So, I live at school now, which is okay because the other teachers are nice and they’ve started selling food in the teacher’s lounge. (Though, don’t buy the juice, because, well, trust me on this one). I’m almost done putting in grades for the second sequence which is good.
I think it’s funny that Peace Corps expects us to be a volunteer for the “whole community” and not just our “host institution” (my host institution is Lycee Classique) but, I find it hard to get away from the school these days. I guess summers are for “getting to know my community.” I’m definitely trying, but Mokolo isn’t a village. There are some volunteers who live in villages that are half the size of the student population of Lycee Classique. We’ve got about 3,300 of the little suckers running around.
Speaking of, I really, REALLY enjoy my students. I was sick two days this past week (again, don’t drink the juice) and my kids were all really concerned/agreed to come in on Saturday to make up the lost classes. (It’s pretty standard to make kids come in on Saturday, so that part isn’t remarkable; it’s remarkable that they are legitimately concerned for my health.)
They’re also pretty funny. My 5eme 3 class is full of rascals, but they’re not awful. We had class on Tuesday during the last hour of the day. And it was pretty brutally hot. One of the kids lets out a big sigh and shouts “Mi Soumi!” (I’m making up the spelling here) which is fulfulde for “I’m tired!” (One of the few phrases I know, because I use it often) I turn around and asked “Are you tired?” And won mad respect from all of my students who now think I understand fulfulde.
My 1ere class is going well too. They’re babbling a lot more, which is great. Most Cameroonians can read and write English incredibly well, they just can’t speak it. They’re getting a lot better about actually speaking. Today we were going over prefixes and suffixes. And I asked the students to define the word “overcritical” and after one had given a reasonable definition, a kid in the front row shouts out “like women!” To which his neighbor gave a disgusted look and just said “no!” The first child replied with “My mother is overcritical! All the time!”It was pretty hilarious.
It’s pretty funny to listen to them babble. I was writing “I put a spoon___ of sugar in my tea.” on the chalkboard (hoping they’d fill in the blank with “ful”) And I hear my class prefect quietly reading the question. When he gets to the word tea, he shouts out “tea, I like tea!” Then another child asks him “would you like some tea?” And a third responds “yes I want to drink tea!” and they kept babbling on like that while I finished writing the exercise. This may not seem remarkable or hilarious to any of you, but I’m really pretty proud that they’re actually using the English language.
Yep, so other than that, nothing new to report. I’ve just turned into a boring teacher who has nothing better to talk about than her students. I suppose Peace Corps would be wanting me to make more of an effort to “integrate into my community,” but I know my neighbors well, and I’m getting to know Mokolo a little bit better everyday.
That’s all for now.
Emily
