quick update

Hi all,

Not much new around here but I had some time so I thought I'd type a quick update about what's going on with me.

This past week has been pretty great. I was down one roomate and then my other roomate went on a school trip with some high school students so I thought rather than staying in my big house all alone I'd ask Rosi if I could stay with her. Rosi and I have had a great week together just cooking with each other, going on walks, and having good girl-time! She is from Fiji and her husband stayed in Fiji while her and her two sons came here so I think she misses out on girl time so we've definitely been chatting the nights away about stuff she never gets to talk about with her sons and stuff I never talk about with my roomates. It's been a nice change of pace. We've also been planning how we can visit one another's homes once I leave and once she's done with her contract in Africa...it's such a shame, but I guess I'm going to have to go to Fiji to see her some time :) It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make though. haha!

Teaching this week went fine and I've stayed really busy getting lessons ready each day. I'm half way through already (wow time flies) but now that all the newness has faded I'm starting to see some gaps in how our classroom functions and some things are starting to frustrate me with teaching. I am finding it most difficult to deal with the lack of technology we have here. Yes, we have computers and the students get time to be on them but anything you want to do with the internet is almost a waste of time because it's so difficult to rely on it ever actually working. That's just one thing that is hard but it is still managable to teach without internet, I just don't like it :) There are other things too that I'm noticing about the function of the class...some things I'll try my best to improve other things I have to just let go because I know that my time here won't change everything and plus it's not my classroom. David does a great job as a teacher but there are things I would do differently just like I'm sure he would think the same if he came into my future classroom. Just a difference in opinion. I'm still enjoying school though even when I do find things a bit difficult. On Friday one of my students gave me a rose for being her teacher and so that was sweet. Things like that make you happy to be such a big part of your students' lives. I'm really getting to know who THEY are as people and it's great to be able to use what I know about them and work that into my lessons so I can engage them better in what we are learning.
There are also times though when I have to see the "not so good" side of my students. This week I was going through some of my students daily workbooks that they write all their work in and when I went to one girls tray I noticed on top a note...I proceeded to read it and it was a mean letter about another girl in the class using some pretty bad language about her. I gave it to David as I took the next lesson he dealt with the issue. Apparently these two girls have a bit of a history with this and actually got in a fist fight last year so he had to jump on this pretty hard. It was nice that he was able to talk to them while I had the class doing other things...a real classroom situation wouldn't allow this typically. Hopefully we disolve this problem before it gets any worse.
Ok, now on to the fun life beyond school....this weekend I have been at Rosi's like I said so we did some cooking and we also did some window shopping around town on Saturday. It was fun to just nose around and see what people had to offer. Then on Valentines day I organized some people to go out to eat at a local restaurant. I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't miss my valentine back home as much :) After supper we went to Glacier ( an outdoor bar) and listened to music and had a drink. I have to tell you about this place...maybe you have to be there to think this is funny but there are these guys singing raggae music (pretty poorly) and then they have a screen up behind them showing animal planet with no sound and then behind us they were having this fancy Valentines day supper...it just didn't seem to make sense. Then today Rosi and another teacher and I went on an early morning walk and saw a beautiful view of Mt. Kili!! Then we had some breakfast together and went to church. It was a good Sunday.

Ok, I've probably bored you to death with my random stories so I'll stop now. I hope all is well back home and I hope to hear about what's going on there. I can't believe it but in a little over a month I'll be back home telling you these stories in person. I miss you all!
Love,
Alissa