Weekend Update: 11/12/10

I was about to start this post by saying that nothing really happened this week, but then I realized that it did.  Things just surprise me less now, I guess.  Highlights of this past week:

• I taught my first full week!  It was exhausting.  I gave and graded two quizzes -- my 6eme M1 class did amazingly, and my 5eme class pretty much all failed... 37/41 got 10 out of 20 or lower.  Awesome.  That was particularly frustrating because it was review from last year, I used activities we'd done in class, and it was fairly obvious that no one had studied.  I was genuinely pissed, so I made Thursday's lesson a lecture on study skills, I brought out evil Madame M (my teaching alter ego), and I gave them a really long make-up assignment.  Monday, I'm assigning a new seating chart... let's see how they like my class if they can't chat with their friends all the time. 
• Pauline, my neighbor, was in a motorcycle accident.  At midnight last Tuesday, after I was very asleep, she showed up pounding on my door, face and leg covered in blood, and announced that she was sleeping in my house that night.  I didn't really have a choice (she'd left her keys out in Porto Novo), so I patched her up with my med kit, gave her a snack and a pillow, and tried to go back to sleep (she's fine now).
• A little down this week.  Spent most of it inside my house because of some raging digestive issues (I'm doing tests in the med unit today), and I think that made me feel more isolated than usual.  Am hoping that once I'm fully into work, that'll get better.  Plus, after next week is PSW -- a whole week with the other TEFL volunteers in Parakou.  Yaaaay!
• Awesome moment in parents' meeting.  The director introduced me in front of a meeting of all of the school's parents, and I greeted them in Gun.  They looooved it -- everyone started cheering and grinning and clapping, and one guy even made a little speech about how much it meant to them that I was trying to learn local language.  Felt good, and made me (sort of) want to study. : )
• Fellow teacher trouble.  So I was doing well with the other teachers -- I finally convinced most of them that I'm married, awkward inquiries as to whether they can visit me stopped, and I'm starting to have professor friends... actually, one of them (Gabriel, also my Gun tutor; his awesome wife Florence is going to help me with French) found my blog the other day -- uh oh.  Anyway, so there was this one female teacher who absolutely refused to call me Madame -- she'd call me mademoiselle, I'd ask her to call me madame, and she'd say loudly, "MADEMOISELLE."  One of the other profs said it was because she wanted me to marry her brother.  I told her I was already married.  She said I should take a Beninese husband, too, Mademoiselle.  Yesterday I got really pissed and whipped out a picture, and I think she might stop now... which is good, because it's really, really frustrating.  You kind of expect it from the men here, but to have that whole thing coming from a fellow professional woman... Frustrating.
• Observed the head of the English department teach classes.  He's really, really good -- I'm not actually sure I can help him with much more than pronunciation.  I can help with that, though.  During class, one of his kids stood up and, responding to a question, said, "Yes, this bish is beautiful."  I think he meant beach, but I had to fake cough to keep from laughing at him.
• Am having people over to my house tomorrow!  Some of the girls in the south are visiting to slumber party and make fajitas.  I don't know where to get most of the stuff for fajitas... but whatever.  Details.

K, that's all I've got for now -- love yall!