Back to teaching again...

I returned to my site in the middle of Ramadan which was during the first week of October. After had been "harassed" so many times last year why I don't fast, I decided to try to fast for a few days, that means no eating or drinking from 5am to 7pm. The exact morning cut off time is always unclear for me, some say 4:30am, other say 5:30am, whatever, in any case, one should not eat or drink from the first prayer of the day (around 5:30am) to the last prayer at sundown. Luckily the week I choose to fast was a little bit unseasonably cool and with moisture in the air, but not enough to feel humid. Some day I got up at 4am to eat a little, so I can last till sundown which is around 7pm, but I often had a hard time to fall back to sleep after swallowing down some peanut butter (the only thing that's tasty to eat and require no time to prepare at 4 in the morning, also a bit like a energy bar that keeps me going for the rest of day). Other day I just got by without getting up early to eat to have enough sleep, those days I barely made it. Not eating during daylight was surprisingly easy, but not drinking water got harder as soon as midday hits and last all the afternoon, a real test of displine and self-control for me. When I fasted though, it felt so good to break the fast with my family or students' families, because I went the same thing with them during the day. Well, of course I stayed in my cool hut as much as could in the afternoon while the villagers, my students are out in the hot sun harvesting.

So, I can proudly tell you that I fasted for 6 days in the month of Ramadan. The week after the week I fasted, it turned hot again and my mouth was on fire everyday after talking for 4 hours at school, needless to say, I drank water when teaching seriously got going again. I still didn’t eat breakfast or lunch, just drank water and had some fruits here and there.

So, Guinea is number one in something. According to BBC, la Guinee is the number one most corrupted country in the world. I will leave you with your reactions...

Moving on, we finally decided on a location for the library. An old large conference room for the community developpment organization. A few work need to be done to clean it up and make it more secure to prevent theft. A bit of the logistics and timing nightmare, since most of the materials are found in the cities, it is not like I can call up so and so, order it, have it to send to us. Sometimes I have to rely on other guineans from my village to find out the price when they going to the city, but have to worry about the price he quotes me is a little bit more than actual, so he can pocket some. Whole new set of frustrations getting a project done. Sometimes I ask myself why did I get myself into all this. But I am determined to get this going, Inch Allah! (I think that’s another way to say “god willing”)

Teaching on the other hand, is so MUCH BETTER the second year around. Confidence in teaching in french, confidence in knowing my materials, and better insights on where students tend to have difficulties and target them. I am enjoying teaching more than ever. Except that this year I have 7 classes, which means 18 hours. The lesson for 7th grade I have to repeat 3 times a week, since there are three 7th grades, 2 times for 8th grades since there are two 8th grades. And if we had enough teachers, we really should divide 7th grades into 4 classes. Oh dear. They passed way too many 6th graders onto 7th grade this year. A direct result of “universal education”, quantity over quality. Also, I have been assigned to the 10th grade to be their equivalent of homeroom teacher. So, I am quite busy at school in term of teaching and some administrative work.

My time to prepare lesson after school has drastically reduced since it is my second year, of course there are improvements I make here and there, but I can teach sometimes just off the top of my head. Which is turn out better sometimes, as inspiration comes during lessons as I see how my students are following my lessons and how well they understand.

Annual girl’s conference in December is postponed due to budget issues. Sad...