irish and translated for them. We then had the weekly planned assembly which finished with a Q & A from the kids. The questioning was very direct and if I ever go on Facebook, I can no longer hide my age or other central details to my life.

During the day I keep using Irish terms, like asking for a ‘bualadh bos’ for Teresa, ‘súilígí’, ‘tar isteach’, ‘déanaigí líne’ srl.

As it was the first day there was a lot of crying and gnashing of teeth but I only succumbed to the latter. I still get a lot of questions and if I don’t know the answer:

“Sure, how would I know I am only the principal!”

That works with both parents and teachers. Rule Number Six never came in so handy. All and all the experience was somewhat uncomfortable but overall most enjoyable. I think that I will give it a go again tomorrow.