Don't worry, I'm OK! things are fine here. It was actually about as uneventful as a coup can be. Here in Rosso you wouldn't have even known. People are still having some trouble getting in and out of Nouakchott...but other than that and the old president and PM being under arrest it's business as usual! There seem to be really mixed opinions about it here, and depending on who you talk to you could get a vastly different answer.
In other news, I started actual work this past week. We spend 3 weeks teaching at Model School--basically classrooms with actual kids who get a certificate for going to English school over the summer. I taught 3 days last week, and teach1 or 2 hours a day for the next 2 weeks. It's hard because we skip around between classes, and it's so hard to know where the students are at! These are seriously multi-level classrooms. So far, I've taught 1st year (they start the first year of middle school), 5th year and the adult class. It's a ton of work, but I really, really like it. I spend my nights making lesson plans, which include things like how to set up the chalk board and stuff that I never thought I'd plan out, but it's so important to keep control of the class, especially here. Next week, I'm switching between 4th and 5th year, and then will stick with 5th year for the last 7 days.
I also started learning Hassaniya, which is fun and intense. It's hard to learn a non-written language! The Peace Corps basically made up an alphabet with French letters to make it easier for us to learn, but there are so many sounds we just don't have. It's also really interesting learning one foreign language in another (the class is taught in French). My family really likes that I'm learning, even though I haven't had much time to study yet! The whole switching languages and starting school at the same time thing was a lot for one week, plus the whole coup thing and just general toubab fun...it was a really busy but wonderful week.
OK, I hope all is well at home! Keep in touch! And thanks to people who have sent mail! I got a letter from Natalie and a bday card from Linds, and it rocked my world. And as always my moms are the best mail senders :)
Lots of love!
7 comments:
hi! we watched some of opening Olympic ceremony last night, and there were the athletes from Mauritania with, of course, description of the current political situation - I think they has about 11 athletes - pretty cool!
missing you here at the Cape! (we got cable and internet - so much for offline vacations!!!)
xoxo,
mom
p.s. do you think salt water taffy would melt en route???
Who would have thought that in one week, both Mauritania AND Hancock, VT would make the national news?! A coup in Mauritania sends the trainees' parents into a tizzy, and a flood in Hancock sends Chester Baxter's cows up the river; and BOTH stories make the NY Times (the cows survived,though one was found 3 miles away). Wow. (Em - Luke is in VT and he said our house, because it is so high up the hill, is just about the only one in all of Hancock that was not damaged).
I cannot believe you are now learning Hassaniya in French! You are amazing. Please keep these posts coming. I love reading of your adventures.
Much love,
Didi
I mean "I think they HAVE", and I'm not even writing on a French/Hassinaya keyboard
xoxo
I mean "Hassaniya", and I have not yet had a watermelon lemonade!
xoxo again
glad to hear you liked the card; even more glad to hear that you're okay!
we missed you at whammo! reunion - hope all is well and that you're having a blast! :)
Heyy man! Crazy times for you. Sounds like a pretty intense learning experience...I would say similar to the one I will soon be entering - lesson plans by night, rocking the classroom by day. Miss you dude and can't wait to see how your differentiated teaching goes; maybe you'll use some sweet strategies I can borrow.
p.s. that was me and miss you!
--Kfish
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