A Discussion of the Downs Found in the Middle of some Ups

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. It actually didn't feel as weird as I thought it would to not celebrate. Although I did have a dinner of Sweet Potato soup and a pumpkin cookie (thanks Tessa!) which are traditional fare... kind of. My Thanksgiving week was quite eventful as the students at my school decided to strike (yep, the STUDENTS). It was definitely not a good experience and one of the low points of my service and I'd rather not relive it, if you don't mind. But the short of it being that I was thankful beyond words to be back to work on Thanksgiving Day.

This past week, my school celebrated World AIDS Day by not having classes in the morning and instead having classes solely about AIDS. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well I think it was on the whole, but it left a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The NGO helping to organize the event paid the teachers (including me) to participate, to which the teachers complained of not getting paid enough. Of course, it surprised me that we were getting money instead of a comprehensive training which of course was my big suggestion for next year. My fellow teachers seemed to have done a good job with their classes with limited resources, but once again my French crashed and burned as I struggled with AIDS-related vocabulary. My kids seemed to enjoy the skits I prepared for them, but I was not fully satisfied with their knowledge base at the end of class. Oh, well... I did my best.

As you can see from the title of my blog entry, I am deep into reading "Tom Jones" by Henry Fielding. It always amuses me how my writing style can change to immitate the books that I read. Anyhoo, it's a good read and I recommend it to anyone who has the patience to read a big ol' book like that.