April Fools

I was told when we first arrived in Ukraine that the children here know about and play jokes on the first of April. As soon as I heard this I knew that if I didn’t strike first I would leave myself open to become a fool myself.
I came up with a simple plan. I would l tell my pupils that Peace Corps had mandated they take a dictation and that my performance as a teacher would be judged based on their work. So if they did poorly on their tests, I might be sent home to America.
My first class didn’t really take it too seriously. I don’t think I was serious enough to really make them concerned. My second sixth form class went much better. I told them I was off to Kyiv after class to turn in the results. We started the dictation and when I said that the first word was April and the second was fools, they looked up in confusion. A few started to smile or laugh. I asked them who knew about what people normally do on the first of April.
The real crowning glory was my ninth form though. I told them the same story. There would be a dictation for the Peace Corps. My job was on the line again. Well, this time I must have been more serious because they started flipping through their book and asked what page the dictation would be from. When I told them that it wasn’t from the book, they really started freaking out. For this class, I didn’t have a chance to talk to the teacher beforehand so she was starting to worry too.
“Hurry, prepare your papers,” she encouraged her kids clearly concerned about my job. She handed out papers and told everyone to work hard.
Everyone was putting their names on their papers and I could barely keep from laughing. I started the dictation. “April Fools,” I said. They looked at me blankly. I repeated it, “April Fools.”
One of the girls realized what was happening. She crumpled her paper and threw it against the chalk board, mad at herself for being so gullible. Slowly the rest of the class realized what was going on. We all had a big laugh and after class the teacher and I joked about how serious she thought I was.
I’ve never really been able to trick anyone on April Fool’s Day before. I might like this holiday more than I thought.

Tagged: April Fools, Holidays, Kris Wasik, Peace Corps, Ukraine

Posted in: Uncategorized