lions and tigers and bears...OH MY!
well, not exactly those three...but can we say: snakes and rats and termites OH MY! haha. yea well they're all normal, and don't bother me too much anymore... but i'll get to those stories in a bit...First I want to apologize that its been two weeks...but i've been busy (and apparently i'm '...' crazy today so i guess you'll have to deal with bad punctuation!)
well, i guess i'll start where i left off 2 weeks ago. the weekend was normal, nothing exciting happened. then on monday, i had one of the worst days at my school that i've had in a long time. after lunch i watched the teacher on duty cane about 100 students over the course of 40 minutes. theres nothing i can really do about it to stop it as its occurring but i think i'm going to have to have some sensitization workshops or something. its not a good thing to see or hear everyday and all. maybe its just my american attitude about things but i dont like it -- so there!
Now since my week started off bad, i knew it was only going to get worse! Monday night while i was half sleeping (because thats what you do for 12 hours every night because it gets dark at 7p and theres nothing else to do) i heard a snake on my roof. i convinced myself that it wasn't really a snake and it was just my vivid imagination that i've always had at night and went back to sleep...man was i just hopeful. when i woke up tuesday morning i had forgotten all about it. i prepared my water for my bath and opened the door to my bathing area and noticed something in the corner. now i thought to myself "how did newspaper get in my bathing area...there are no holes in the wall". so i went inside and got my broom, and pulled what i thought was newspaper into the light and it wasn't newspaper at all! it was actually the biggest section of snake-skin i had ever seen! i slammed the door to my bathing area shut and ran inside. i didnt actually see the snake but knowing that it was once there made me a little apprehensive for bathing in there that morning. needless to say i bathed in my living room -- yay for cement floors! Later that day, while sitting on the taxi waiting to go to the college i realized that the snake must have eaten the rats and mice that were all around my house since i hadn't seen them lately! at least there was something good that came out of the snake being there.
When i arrived at the college, i talked with the principal and the deputy principal about how i never see my counterpart and am bored with not much to do at site. they both said they would talk to him on thursday during a meeting at the college. i taught on wednesday as usual and had a great time.
thursday i went to kampala for All-Volunteers Conference and it was a great time. it was really good to see everyone that i haven't really seen in the past 2 months. in addition i talked to my PC supervisor about the issues i am having at site with my counterpart and she called my supervisor and asked him to actually help me do things. we also devised a plan of attack for what i was to do once arriving back at site after the conference.
the conference lasted until saturday morning when a bunch of us went to the source of the nile to go white-water rafting. i will have to say that i agree that those rapids are probably the best in the world and i really enjoyed it. class 5 rapids...and we only flipped once. i got majorly sunburned -- it was the worst sunburn i have ever experienced in my life actually! i finally got back to site sunday afternoon. i was exhausted and just ready to relax.
monday and tuesday i stayed in my house all day because my legs were so burned that i couldn't actually walk. tuesday we had major storms and a huge tree on the road behind my house got hit by lightning and my house flooded! but hey, its africa...that's what happens!
wednesday and thursday i resumed my normal schedule and was at the college to teach! its amazing how much i enjoy being in the classroom teaching math. the most frustrating part is when then don't understand my "american accent". getting to the college wednesday morning was interesting. Since it was raining (still from tuesday) no taxis were going up to the college (the road is really bad), so i started walking the 8km up the mountain. well after one truck splashed me with a much puddle i looked pathetic enough that some nice people drove me up about 5 km. i then walked the last 2.5 km up the mountain to the college. i got there and all my students were asking me why i was wet and i had to explain to them that it was because i walked up. they were all impressed. none of them have that much drive and commitment to things. i hope they learn how to be committed to their jobs and things through my actions. that's another outside lesson i'm hoping to teach them.
this weekend has been good too. saturday i went to town with a friend of mine. we bought tomatoes and eggs in the market -- its always exciting to be in the market. people yelling for you to buy from them. always bargaining...ahh the joys of life.
