hiya friends.
My internet is excruciatingly slow, esp. for Arusha town, but that is ok. I came in to print my english and math exams which my students will be taking next wednesday. I wrote them today during my 4 hour break between classes and used another volunteers laptop to type them. it was pretty fun to write out exams. i am really enjoying teaching, even though i had to yell today because on of my students didnt do his homework for the second day in a row. grrrr.

The week has been really good, getting in the swing of teaching, which i have pretty much taken over by myself. lyndsay comes and so does the guy whose class i am taking over, but i have pretty much taught everything and they have checked the homework while i teach. i have a fair amount of classes but will end early on monday, tuesday, and have a huge break on wednesdays. I will get a lot of reading done, or just all my lesson plans done for the week. I have been taking little notes, not quite journaling during the days when i think to, and will share some with you from yesterday:

I am sitting in the school yard, watching the 3 oldest grades, 2, 3, and 4, have PE class. They are all dressed out in their pe clothes, a sweet yellow shirt that says Upendo pre and primary school PE. (i want one!). The are in neat lines, doing stretches and minor things like crunches and squats. The teacher teaches with a stick in her hand. I watch as the kids sit down, legs stretched, and struggle to touch their foreheads to their knees as they are told. The teacher walks around pushing their heads down until they touch, and popping them with her stick on the wrist if they can't do it. I have never seen a kid be hit at school like this. We have had lots of conversation about it, lyndsay has said she will leave the school if she sees it. I am pretty torn about it. I know that i will never ever hit my students, nor will i tell the headmaster who did not do their homework, knowing that he will only hit them. But as i sit here, i wonder if i will ever say anything to the other teachers about how i feel about it, or even bring it up in general at all. Sitting here watching it happen, i wonder, do i condone it? or am i merely being cultural respectful as i think i am. or am i hiding behind the excuse of being culturally sensitive because i just fear saying something. hmm. a kid gets sick and comes to the side. he is taken hold of by the head master and two teachers. he can barely stand on his own. he is not throwing up, but spitting thick gloppy spit every minute. The headmaster massages quite forcefully his stomach, tumbo in swahili- a word i know..., maybe making him be sick.... i wonder if he is dehydrated, but decide not to say anything. it is finally a dry and hot day in Usa River. They take him in the school jeep, maybe home, maybe to a doctor.

My journalnoting was interrupted by the head teacher asking me to write the exams for next week, which i did today. He talked me through what sound be on them and the format to put them in. I hope i didnt make them too hard. I dont want them to struggle but also dont want them to not be prepared for the national exam later this summer.

I have a pretty sweet bite on my arm, im thinking spider. it gets bigger every day and looks pretty nasty. its a perfect circle, and i am hoping it doesnt get to the point that i have to get it drained like my past spider bites..... a trip to the doctor for something so trivial (or maybe not) is not what I want. My skin has hated me, honestly, here. all the deet and sunscreen- not that its been sunny- and the lack of showering.... hey TIA (this is africa) we dont have to shower so regularly. plus the bug bites and new laundry soap. The girl at the computer next to me has a full ring, not a circle and said hers is a fungus. she said she just went to the pharmacy and got some cream and its gotten better. she looked at mine- said that is how hers started haha. awesome! so maybe i have fungus growing on my arm....

Alright i dont think i have more to say.... we are working still on zanzibar and i am talking with emma about a trip down, trying to work that out without missing too much teaching- i feel bad leaving them hanging, though they have managed before.... so we shall see. all in all, things are really good. i really like it here, my swahili- at least my greeting is getting better, and life is good.
take care of you