Not Just an Ordinary Day

  "There will come a time when we will sit down
to the banquet of our consequences."
~Robert Louis Stevenson

This week is  our English Camp at school. Things are going very well and I am so proud of my students. Every day in the program there is time to watch a film, which has attracted a lot of students to participate in the camp. Today we were about an hour into Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom, when the power went out. We had to take a short break, because the projector doesn’t work without power, so I went to the office, where there was a conversation taking place between my school director, the founder, and a teacher. Let’s just say it was not a civil conversation and things were getting pretty heated. Later on after the teacher left, the director and founder explained what was happening, and I have to say I am so impressed and proud of my school and its quick reaction to the situation.

Apparently, during Semaine Culturelle, a week of celebration at school with dance, songs, sketches, and games, one afternoon the Geography teacher took a bunch of students to a bar and partied and drank a lot with them. In Togo there really isn't a drinking age, and even babies sip beer from their parents' cups on occasion. There have been a few times that I've seen my students at a bar drinking, and they are about 13-15 years old. 

When my director found out about this, he went directly to the Inspector of Education’s office in Kpalime and told him what happened. The Inspector ruled that this teacher can no longer teach, so basically, he is fired. My director quickly informed the teacher of this and within a week had already hired another teacher to replace him. Today the teacher who was fired showed up at my school to talk to the director and founder. I’m not sure why he would come back to the school to discuss the matter, since it was already resolved. 

The teachers, director, and I have always known that this specific teacher drinks too much, but taking your students to a bar and getting drunk was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back.’ I’m so happy with the quick action the school and Inspector took to get this teacher out of our school. Who knows what will happen with him; my director said he will probably have to move to Lome or another town where they don’t know him in order to find a new job.