Small Small

Everyday I usually wake up to the sounds of the water pump outside my house. It starts at about 6am and continues to keep me just enough awake to be annoyed, as the surrounding families get their water. Sometime around 7:30 I get up and mix milk powder with water for either my instant coffee or my cereal(rare). Other times I light up the kerosene stove and fry up an egg. If I am up for it I take a bucket bath. I arrive at school sometime around 8am or shortly after, as my students are slowly showing up. At 8:30 the bell rings. As in a student takes an actual bell and rings it. I am teaching two strings of JSS1 Math and two strings of JSS2 Electronics. I might be getting JSS3 Electronics depending on the level of interest that the students show. Two strings more of less means two different classrooms. So as of now I have four classrooms, full of 50+ students that I have to teach four times a week. BTW I am teaching at a muslim school which runs from Sunday-Thursday. JSS is the equivalent of middle school here though the age range is not as small as it is in the states. So far Ive noticed kids ranging from 10 years old to 19 years old. I guess the important part is that they allow them to come no matter the age and that they find it important enough to come. I have alot to learn about the education system here. They respond well enough to me so far though its hard to tell how much they can actually understand me or the things I teach. I somehow need to get across the importance of math to them....but even in America most students dislike it. I think the hardest part for me is definitely going to be the disciplining. I am a softy and cannot even yell at them without smiling. We will see how it goes. School gets out around 2:30pm and I so far have been spending my free time shirtless and overheated in my bed trying to read, or hanging out next door. I have also started really enjoying Football. As in soccer. It is the only thing I can watch here on a regular basis so I suppose its nice that I enjoy it. I always watched the World Cup before coming here and didn't realize all of the league and club games are just as fun to watch...if not more. I usually hit the sack around 9 or 10 depending on the level of interest in my current book or the degree of service that Airtel is able to provide, which enables me lots of chat time with the lady love. I am starting to enjoy alot of the food here, alot of which I think has to do with the good cooks next door. Either that or the high levels of salt and msg are getting me addicted. I hopefully will begin working on a world map project on one of the walls of my school soon, depending on the level of interest and commitment I receive from others. I am looking into gardening, pickling, solar ovens, mapping my town and the methods involved, among other small things.
So far one of the harder things for me is keeping up with one of the Peace Corps goals which is to share and give a better understanding of America and Americans. Almost 100% of the people ive talked to so far all want to go to America and love it. It is hard for them to understand that there is nothing I can do to help them get there. Its all above me at a government level. They have these skewed ideas about life in America and the opportunities available to them. So normally where I should be saying positive things about the US, I am instead doing the opposite to let them know that its not all kittens and rainbows. Everywhere has problems. Though it is hard not to think of how we must look in our movies and music videos to them. And granted life in America is good. We are the most fortunate and spoiled country with almost endless opportunities. And even though joblessness is high now and living expenses are higher, its hard to complain when our houses our nice, we have electricity and running water, most of us have cars, fast internet, fancy phones, endless food options, paved roads, et cetera. So its interesting to say the least.