well i think that's all thats new with me. i am still trying to get pictures posted, hopefully soon. my biggest problem (other than really slow internet) is that i dont have hours to devote to posting pictures. maybe there will be internet at the college this week though. we'll see! :) miss you all. hope you all are enjoying your summer! :) -al
well, i guess i'll start where i left off 2 weeks ago. the weekend was normal, nothing exciting happened. then on monday, i had one of the worst days at my school that i've had in a long time. after lunch i watched the teacher on duty cane about 100 students over the course of 40 minutes. theres nothing i can really do about it to stop it as its occurring but i think i'm going to have to have some sensitization workshops or something. its not a good thing to see or hear everyday and all. maybe its just my american attitude about things but i dont like it -- so there!
Now since my week started off bad, i knew it was only going to get worse! Monday night while i was half sleeping (because thats what you do for 12 hours every night because it gets dark at 7p and theres nothing else to do) i heard a snake on my roof. i convinced myself that it wasn't really a snake and it was just my vivid imagination that i've always had at night and went back to sleep...man was i just hopeful. when i woke up tuesday morning i had forgotten all about it. i prepared my water for my bath and opened the door to my bathing area and noticed something in the corner. now i thought to myself "how did newspaper get in my bathing area...there are no holes in the wall". so i went inside and got my broom, and pulled what i thought was newspaper into the light and it wasn't newspaper at all! it was actually the biggest section of snake-skin i had ever seen! i slammed the door to my bathing area shut and ran inside. i didnt actually see the snake but knowing that it was once there made me a little apprehensive for bathing in there that morning. needless to say i bathed in my living room -- yay for cement floors! Later that day, while sitting on the taxi waiting to go to the college i realized that the snake must have eaten the rats and mice that were all around my house since i hadn't seen them lately! at least there was something good that came out of the snake being there.
When i arrived at the college, i talked with the principal and the deputy principal about how i never see my counterpart and am bored with not much to do at site. they both said they would talk to him on thursday during a meeting at the college. i taught on wednesday as usual and had a great time.
thursday i went to kampala for All-Volunteers Conference and it was a great time. it was really good to see everyone that i haven't really seen in the past 2 months. in addition i talked to my PC supervisor about the issues i am having at site with my counterpart and she called my supervisor and asked him to actually help me do things. we also devised a plan of attack for what i was to do once arriving back at site after the conference.
the conference lasted until saturday morning when a bunch of us went to the source of the nile to go white-water rafting. i will have to say that i agree that those rapids are probably the best in the world and i really enjoyed it. class 5 rapids...and we only flipped once. i got majorly sunburned -- it was the worst sunburn i have ever experienced in my life actually! i finally got back to site sunday afternoon. i was exhausted and just ready to relax.
monday and tuesday i stayed in my house all day because my legs were so burned that i couldn't actually walk. tuesday we had major storms and a huge tree on the road behind my house got hit by lightning and my house flooded! but hey, its africa...that's what happens!
wednesday and thursday i resumed my normal schedule and was at the college to teach! its amazing how much i enjoy being in the classroom teaching math. the most frustrating part is when then don't understand my "american accent". getting to the college wednesday morning was interesting. Since it was raining (still from tuesday) no taxis were going up to the college (the road is really bad), so i started walking the 8km up the mountain. well after one truck splashed me with a much puddle i looked pathetic enough that some nice people drove me up about 5 km. i then walked the last 2.5 km up the mountain to the college. i got there and all my students were asking me why i was wet and i had to explain to them that it was because i walked up. they were all impressed. none of them have that much drive and commitment to things. i hope they learn how to be committed to their jobs and things through my actions. that's another outside lesson i'm hoping to teach them.
this weekend has been good too. saturday i went to town with a friend of mine. we bought tomatoes and eggs in the market -- its always exciting to be in the market. people yelling for you to buy from them. always bargaining...ahh the joys of life.
well i think that's all thats new with me. i am still trying to get pictures posted, hopefully soon. my biggest problem (other than really slow internet) is that i dont have hours to devote to posting pictures. maybe there will be internet at the college this week though. we'll see! :) miss you all. hope you all are enjoying your summer! :) -al
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