Photos!

Hello all,


After a few attempts and a couple of hours, I have managed to successfully upload some photos. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to upload half of those that I wanted to because the internet station got too crowded and I was slowing up the entire system, but I managed to get some shots of my house uploaded.

As for news: the rest of my work week finished up well. I was nervous about teaching at the technical school because the kids are older and therefore have developed teenage attitudes. The classes went well, though. I teach all four class years in four separate classes. The fourth year is great: only 30 students, very mature, intelligent, and motivated. Third year is similar, though it's bigger (50 students) and has a few kids in the class who work really hard at distracting the others. Second year has 90 kids, and the first year has 130. Surprisingly, I didn't have much trouble with a class this big. It means leaving class with a slightly strained voice and not knowing if half the class understood the material, but it was definitely not as bad as I would have imagined teaching a class of 130 sixteen year olds could be. I am excited to get back to the primary school tomorrow. I'll be there from Monday to Thursday now, and I'm excited for the extra day I'll have there. Once the novelty of my being there wears off and the kids have calmed down a little, I will bring my camera into school so I can get some pictures to you.

In other news, I'm looking somewhat hilarious right now because I agreed to let my friend braid my hair. So, I've got long "tresses" which everyone else seems to think look awesome because they were well done, but I'm pretty convinced I just look like an idiot. Thankfully, my hair will go frizzy in a day or two because slippery blond hair is not meant for tressing, and then I'll have a legitimate excuse to remove the braids. I spent the day yesterday playing frisbee with my friend Annie and her kids and having the entire gaggle of neighborhood kids gather around as I had my hair braided.

Other than that, not much else is new. I could definitely go for a fresh garden salad about now: the large quantities of potatoes, plantains, rice, and spaghetti are already getting old. A special note for a particular cousin of mine who hates green vegetables: what I wouldn't give for green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, peas, lettuce, anything! Take advantage of the fact that you have them!

I've got a good amount of work ahead of me to prepare for next week - mostly packets for the teachers, since they are much more ambitious learners and we cover a lot of material in each class. Given that there are only seven of them, I can afford to create handouts and am going to use the remainder of my "school supplies" budget in buying them all French-English dictionaries, stocking the schools with good books, and other necessities like that.

It's great hearing from all of you. Keep in touch!

Lindsay