Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Trip Highlights (Week Five)

May 11th-14th
Monday - Tuesday
I did the usual teaching during the day and tutoring after school. The nice thing about being a visiting teacher is that I could teach just about anything I wanted. The last week in Amoyo I tried to get through the Intro Tech notes as quickly as possible and then the students and I would change subjects and discuss our respective countries. One class period I taught the kids how to do the Hokey Pokey and another time we looked at some of my pictures of the US. When there was a lull in the work, I went over to the Medical Center to help Prisca plant bushes and flowers. I am getting pretty good at digging and planting with a machete.

Wednesday
May 13th is the day St. Julie Billiart (the founder of the SNDs) was canonized a saint and the entire school celebrated her feast day. We started the morning off with Mass and during the school assembly one of the Sisters gave a talk about St. Julie. Dinner was a bigger production than usual since it was both my last night in Amoyo and the feast day. We had rice with lamb, wine, and ice cream.

I was sad about leaving Amoyo because I really enjoyed my time there. The Sisters made me feel welcome and it was fun teaching and even just hanging out with the girls.

Thursday
We were supposed to leave Amoyo at 6 am but as usual that turned into 6:30ish. The first half of the trip the roads were in decent shape and since we were driving a nice extended pickup truck (complete with air conditioning, shocking I know) the trip was quite pleasant. The scenery still manages to amaze me. Unfortunately about six hours later the roads started deteriorating. When we stopped for lunch my stomach was rolling and I was grateful for the chance to walk around a bit. The last two or three hours seemed like an eternity on the road riddled with potholes. Five days later, I still have bruises from being jostled about. The trip was long (especially since there was not even one bathroom break during the nine and a half hours on the road) but it is nice to be back in Enugu.

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