sad news...

           Our class pet is no longer with us.  Today, before lunch, the kids were washing their hands at the sink when 2 of the girls come running up to me saying "MS. FISHER!! THERE IS A CROCKROACH CRAWLING UP OUT OF THE SINK!!!!" so i, being the calm, intelligent adult that i am, just said "wash it down!" and they said "ITS TOO BIG!" so husky little Miguel marches over to the sink, picks it up by its antennas and throws it out the door!!!! i was terrified that the stinker was going to drop to the floor somehow and try to kill me!! but i am still alive, and the "crockroach" probably is still alive also, even after the 10 stomps that Miguel gave him after slamming him on the floor.
            Then Miguel walks back in and says "He was biting me the whole time." Do cockroaches bite??????????? blech.
            On a lighter note, i got made fun of for my non-french accent today.  I went to Tafa's to buy some bread for dinner and i don't know anything but vocab words.. like 10 of them. so i just say "bonjour..." and then "pan" for bread, so basically i sound like a cave woman.  Tafa corrects me and says "pan" EXACTLY how i said it! at least it sounded the same to me! its hopeless.  and then the two old men sitting on the bench say "bread!" and i say "oui oui oui!!!!!" BUT this time, i knew exactly the amount of money he asked me for.  (even before he said it in english) so i gave him money and i needed 50 francs for change, and as he is digging through his change bucket, i give him another 50, and he was so proud of me!!!  then he just had to give me 100 francs, which i guess was easier!  not only did i know how much to give him, but i could do math as well!  ..is probably what he was thinking.
             In other news, i paid $6 tonight for a tiny little tub of ice cream... sigh.

another dry day!

            Today I walked home under a sunny, slightly cloudy sky.  I heard some thunder as I walked through the THREE doors to get into my building.  Yes three.  One is a gate, the next is a metal jail door thing and the next is a glass door.  I walked up the looong flight of stairs, into my apartment sweet apartment, and just a few minutes after that there was BIG thunder that rattled the windows. Then, it started pouring!! The second time in a row that God waited to start the rain… JUST for me, I’m sure! : )

            I started to do the dishes, and then decided to go to the roof and enjoy the rain.  Best decision ever! 

            Here is a classroom story for you.. haven’t had much of those yet!  During math today I did a quick lesson and then gave them an assignment and told them I was just going to go and have some cookies because they could handle it on their own.. so about 5 minutes later, one of the little Brazilian boys raises his hand and says “so.. if we have a question, should we just ask one of our neighbors?” and I said “you can just ask me!” and he said “oh, I thought you were leaving!” and I said “oh, I was kidding! Did you all believe me?”  and the CUTE little Japanese girl said “well we never thought you would lie to us!!” yikes, way to make me feel guilty!  They obviously just don’t know me well enough yet.

            Also.. I tried to eat a mango tonight and it had black stuff in it… I was sooooooo sad.  (just had to get my daily mango post in, you know)

            Still wishing I would have gotten a whole tub of n’ice cream…

Floods and Hospitals

…Are two of the things my day consisted of.

            God's protection was the theme of my day, how about you?

            My friend Sandy invited me to go to the International Christian Fellowship with her and some other ladies.  There are people that go to that church who aren’t associated with Dakar Academy, so I thought it would be a good idea to spread my wings a bit. : ) there are also people who go to the DA church that aren’t associated with the school.. but anyway, I don’t think I will have many opportunities to attend ICF because it is pretty far away, so I would need to either take a taxi or find somebody who is willing to drive there, so I told her I would go with her!

            I’m just going to start at the beginning, and it will probably be a LONG post, so grab a cookie and some milk or tea or coffee.. whatever suits your fancy!  : )

            I woke up today at 6:30.. which I was kind of upset about because I didn’t need to be awake until 7:45, but I couldn’t fall back asleep!  And I didn’t sleep too good the night before because it was raining all night so I kept worrying that I was going to wake up in a pile of sewage (I have heard stories, it has happened).  SO  I got out of bed and got ready for church and started walking to Sandy’s apartment (about a 15 minute walk).  It was a REALLY good walk!  It felt wonderful outside, there weren’t many people around, and it was just lightly sprinkling (about a minute after I stepped into the apartment building, it started pouring)  Thank you Lord!!  Towards the end of the walk it started lightning and thundering that REALLY LOUD  thunder that Africa is so blessed with.  I really should invest in an umbrella, but I keep telling myself that would be silly since the rainy season will be over next month.  I think I’m just going to tough it out.

