Back to School

Well, work has FINALLY begun!!!! And I am so relieved to work and be productive!!!! Since Oct 10th, I have been teaching math to students in the 5eme and 4eme classes.. this is like 6th-8th grade-aged kids. The math has not stumped me yet, and the French is going OK. Most of the time I am pretty sure they understand me, but it is tough to express myself in French in math, to kids who are only a few yrs into learning French themselves... but there have already been times where they laugh at teacher for saying something wrong or misspelling something on the board. For instance, one day I was explaining something with fractions, and I wanted to tell a kid he had to lower a number... Now in French, if you want to say 'to lower' the word is 'baisser' but the word for 'to F**K' is 'beser' They are not very different, except that one you pronounce with more of an 's' sound and the other with more of a 'z' sound. As you have probably guessed, I made the mistake of using the wrong one in class, and I actually told the kid he has to "f*** the number", instead of telling him to "lower the number."
Yes, they had a good laugh at that one. On another level, it's kind of nice that they don't understand English because I have cursed in English a couple of times when I made mistakes, and quickly looked guiltily around at the students in an apologetic way... but no one has any idea what I said, so that is A-OK.

Generally, they are excited to be in class, and I am, as I said, relieved to finally be working. My schedule is pretty light - in class only 10 hrs a week, but I have been asked to add 4e English to my workload, so I'm fairly sure I am adding English to my schedule of classes, too. All I want is to feel useful and for time to pass quickly while I am working. So bring on the hours, I say!!!

The village is kind of depressing right now outside of class because money is tight for everyone. This part of the year is hard on most cultivators because it is when their money from last year is running out and they are waiting to harvest their crops they grew over the summer to sell and get some new money. So everywhere you go, people are talking about not having money and what are they going to eat and stuff like that. People that are usually just full of smiles and jokes are really quiet and somber lately. Plus, it is the month of Ramadan right now and most of the Muslims fast every day for the entire month from dawn til dusk. That just adds to the depression because now they are hungry AND tired, and when they want to eat when night time comes it is a daily challenge.

In my house, I have started seeing new and interesting creatures on a daily basis. Just about every night and morning, I have to shoo out little frogs that hop all over the place in my house, new forms of spiders I've never seen before, lizards, crickets, and cockroaches. So help me, if one of them gets in my bed one day, I don't know what I am gonna do. The other night I went in my shower area in my house after dark and saw a spider-type thing that I think I remember seeing once on Fear Factor. Seriously, I think I really saw it and recall hearing something like 'How many African spiders can you eat?'.. the friggin thing is so ugly. anyway, I wasn't happy to come across it in my house, but at least I didn't have to eat it.

Another wonderful side effect of the malaria meds that I have discovered is that your hair thins/falls out. I find my hair everywhere, and it is falling out all the time! What the heck? Life is unjust.
I also decided to get a haircut the last Marche Day in Padema, too.. because that is the only day you can get a haircut in Padema (every Wednesday). So I went and asked him if he knew how to cut white people's hair, and he told me yes. But then he just tied my hair in a ponytail, snipped a chunk off straight across and was like 'that's OK, right?' Can you imagine getting a haircut like that in America? It took 1 minute, and he didn't check if it was straight or anything. He left it in the ponytail and showed me a mirror. Anyway, not like it matters. My hair is only ever in a ponytail anyway, so I guess that works out. Plus, it only cost $0.40.

Last note is on the weather. I don't know when I missed the bulletin on this, but apparently after the rainy season, there is another mini hot season before the 'cold' season arrives. We are now in that mini hot season, and it is almost as hot as when we got here back in March. But I have been assured that come November, December, it will be cold. Cold may be like 80 degrees, so I am not getting my hopes up just yet, but we'll see...

OK, that is all for now. I am in Bobo running errands, getting money, checking mail, etc... but I am heading out tomorrow. I won't be around much in Bobo probably until the school break in December. But when I am here, I will try to blog as often as possible.

Still dreaming every night (literally) about being in America -- translates to me missing all of you like crazy!!!!

big hugs,
Steph