A New Year

Feels good to be back in the swing of things. School opening was today- it was a pretty typical ceremony- long, hot, somewhat confusing, and conducted in several languages- but it was enjoyable. It was nice to be back with the other teachers, to see some of my old students, and to be recognized rather than stared at. The jarring part of today came when I was told I’d be teaching 8th and 9th grade in the mornings, rather than 12th grade in the afternoon as I’d expected. I was pretty frazzled at first- I was prepared for the 12th graders, their enthusiasm, their knowledge base, their (relative) maturity- and I was all ready to use lesson plans from last year I’ve been compiling. However, in the last 8 hours I’ve become pretty excited about the little guys- I’ve already planned my first 9 lessons and I have the first trimester laid out. I get to teach the alphabet, ‘to be’, colors, body parts, greetings, all the basic stuff, and I can dance around and sing songs and even if they think I’m weird and crazy, they’re young enough they won’t be too cool to join in. I guess one downside is that I’m teaching 30 hours, everyday from 7:00 til 12:00, but at least I have my afternoons and nights free.
I’m not sure how to backtrack and get through what’s happened in the last 2 months... Classes finished, I controlled tests, graded said tests, said goodbye to students, met the new PCVs who arrived in country in October, threw a beach party for the new volunteers, took over complete control of REDES (yikes!), went to South Africa to pick up Will who happened to get stuck in London, spent Christmas with my new family, spent New Years with Will (finally) at the beautiful beach, saw 4 of the big 5 in Kruger, took several hot showers and ate home cooked American food, and... well, started year 2 of being a volunteer.
The last few months have been anything but dull and have taught me a lot about how far I’ve come in the last year. When my brother was here, I was about to show him around, to let him into my life here in Africa. It was fantastic when he met my adoptive families, when he saw my house and my school, walked through the market with me, met my friends, and saw the beautiful country I live in. It felt somewhat like two worlds colliding at moments- I kept having to remember my little brother was actually visiting me in Africa!- but absolutely wonderful. The holidays definitely made me miss home, but coming out the other side and starting school is helping with the homesickness.
Kruger was great!! I didn’t take but one picture, but my brother took at least 2,000 while he was here so I’ll find a way to link you to them if you’re interested in looking. The first few moments in the park we drove upon zebras, impala, water buffalo, and elephants. A few minutes later we ran into giraffes and a rhino. It was crazy!!! And so many monkeys! I’m so glad I finally made it there and I had the best time with Will. It was so hard to leave him at the airport- I wanted to jump on the plane with him.
This year is going to be so different from what I’ve been used to. My teaching schedule is completely different, I’m in charge of one of the biggest secondary projects in the country, it’s the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps and I’m on the planning committee, I can finally speak Portuguese and will be learning Changana, I have friends and family, and I’m for the most part comfortable here. I still have my moments of thinking “what the hell did I get myself into here!” but not as many as before. I promise, now that I’m back in school and FINALLY on a schedule, I’ll start writing more blogs and try to keep you up to date.
Oh, one thing- when I came home I found 5 puppies in my backyard. They’re still somewhat scared of me but I think I’m going to get the best of them- I don’t have to feed them or take care of them but they watch over my house and I get company when I want it. I’m kinda scared to name them because they have the potential to get stolen but we’ll see.