Sci-WOW-ence!

spelunking on st. pattys day with airline whiskey bottles.

This weekend I’m teaching a workshop for teachers from 5 primary schools in the area. They (the teachers) get these maths and science supply/teaching aid kits from the ministry of education, but never use them because they’re afraid of them or something. SO, in my continued role as expander of horizons, enlightener of minds, and general bringer of the light, I am going to show them how to use these kits. Problem is, I have yet to see what exactly is in them. Ho hum. Also, I’m expanding this workshop; in june and july I’ll be leading an enhanced version of ‘love you maths/science kits like they love you’ in Maseru for the Lesotho College of Education. Eventually I’d like to create a short manual/sample curricula to give to all the peace corps resource volunteers so they can do these workshops in their own districts. Then the WHOLE COUNTRY will be able to successfully teach maths and science, and the students will be empowered, and the country will be elevated as a whole. Lookie me and my big aspirations. AND my momma is sending me my book! Yes, if you weren’t aware, I’m a published author of a book with the most cumbersome non-acronym friendly name in the history of evar: No Hassle Messy Science With a Wow: Chemistry in the K-8 Classroom. And I got some shitty credits on it, too. My name was listed last, so I look like a hanger on or something, but I know in my heart I wrote a large chunk of the book. So there.

Other projects in the works: Creating a library at my school (I may, sometime in the future request book donations from you all back home), starting an HIV/AIDS peer teaching group at my school (where I train some enthusiastic/intelligent/natural leaders of my students on all manner of HIV/AIDS information, and then they go out and teach their peers about it. So it isn’t just another talking head at the front of the classroom railing on them about the dangers of it all, like they don’t know already.), and also I want to bring in HIV AIDS testers/counselors/awareness spreaders to the winter sports tournament in June. Also in September we’re going to organize a sports camp event, where we use some sport (probably soccer) as a hook to get ~200 kids from the region to come for a weekend, then we’ll have free HIV testing, and also counseling/education/etc. And we want to do a career faire/day thing too sometime to show the kids that jobs do exist, and they matter, and stuff. Also I’m the Volunteer Advisory Committee representative for my district, I have yet to discover exactly what that entails, but I do get to come to maseru may 9-12 for a meeting and I’ll find out then. So much stuff happening! And school is hectic as well. I don’t get home till 5ish, and it’s dark by 6, so I have a very small window in which to get shit done. Which is going to get worse, because my school has been chosen to pilot this “double shifting” program to combat overcrowding of classrooms. How this works is half the students will come to school from 7am-noon, and then the other half will come from noon-5pm. Issues: 1) the same set of teachers is used for the whole day. Ergo, I will now be at school for 10 hours a day. 2)my school is really far away from everything, on a precipice. It takes all the students 1-2 hours to walk there, and in winter it’s pitch dark at 7 am and 5 pm, and it’s really dangerous to go out at night here. 3) all extra-curricular activities and sports are fucked because, when will they occur? And 4) I’m a whiny bitch and don’t want to work that hard. They’re paying the teachers extra for the long hours as compensation, so I guess that means I will just get to have an extra warm feeling in my heart since I work for free. Ugh.

And it’s cold as balls at night! I have a gas heater which works pretty well, but releases an unknown and possible worrisome amount of carbon monoxide, and I have no detector, so I’m afraid to keep it on for more than an hour or so. I have 4 comforters though (1 down!) so I sleep pretty well, it’s just so hard to get out of bed in the morning, I snooze for 20-30 minutes. AND IT SNOWED! Already! This does not bode well for actual winter time.

Anyway, so July, in Sesotho, is “phuphu” which is pronounced “poopoo”. How fitting is that! I’m born in the month of poop! Though I’m a bit jealous of june birthdays because june is “phuptjane” pronounced “poop-johnny”.

On another note, I asked my students to write me anonymous notes telling me how I’m doing as a teacher. Here are some gems:
“To be fair and honest I am indeed enjoyable in most times when you visit our calss for teaching Madam; you teach us with solidarity and I am free with that!!!”
“you are teaching very nice but you have to decrease the notes hey! You are giving us so much notes To be fair you are teaching very nice KEEP IT UP!”
“you teach us nicely madam because you make us to laugh when it is time for science” “You tought us good, but a thing is that you are giving us a lot of notes but I tsoarela (forgive) you because you are not Mosotho and you cannot pronous words good.” “MADAM REBECCA As a maths teacher my announcement to you is that everything you do also what you have done. My under on you is good and my feelinfs about you are fabulous. I understand your teaching much better than the last maths teacher,”
“Infact I understand your subject and you tolerate other people. You don’t know how to tease people. You are always well dressed and you are pity.”
--from a whiny student I kicked out of class for fighting with a girl “you are not teaching well and you like to expel others in your class. You should not do that.”
“you do very well that every student understand. You are able to pass the knowledge that you have to us and you are the best of my maths teachers that have taught me. Keep it up please.”
“there is nothing further to worry about because she has got the ability to express herself in speaking then, she taught us well from the beginning up to end, until now. So congradulation for her!!!”
and, one of my favorites, i think the student mixed up "how" and "what": "you are walking but too slowly, going up and down. You are removing the bottle from its lid then take it from it for the last time"