I was just about to start typing a blog when the power went out. I thought for a second I just wasn’t meant to write yet but it came on a few minutes later. Sorry its been so long I know some of you have been waiting SINCE and some of you have probably given up on it and aren’t checking anymore. I had a busy summer where it was hard to get a computer and get to an internet café. I've also as always been in somewhat of a transition. At the beginning I could tell you about all the crazy and exciting things that were happening, as I was here longer those things still happened but I didn’t seem interesting enough to talk about, I wanted to talk more about more complex cultural issues and other things that would be difficult to appreciate were you not living here (I tried a bit). Now frankly theres nothing I really want to talk about, life has become pretty normal and it seems the purpose for the blog will just be to inform everyone how I'm doing and what I'm up to. Maybe itll be interesting anyhow.
I'm gonna start way back when when I went on vacation in Europe. Thanks to everyone there, I had a really good time. I put on over 10 lbs. and had some much needed R&R. It wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be going to a developed country, after a few hours I felt right back at home. I'm glad I didn’t go back to the US or I might have felt too at home. I could have transitioned back but it might have been more difficult. I dreaded getting on the plane to come back, but as it turned out coming back wasn't all that difficult. I remember coming back I only had about 8000cfa (16 dollars) in cash and I had to give my taxi driver to the bus station a bottle of wine to cover some of the taxi fare. Gotta love that you can do that. It was almost a relief to return to the pace of life here…its very hard to be late for something. I remember being in Italy rushing a shower when I was dead tired and I'd just had my camera stolen and I thought: "If I wasn’t in Florence with an appointment to see the statue of David I could just take a nap like I want to". Sounds ridiculous but I hadn’t felt that rushed/tired/obligated since I'd gone to post. After Europe I had mid-service where they test you for every possible disease you may have picked up. I was hoping I'd get something exotic sounding and easily curable but unfortunately all my tests were negative. I went back to post for a week where I met my new postmate who lives about 30 minutes from me. She is also a teacher at a high school. It has been nice to have an American somewhat closer than before…I usually don’t go a week without seeing her at least once. I traveled back with her to the training site to help with model school. If you don’t remember model school is the name of the summer classes the Peace Corps runs to prepare new teachers to teach. It was fun to see how far I've come in being used to the culture and especially in teaching. I think students have a very precise confidence detector. I enjoyed watching them cause trouble for the new teachers while I watched from the back. One time I caught eye contact with some kids talking and gave them the finger to lips "shhh" and he got his friends attention and said "Mr. Bradford said to be quiet" and they were quiet for a few minutes at least. Felt good. I enjoyed relaxing with other Americans and seeing a lot of people from my training group that came out to help. I didn’t get to travel as much as I wanted but I'll get to before I leave. After training I relaxed a bit and got ready for the school year. This year will be much better than last year. For one I know what I'm doing, know most of the teacher and how the school works. Second I got most of the classes I wanted, I'm teaching Form 1 and Form 3 Physics (Form 2 had 250 students. I took them last year and refused to do so again this year). Because another physics teacher came this year I have only those two classes for physics and I took a Form 4 maths class. (Did you know they say "maths" in british English? I'm not sure if they actually pronounce the s in Britain like they do here). My schedule is a little lighter than last year and I have Wednesdays and Fridays off. Its gonna be rough getting back to the real world, I know. On my days off I do chores, cook elaborate meals, etc. I still get bored but it is not as bad as last year. We got a new principal this year (old one retired) which I was very happy about because he was keeping the students in class from 730 all the way till 3, but I just found out yesterday hes been changed. Not sure why I've only been hearing rumours but I hope the new ones just as good. I'm trying to get my basketball court proposal in but I have to wait to have this new principal sign off on it. Lately people have been asking when I'm leaving and I feel bad saying at the end of this year. It seems too soon. It happens less often but sometimes it doesn’t seem soon enough. After hanging out with the PCVs leaving in December I've decided its not going to be easy at all to go back to the states. Those thoughts will have to wait for another time. Sorry again the update took so long, I'm not going to promise to update soon but now that I'm at post its definitely easier. Hope everyones good.
brad