            I also decided on my walk that Dakar would be a MUCH prettier city if people didn’t throw trash wherever they wanted.  It is so sad.  Especially when I see stray cats and dogs digging through the trash.  I just want to give them a hug, but I don’t want to get rabies.  It’s a major dilemma that I face.  : ) 

            Okay, so I got to her apartment building and climbed the 5 flights of stairs, and waited a few minutes for the other ladies to get there.  The first woman who got there is a teacher at the school for deaf and blind children.  She is Senegalese, and she is only 24 and she has a 15 year old son… yup you read that right.  Solve that riddle.  He’s actually her adopted son and she’s not married and doesn’t think she ever will be because of the caste system and the fact that she’s a Christian.  It is so sad because she is so sweet and as a bonus, she’s pretty!  And I just met her today, so I’m sure her resume only gets better!  ALSO, she knows French, Wolof, Pular, (both of those are African languages), Sign Language, AND English.  So… if you know of any single eligible Christian guys… that speak any of these languages… send them on over… and if I don’t like him, she can have him! Just kidding!  …kind of : ) Anyway, I really like her.

            The second lady was Sandy’s next door neighbor and the first thing she said to me was “I don’t usually speak like a robot, I just have a cold.”  She was hilarious the whole day.  She is from Mali and her husband is British and she works with World Vision.. maybe they both do, I’m not positive.  After Sandy had provided us all with umbrellas, we ventured out into the pouring rain to find a taxi.  My first taxi ride ever, and I’m pretty sure I will remember it forever and always!  Well, maybe not the first one, but definitely the second one.  The way taxis work here is you flag one down.. or if you are a Toubab (white) they just honk at you every time because they think they can get more money out of you.  After they stop for you, you tell them where you want to go and you negotiate a price with them.  Everything is like a game here.  So, he told them a price and they asked for lower.. he said no and drove away but then stopped after 5 feet and accepted the lower price. 

            We got in and were on our way!  It was still pouring rain, and I was kind of nervous because I could not see through the windshield, so I don’t know how he was seeing!  Anyway, we made it to church safely and they asked him to come back after church got over.  He said he would.. more on that later.

            By the time we walked from the car to church, we were soaked (good thing I wore my water shoes today.. they didn’t really match but by the end of the day, I did not care) our umbrellas didn’t really do any good.  Actually, I was already soaked even inside the car because I rolled my window down.  I was either going to get wet from sweat or rain, I decided I would rather be rain wet than sweat wet. 

            Once we were inside, the thunder got even louder, and then the power went out.  So, we just had an acoustic guitar and a little djembe drum thing for worship, but I really liked it.  At the DA church, they have a weird synthesizer thing and they sometimes write their own music, which is cool, but every song sounds the same and they all sound like beach boys songs.. okay enough rude talk. I really do like the DA church! 

            The lady sitting next to me was getting dripped on..  it turned out she had chosen the seat under the only leak in the whole building.  Okay probably not the only leak, but still!  Horrible luck!

            The pastor of this church just lost his son, and he stood up in the beginning and was talking about how when good things happen we say “God is good” which is true, but the two statements don’t go together.. his point was that God is good always, no matter what the circumstances are, but we only seem to realize it when good things happen.  It was really powerful coming from him considering what he is going through. 

            After church, we went out to the parking lot and saw a couple of HUGE snails.. everything is bigger here.  We looked for our taxi man and couldn’t find him anywhere, so we found another one and he wanted double the price that we paid to get there.  They said no and we waved down probably 5 more taxis and right when we told them where we wanted to go they drove off right away.. we didn’t know why.  Finally, one of them said he would take us. 

            This was the start of our 2 hour journey.  Normally it would have taken about 20 minutes… The taxi turned down one road that was blocked off because it was flooded.  No big deal, there’s other ways to get there.  He starts going the other way and on the other side of the street is a RIVER where there is usually a road.  He turns down another road, flooded.  Another one, flooded.  We are passing by people bailing bucketfuls of water out of their homes… and cars with their engines completely submerged in water.  There are chunks of the road missing… which is actually normal, but these were huge crater sized chunks missing. Finally, he turns down a road that just has a little bit of water covering it.  By a little bit, I mean about a foot.  There is a really brave car on this road, so our taxi just followed that car and went through a REALLY deep section of water.. I thought we would either turn into a boat or sink for sure.  But right when we got to the end of it, I was so relieved, until a bunch of water splashed me right in the face.  Yuck yuck yuck!  AND my window wasn’t even down cause it didn’t work in this taxi!! So it was the taxi man’s window.. all his fault!

