My first week back to post after break was relatively unexciting – no dramatic breakdowns, no Nobel prizes awarded, nothing too much going on. A couple of the highlights, though:
- HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I have no resolutions. I feel that living for two years here is enough of a goal.
- Who The Hell Schedules These Things? The first week back to school was a half week. Not the logical kind of Wednesday-to-Friday half week, but Monday-to-Wednesday followed by a five-day weekend… there’s a teacher training Th/F, then the traditional religions fete on Monday. How do they expect us to get in any sort of rhythm if they keep canceling our damn classes?
- Besides That… Classes went well this week – I actually had an awesome day with my 5eme (my worst-behaved and lowest-scoring class) on Monday. We learned Can/Can’t constructions, and I added in verbs that they didn’t know like “whistle” and “drive a car” and “count to ten in Spanish.” I gave examples of the new verbs, and when I counted in Spanish, they freaked out and were SO excited. I even heard one kid say, “Whoa, Madame! How do you know that??” Score one for Madame Melissa.
- I Ate A Weird Fruit. I saw some kids eating a fruit that I didn’t recognize. When I asked about it, they just handed me one and tried to tell me that it would do something to my lips – I thought they meant that it was sour. I bit in, and it was like a super sour peach… that glued my lips together. I have no idea what the name of it is, but it secretes a white liquid that could double as superglue. The mama selling it subsequently gave me 8 more because I looked funny eating the first one.
- Interesting Conversation. I visited one of the mamas’ houses, and I ended up sitting with her, her husband and another mama and having a long conversation about cultural differences. We talked a lot about disciplining kids – I announced that I don’t hit kids in my class, and they were shocked (people here are proud of how they keep kids in line). “But how do you discipline, then? How do you do it in America?” That started a conversation about detention and non-corporal-punishment punishments, and then somehow we got into the idea that neither my father nor my uncles can force me to marry anyone. This blew their minds.
- Projects Might Be A Go Sometime Soon Ish. Finally got to talk to the school's director (my boss) about the projects I want to start: an English club, and a girls' club, mainly. I'd written formal proposals for them, so he seemed much more into it this time around. He said to remind him next time we have school, and he'll talk to the surveillant general about how best to have kids sign up. I'm excited! I also talked to my friend Gabriel, a history teacher, and we might try to paint a giant world map on the side of one of the buildings -- our school has a couple of maps, but they're all in storage and never on display. That's dumb, and doesn't help kids learn. Thus, giant world map.
- Thank you so much for your donations to Camp GLOW! I just found out that we're only about $500 away from our goal, which means that yall are awesome. I am so, so excited about Camp GLOW -- thanks for helping it to happen!
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