Neil in Zim: Mopping and porridge

On Diwali, we clean our house, wash the Gods that live in our little temple, eat Indian food and sweets, and light diyas (or go to a family friend’s house to light diyas). It’s a festive day to celebrate with family and enjoy the light that others bring to one’s own life. I have a fond memory of going to a friend’s house playing with sparklers and firecrackers, eating a lot of puri, celebrating with family and music. Diwali away from home felt different this year. Even though I’ve spent the last several Diwalis in college, being completely removed from other South Asian people has been disorienting. This year, rain joined us to celebrate. When it rains in Zimbabwe, power goes out, the power lines fall, and power goes out for about a day. Though it really limits productivity, I felt that it was quite appropriate to celebrate Diwali on a rainy day with no power. Everyone had to grab their torches (flashlights), and we spent the evening working in the office, faces illuminated by the glow of our laptops and phones. I hadn’t told anyone it was Diwali, but inside I felt content that we were all using modern diyas that night. It felt like I was in the lights section at Home Depot.

Being South Asian American in Zimbabwe means absolutely nothing. People look at me and assume I am either Chinese, White, or Indian, but when they hear me speak immediately realise I am White. At a local high school, I sat in a courtyard while my students were taking an exam. Students from the other high school saw me, stared and me, and started singing that one stereotypical Punjabi Bhangra song “ring-a-ding-a-ding-a-ding-a” … I wasn’t sure how to feel.

Indeed rainy season has begun. On the first few days, the rain was neither relentless, nor entrancing. Lately, though, the rain has been persistent and unwavering – campus has become green, but also has welcomed a lot more critters … like big worms.

Halloween on campus was a blast. I started decorating the school and set up stations for people to make decorations and costumes – while a lot of students were confused, most of them partook in the celebrations. We made masks, jack-o-lanterns, bats, spiders, and ghosts out of cardboard and I bought a lot of really terrible tasting candy. I set up a bowl at my desk, but the students didn’t fully understand the concept of trick-or-treat. Instead of saying “trick-or-treat” or “Happy Halloween” they screamed and tried scaring me. I’ll need to work on proper Halloween etiquette at a later time.

Following Halloween, all upper 6 students were furiously working against the Nov 1 early action/early decision deadline for US colleges. I spent the weekend leading up the Nov 1 meeting one-on-one, editing essays and activities lists, helping them submit. Some students wrote extremely compelling stories, while others struggled. Whenever I see a student is struggling to be creative, I lend them my David Sedaris book to find inspiration. The students who I’ve helped so far know that if I ask them to read David Sedaris, then that means their essays need a lot of work.

I recently started reading Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime – it’s humorous, honest, and easy to read, a lot like David Sedaris. He talks about his experience growing up in South Africa as a half-Black, half-White son of a single mom. A lot of his story is about identity, which is something I’ve been thinking about lately. I’m glad I’ve slowly gotten back into reading – I told the Humanities teacher that it’s been improving my reading comprehension, to which he responded, “You have already graduated college, why do you care about your reading comprehension at this age?”

I’ve been wearing my glasses lately instead of contacts and students. It’s been refreshing to rest my eyes, but also the rain has made it annoying. Students are confused why I wear glasses sometimes and then decide to be blind at other times – I usually have them come up to my eyes and see that I am in fact not blind, but wear contacts, which is something most have never heard of.

“Mr Neil, your spectacles kind of make you look like Harry Potter. All you need is the little lightning bolt and you’d be Wary Potter," a student cackled. I immediately walked away.

I realized the thing I like most about tea is sugar. To be honest, I could probably just drink sugar water. I discovered a grocery store called Food Lover’s Market (which takes US card, bless!) and it feels very much like Whole Foods. I found aloe vera juice there (the one that Lucy introduced to me in Summer 2021), and I’m obsessed. The chunks of aloe vera are surprising and once again, the amount of sugar is divine.

I am horrendously bad at mopping with a mop and a bucket. I called mom to explain it to her a few months ago and she asked me, “what’s a mop?” Life is so different when without a Swiffer – I have to find a bucket, put soap and water in the bucket, find a clean mop, and then dip the mop into the bucket, not too much otherwise it’ll get too wet and soapy, but not too little otherwise I won’t get any water and soap to clean the floor. The past few times I’ve mopped, people just state at me in horror – the floor either gets extremely soapy, or I just mop the dirt around and the floor gets dirtier. It’s not my fault that they never taught me how to do this in the States.

I’ve realized the knowledge is power, but it is also a burden. In research methods, I have taught students about hypothesis-testing a p-values, and I feel like I’ve unlocked a brand new skill for them that has made them a lot more powerful – though they don’t realize it yet. But, having the strength to do t-tests also means that people rely on me to answer their questions or do tasks. Students had a heated argument yesterday that porridge was brought back as a breakfast – many of them dislike it. They were shouting and arguing, but no one seemed to have anything substantial to say, nor did people have any sort of evidence supporting their claims. So what you think a lot of people don’t like porridge … how many people is a lot … 4? It seems like there is a lot of cognitive dissonance going on. I quickly surveyed the students and systematically made a decision regarding the porridge issue. You can see my report below.

I asked upper 6 students what they want to accomplish before they graduate (which is in 3 weeks). Several of them want to go on trips and hikes, a few want to learn music, one of them wants to finish his calculus textbook, and another one wants to build his own universe. I’ve started working with a few who want to learn photography and videography, and we are starting some new projects. I feel like I could one day make a really effective YouTube channel.

My supervisor’s eyes were itchy and I asked if he wanted Zyrtec, to which he responded that he doesn’t usually take medication … only a couple of Advils in a year. That could never be me – I take a prophylactic ibuprofen if I know I am going to have a conversation later in the day with someone who gives me a headache.

It’s difficult to be a young adult. People don’t take you seriously, because you’re young; you can’t act like a kid because you’re an adult. Recently, I’ve had to channel my adult energy, though. The TAs living in the room next to me have been making a lot of noise lately, particularly around midnight before they sleep and at 6am when they rise. I, for one, need 8 hours of sleep – so the noise has been really hurting my sleep schedule and my mood. I struggle to fall asleep, and then wake up with too little sleep. At 6am they blast music, because it is a necessity for them to listen to it in the shower. Every morning, I cycle through every stage of grief: stage 1 confusion – why am I suddenly awake? Stage 2anger – why is it so early in the morning? Stage 3 – the stage where I try suffocating myself with a pillow to end my misery. I don’t understand why I have to suffer because other people are belligerent and inconsiderate – the NYT recommends I stick my head in a freezer to help. I confronted the TAs which was very difficult because they are the same age as me, but set the record straight that I am a faculty member and we are all adults living in a communal space. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but I think they received the message because my sleep has improved. I also rearranged my room a bit to block the noise coming from the door between our rooms. Being young means it’s hard to command respect from others, but also means that I can try things out because I’m an up-and-coming adult.

Anyway, Maddie (PiAf fellow) and I are planning a December trip and I am super excited! It’ll be nice once graduation is over to rest and relax a bit … if only I could do it for an entire year.