2 Months In

So here I am, two months at site.  Things are feeling pretty good, teaching is, teaching.  Getting around (out of site) is easier but still a pain in the butt, so doesn’t happen that often.  I think the highlight of the past week was springing a Pop Quiz on my students.  Here’s some of the lovely reactions to me saying “Put your notebooks away, take out a clean piece of paper, we are having a quiz”:

-Students: No!
Me: Yes!
Students: NOO!
Me: This quiz is happening whether you want it to or not, put your notes away.”
Students: Teacher…this is not okay

-Students: Teacher, we are not ready!
Me: I know, that is why you are getting a quiz.  To see if you study when I don’t tell you to.
Students: But we do not! You will give us a quiz Monday, we will do well!
Me: No, I will give you a quiz now and we will see how you do.

-One of my students just looks at me and goes…
Student: I will take a zero.
Me: Claude, I know you will have at least one correct answer because you know one answer very well.
Student: No…I will take a zero.

And sometimes my students leave me notes at the end of their homework, tests, quizzes, etc.  Here’s a few from that quiz

“Teacher, I love you so so much, you teaching us very very good.”
”Good Luck Teacher.”
”God loves you to be with me Teacher.” (Not really sure what it means…)

And my personal favorite, written at the bottom of one of the quizzes:
”Sinzi, God help me.” [English Translation: I don’t know, God Help me]

Hahaha, nuggets like that make the grading a little less painful.  Because they still bombed, but ahhh such is life.

The end of the term is coming up…and that means I get to write a final. Or rather, 2 finals.  My S2 final should be fine, we’ve covered plenty but my S1 final…having a hard time figuring out what’s going to be on it.  Mainly because since I’ve gotten my S1 class…we’ve learned one, maybe 2 things.  They really, really know what a characteristic is, and they know the characteristics of living things.  That’s about all the material we’ve covered.  How do I write a final worth 50% of the trimester grade on just those 2 things?!  I have no idea, but like everything else here, I’ll figure it out.

Okay, so good news.  I checked the mail…and there was a package for me!  So, thank you very much to Ron and Bev Jackowitz for their wonderful care package.  And for all of you out there wondering, this round took about 2.5 weeks to get to Rwanda.  After talking to other PCVs who have been here longer, that’s about the quickest it will ever take.  So still plan on it taking a while to get to me.  But, the first package made it to Rwanda safe, sound and I look at it and am like a little kid in a candy shop.

Also have decided that’s it’s coming up on that time to subject my town (and myself) to the debacle of me running.  The whole Rwandan starch based diet, no matter how hard I combat it, having everyone trying to fatten me up, etc. is just not being kind to my body.  And it’s not like I’m horribly lazy, I walk everywhere it’s just I don’t think that’s enough.  So, once the trimester is done and I don’t have to be at school at 7:30 each morning, going out and finding a good running route to make sure that I come back to the States looking relatively the same.

We’ve got out IST training at the end of April, it’ll be in the lakeside town of Kibuye.  This will be the first time our entire Education group has been together since training.  It’ll be really nice to see everyone, swap stories and see how site has been going.  Plus, we get to be on Lake Kivu and explore around there!  So that’s a little vacation to look forward to during my upcoming break.

I think that’s about it for now, I probably won’t update for about a month since I’m not planning on leaving site until IST.  So, don’t get antsy, just be patient.  Think of it this way, the less often I update…the more stories I have when I do!