And So It Begins...

Model school started last week; and officially, I began teaching this week (though I taught division of fractions last week in a full one hour lesson). Apparently, my years of customer service have made me very patient with children. Though today, I did kick a student out of class because he refused to come to the board.

Yesterday, I considered a success even though my students were not given bonne motivation because I did not vomit in class despite strong desires to do so. So far, these past few days have been up and down health wise. Making me feel like a yo-yo who also has to figure out how the heck to make quadrilaterals and their properties interesting. I am hoping to hit parallelograms and areas and perimeters tomorrow, and trapezoids on Thursday. And then something fun and not rote on Friday. Though, I haven't figured out a fun activity for reviewing it all as of yet.

A lot of people have asked me for photos. Unfortunately, these are hit or miss since I haven't been very camera happy and some days the internet does not like the idea of me checking my email, let alone uploading photographs.

Healthwise, I am doing well after a sleepless Sunday night. I wanted to say hello to all the parents and friends of current stagiaires out there because I have been informed that my life sounds cushy as of yet (friend of C---). Don't worry though. In a month, I will be shopping for furniture (a disaster awaiting to happen) for my new house, including necessities like a stovetop, a ridiculous number of marmites and tamarinds, and necessary furniture like a bed, a wardrobe, and a cupboard for dishes and food. How do I plan to protect all this from pests? I have been informed that large cans filled partially with kerosene deter pests well and then putting the furniture legs into said cans. So; I think thats my plan of attack contre my friends the creepy crawlies. BTW, I have seen and killed already the "scorpion carrying spider" in the first few weeks, I just didn't realize what it is until recently. I don't think it looks like a spider, but that's what the call it. I have not seen a scorpion yet, but I promise to have at least one amusing story about that and poisonous snakes by the end of service.

A little bit about my site and my experience with transport: I am off the paved road by about 100 km. I hear I have to travel 40 km to get to the nearest unreliable source of internet (and also no daily transport there, so you figure out how I travelled there afterwards to visit a current PCV). Though, there is a slim possibility that I will have internet within 12 km of me (I am not holding my breath though). In theory, I am three hours from capital. In practice, I woke up at 4 am for a 6-7 am bus. I didn't get to my site until well after dark at around 8 pm. In total, I think I saw my site in about six hours of daylight. It is pretty, with lots of trees. It is fairly large, but not as densely packed as the volunteer who I visited later on in the week. I met my proviseur, and some people around village, but for the most part, people were out cultivating. I have met some people who come from that village and general region. And because of the many different tribes, I am considered a sister of theirs now. However, this means I have a "joking relationship" with one of the larger groups in BF, the Mossi people. It makes for a lot of fun joking around during breaks since a lot of the staff are Mossi. "They" say my people aren't very nice, but we all know I'm not very nice. So, I think I'm fitting in well culturally. ;p

All right, I got two minutes to go. Hope this provided life is being good to you all.