Hello Everyone,
Since my parents are forwarding this on, I figured I'd address it to everyone. I hope everyone is well and I welcome emails and letters! :)
Okay, so I've been here a little under 2 weeks and as I've said before it feels like so much time has passed. Maybe that's because so much has happened, so much has changed, and I have learned so much. I'm getting more comfortable here and with my family. This place is becoming more and more familiar and the language is coming slowly but surely. My language classes are taught by a woman named Zara and I take these classes with one other young woman named Carolyn. She and I were talking today and she said she notices improvements every day and I agree. I am able to understand more when Zara and others speak and I'm beginning to talk more and increase my vocabulary. My end seems to be crawling toward improvement, but it's something. It'll be interesting to see where I am in 2 weeks or in 4 weeks. I am currently in week II according to our schedule and I'm supposed to start teaching a 5 week class during week VI, so we'll see.
The food is much better than I was expecting. I have more variety and I'm getting fruits and vegetables on a regular basis which is nice. I'm trying new things and learning what I do and do not like. As of now there are very few foods I don't like. I need to also learn which foods agree with me and which don't. I will not be eating those that don't for obvious reasons!
I started SE (secondary education) classes this week. We read about a form of teaching that's called the 4MAT program which discusses how to teach to a group of different types of learners. It tries to incorporate a cycle of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and action in order to cover why, what, how, and if questions. All of these are necessary to truly learn and retain something and not just memorize information like the kids do very well here. It'll be something I need to focus on and be aware of. I'll have to find ways of getting my kids to think outside the box and think beyond simply memorizing facts. For example, if I'm teaching an equation in math or physics, after giving them the equation and its applications, I can give them the answer and have them solve for another variable in the equation. If I teach them how to solve for density, which equals mass divided by volume, I can give them the density and mass and have them solve for volume. This will force them beyond route memorization and push them more towards actual learning.
Today we covered lesson plans and had to write our own lesson plans following a specific format. The format includes review, new information including objectives, and practice/evaluation to get the kids involved. We'll see how that goes. I have model school in 4 weeks, so I hope my language and comprehension is good enough by then.
Hmmm.. What else? Quoi d'autre? I washed my clothes for the first time here on Sunday. And no, they don't have washing machines here - not even where I live. So this was my washing experience. You get two big plastic bowls and one plastic bucket. You go out to the back of the house where the hose is and fill the plastic bucket full with water. Then you bring it to the bowls and pour some in each bowl so they're half full. The bucket will be a quarter to half full by this point. Then you grab a few items of clothing and throw the into the first bowl of water. You soak them. Then you grab your bar of soap (aka Burkinabé detergent - they use this soap to wash everything I believe) and you scrub your item of clothing with the bar of soap. Then you stretch a small area of it between your hands and scrub one side on the inside of your wrist and then the other on your other wrist. You do this with all parts of your item of clothing. Then you ring it out and drop it in the next bowl. Then you repeat, using less soap and probably not spending as much time on it. You ring it out and drop it into the bucket. The bucket is the rinse cycle. You rinse out your clothing and ring it out again. Then you shake out your item, turn it inside out if necessary and hang it on the line. They even have plastic clips for the windier days. Then you repeat with the rest of your clothes, possibly emptying out your rinse water into a bowl, if you want less soap-filled water for rinsing. I'm not sure if I got all the soap out, but I'm wearing an entire outfit today of my Burkinabé-washed clothes and I'm not having any issues. And they smell clean. The only thing is that some were a little stiff after drying, but no biggie. Oh, another thing, all clothing including bras can be hung on the line, but your underwear cannot - that you leave to dry in your room. I found a nice little someone hidden spot on the bottom shelf of my table because it was a wire checkered shelf. Oh, also, my khaki capris were filthy. They were covered in dirt/sand and had taken on a darker tan color and the bottoms had dirt all over them. ?So, Nadesh (my sister who actually helped wash all my clothes, except my underpants - she might have helped with those, too, but I didn't want her to) pulled out the wash board and a large scrub brush and went to town on my capris. She did a fantastic job and got everything out!. They look just like new. I wonder if I'll be able to do as good a job as she. Well we'll see. I think I may do laundry ever other week, because I'm cheap (don't want to buy soap every week) and I don't think I need to wash my clothing more than that.
So, I'm more comfortable now and I'm coming into my own. I still need to spend a lot of time on my language, but I think I'll try to spend some extra time on it each night or something like that.
I hope you're all doing well. I miss you. I do miss home and a lot of the food because I just love US food. So, you can send chocolate, nut mix, candy, anything yummy to snack on, tuna/salmon in a bag, organic drink mix to add to water (Lib, you know what it is :)), breakfast bars (especially the peanut nature valley or the ones with yogurt, or anything organic) I'll let you know more later. Maybe I'll try mac and cheese out of a box once I'm at site....
Stephanie
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