Friday, February 20, 2009

Thank God it's Friday!

I think it is a good sign that I have been looking forward to the weekend. When I first arrived, the weekends seemed long and uncomfortable. It is simply unnatural to dislike the weekends. Now I have reached a point where I can find things to do on the weekends and I like having some time to relax.

I am really glad today is Friday because I find teaching exhausting. I like it but it wears me out. Yesterday the kids were so excited to have my undivided attention that they were really well behaved. Today some of the newness wore off and some of the students wanted to see what they could get away with. I yelled at a few kids and they showed proper remorse. However, already the children notice that I am not a fan of corporal punishment. There is a near constant stream of tattlers who tell me to flog so and so and one child keeps presenting me with the classroom stick. I need to think some more about how I will handle that in the future. Still they are a good bunch of kids. I like the fact that if I ask for one volunteer to come up to the chalkboard a dozen kids eagerly jump out of their seats and if I ask a question nearly every child starts frantically waving his or her hand.

Tomorrow I have got a big day planned. I am going to the market with Ngozi at 8 am (that is sleeping in by Nigerian standards). I told everyone that this weekend I would make dinner. I still haven't figured out what I will make but hopefully inspiration will strike at the market. Does anyone know of any recipes that don't require fresh milk, cheese, other dairy products, or meat? Also we are out of gas for our stove/oven, so we are using a camp stove thing that has only one temperature-high. I would also welcome any suggestions on how to improve the tasteless mashed yams, which is very popular here.

After the market, I will do my normal Saturday activities: Draw up water from the cistern, do laundry, nearly pass out from the heat, shower in a futile attempt to cool off, do some reading, watch a few movies, attempt to kill time, etc.

Those are my big plans for this weekend. Have I mentioned that I am really glad it's the weekend? If only I could go out for a beer...


Love from Africa,

No comments:

Post a Comment