Model School

Model school has started! Basically, it's student teaching en Francais. For one hour each day, I teach geometry (again) to the troisieme class which is the equivalent of 9th grade in the US system but more like 11th/12th age-wise. I feel that I should have paid more attention in physics because I will be teaching vecteurs (vectors for you Americans out there) for about two and a half weeks. It's really hard to get excited about vectors but being enthusiastic in the classroom is basically what I have going for me right now. Donc, game on.

I'm actually really satisfied with my progress with French currently. I can teach an hour class without reading from my notes and have the vocabulary and ability to convey my meaning, at least for now. What I need to work on is getting the kids to talk more in the class. Despite my production of French, my comprehension is severely lacking. I find it really really tough to understand what people are saying back to me. Thus, in my real class in a few months, it will be so hard to understand and respond to questions. We'll see.

Today's lesson is on the definition of colinear, vector wise. I should probably be psyching myself up for teaching and not writing a blog post. Hmmm. Maybe. Peut-etre. Je ne sais pas. Meh. Ca va aller, am I right?

(Oh, and training is referred to as Stage here [pronounced stahhje] and there's a prom coming up. But I'm taking a break from committeeing this time after the July 4th blowout. Sooo there's that.)

Sick Pt. 2

So you might be wondering what a typical day is like for me right now. (Let you remind you that I still have five more weeks of training until I'm at my true site to work.)

Well! I wake up at 6 each morning well after the rest of my host family. This morning, my mother has been roasting peanuts outside my little apartment room for an hour already. I exercise a bit in my room and then head out to get water in my bucket from the giant pots in the courtyard. We always try to keep these full by using the pump, a five minute walk. I take a bucket bath and my sister brings me tea and bread and butter when I have changed. I brush my teeth, lock up my room, and I ride the 20 minutes to the FDC training center for classes. One day I did it during a torrential downpour. Rainy season!

At the center the 33 Education volunteers and sometimes the 10 daba peeps will sit in on a security lecture or other topic. There are also a ton of language classes. I was in Inter-low and have just moved up to Inter-mid in my French. Inter-high is passing for the peace corps by the end of training and frankly I'm impressed with myself about my progress. In these classes, we basically talk non-stop about various topics or play a game. We've done truth or dare and debated capital punishment. En Francais.

After 4 2 hr classes, we're free! Sometimes we'll hang out at a local restaurante, swap media, read, or go home to our host families. When we've done that, we bucket bath again, eat our riz sauce or riz gras and talk with our families until we pass out. I sometimes break out the harmonica. Yeah.

And that's a typical day! Next week I think I'll focus on the foods.                                                                          

Sick....

Well, I'm sick for the first time really since I've gotten here. It's... not pleasant. But others have it much worse than me. (Someone told me once, "Never trust a fart.") Anywho, enough toilet talk.

I have had to borrow an internet key every other week or so and thus updates have been scarce. When I move to my new site in the Cascades region, I will have electricity in-house and, thus, my priority is to pay for internet. And for a fridge. And for a blender. But that's it. Everything else I could possibly want is already at my house. I've got a large living room/ kitchen, a rec room, a study, my bedroom, and a shower room. (No running water though.) Also, when I say there's a rec room, I mean that I'm planning on building a ping pong table there. For rec. Comprends-tu?

Guys, (and girls), I am so utterly psyched for my site. I got the sweet hook-up fo' sho'. Although, it actually made me feel somewhat bad. Did the Peace Corps not think I could rough it? Cause I had resigned myself to a lot of struggles which I will NOT have now at site. I have a faucet and a water barrel just outside my house. I have the equivalent of a convenience store next door. There's a one-screen movie theatre in town. It's really impressive. I'm hoping I can really play this hand I've been dealt and do some amazing work.

Site Announcement!

AHHHHHH. We find out our sites tomorrow! There's a ridiculous diversity in site options here, with elephants to the south, desert to the north, and waterfalls out west. Then, it's two months left until I move out to my site and begin teaching Math. (I don't know what grade or anything like that either yet.)

But here's some tidbits on how life is different here in the Faso, just in case you were interested.
1. I take bucket baths under the stars.
2. Lightning here is pink.
3. I've seen a cow head split open and butchered.
4. Rain here is always accompanied by a MASSIVE dust storm immediately before.
5. I ride my bike maybe 4km each day?
6. No English when I'm at home. French and Moore only.
7. I pump water each day with my host sisters.
8. It's HOT.

Oh! And I taught my sisters how to say "Ain't nuthin' but a thang." Let's hear it for Peace Corps goal #2!