Stir Crazy and Lovin' It

Weeeeeeeeee! Africa's fun. Yup, I'm in another one of my random silly, obnoxiously kooky moods. Aren't you jealous of Chris who gets to put up with me this weekend?

My second semester has begun and I'm a bit swamped in work and I had another one of those "I hate teaching" days which I'm sure every teacher has occasionally, but I'm doing well overall. I've been hanging out more and more with the two teachers and the school surveillant who live together near the school. It's nice to have hang-out buddies and I think they're a good influence on my French. I made them pancakes the other day and they went nuts. People here seem to love pancakes. Go figure.

At the end of last semester, doing grades was a real cultural lesson. So the concept of privacy when it comes to kids' grades is completely nonexistent here. So that's why the kids really love the way I treat their grades: like an American. When I hand out tests, I fold them over so that the grade can't be seen. Teachers here have the students give them out for them. When going over grades, I calculate them myself then check with each kid individually. Teachers here have students calculate each others' grades to check for errors. And when all the grades are in there's a big ceremony-type deal when the whole class ranks their grades.

And being February, I have now found out why people hear detest the month. It's a whole lotta wind. A whole lot. A couple days ago, it was so bad that the air was just a haze of dust. And because of it, yesterday it was cold: 70 degrees! But today the sunshine has come out again. The days are becoming noticeably longer. So that means I can eat dinner at a decent hour once again. I really hate cooking by lamplight and I can't wait to eat (which has lead to numerous occasions of the ol' burnt tongue) so I eat right before the sun goes down usually.

And finally, yes the damn bird flu has come to West Africa. Latest I heard, it was in Niger. And everyone's freaking out. Blah, blah, blah. But someone on the BBC put it beautifully when he called in and said, "You know, here in Africa, we have millions suffering and dying from starvation and AIDS. Who cares about your stupid bird flu?!" Amen, brother.