            He finally gets on the high way and I’m thinking we are home safe. Wrong.  We go for a little while, and on the other side of the dividers we start to see some accidents.  Then we come to a point where all the traffic is backed up.  I thought maybe it was just because of an accident, but as we are sitting there, cars start turning around and going the wrong way on the high way,  and people are walking on the side of the road.  The taxi man yelled at somebody walking by and they said that teenagers were blocking the highway because their homes were flooded so they were upset.  They were burning tires in the middle of the highway.  I still don’t really understand why they decided to do THIS in their anger, but they explained it to me that Senegal just got a new president who promised to fix this flooding problem, and he hasn’t fixed it yet so they are trying to make a point..

            So anyway, by this time, the taxi man is so frustrated and says he will just take us back to the church where he picked us up.. which I don’t understand how that is logical since we were pretty close to home.  Anyway, they told him no.  They decided our options were to walk through the demonstration or go somewhere else and wait it out.  Sandy was not in favor of walking through the burning tires.. or even around them.  So we got out of the taxi, paid him double for all his trouble and walked to the hospital that was about a block away.  We went inside and they were sweeping water out and it smelled horrible in there.  Makes me feel REALLY good if I ever need to go to the hospital.. but Sandy did say there was a different hospital that most people go to that was more westernized.  Then, this guy comes along with a backpack full of spray stuff… probably sanitizer.. but he’s just spraying it on top of the yucky water… so THEN this group of four guys comes rushing in carrying a woman who is screaming her head off.  Later, we found out from the radio that she had fallen in a hole and the riot police sprayed her with some chemical.. or something. I didn’t really understand. 

            We went back outside and things were finally starting to calm down.. so we found a taxi who would take us home and we made it back safe and sound!  Crazy day.  Sandy’s husband and kids had gone to the DA church because the kids wanted to… they were the smart ones.  But anyway, they had a yummy lunch waiting for us when we got home!  And then her daughter made this REALLY good mint tea with mint that she had grown herself!! She put cinnamon and vanilla and butter and sugar in the tea!  Such a little gourmet chef!

            We played some uno and talked for a while and then I went home.  I was so tired,  I thought I might fall asleep on the way home!  But, I saw one of my student’s families driving on the road, so that was fun!  They honked at me and waved and at first I couldn’t figure out who it was so I probably gave them a pretty mean look, but then once I figured it out, I felt so bad so I turned around and waved! Hopefully they don’t think I’m a grump!

            Anyway, after this day… I don’t really feel prepared for this week at all.  I am exhausted and I didn’t get as much done yesterday as I would have liked, so please pray that I will have enough energy to power me through this week! 

            Quick update on yesterday, if you are still reading… your cookie and drink are probably gone by now!  Fruit man came so I’m stocked up on mangoes for the week.. I think I talk about mangoes in just about every post.  Then I went grocery shopping with my FRIENDS and got a new huge bottle of water.  Praise the Lord for gentlemen, because I didn’t have to carry it up the steps again! But this one had a handle on it, so that makes it a lot less awkward.. but I still like the gentlemen rules.

            We went to the vegetable stand right next to one of the grocery stores, and there was the most adorable little 2 or 3 year old African boy.  He was eating a dirt/germ covered lollipop but he was just the cutest ever!  I wanted to steal him and keep him as my own especially after watching him for a while.  There was a tub of dirty yucky water and he kept splashing himself with it, dipping his lollipop in it, sucking the yucky off, dipping it back in, rubbing the lollipop on all sorts of dirty yuckies, sucking it… and then he got on the prayer rug and did the prayer thing.  Then, his dad went across the street and the little boy tried to follow him!  Across a busy road!  Thankfully, Travis was there to rescue him but I just wanted to snatch the little guy right up and keep him for.ev.er.

            Also, I got some laundry done yesterday and learned never to hang it on the clothesline outside before wiping the line off.  So much dust.  My sheets now have a nice line of dirt right down the middle.  But I was NOT going to rewash them, so I just put the dirty side of them so they wouldn’t touch me.

            Okay, now I’m done and I’m not proofreading this… so I apologize for any confusion that results. : )

xoxo

a good friday!

           Yesterday was pay day!! Yahoo!! I think I have said this already, but I really like the cfa (that’s what the money is called here) conversion rate because I now have 343,000 cfa to my name… it makes me feel so rich.

            I just still can’t believe they pay me!! Well, sometimes I can. Like, for example, today.. when the power went out and the generator didn’t even work.  Right in the middle of the day.  So, no fans even!!  It was sooo hot in the classroom, so I decided to take my class outside where there was at least a little bit of a breeze to finish our day!  But, that wasn’t even really that bad.. just a little bit inconveniencing, but the kids loved being able to work outside.

            Funny story for the day: My kids tried to guess how old I was on the first day of school.. I didn’t tell them because that would just ruin the fun.  They all took their guesses, which ranged everywhere from 20-28, and two of them guessed correctly.  I think that none of them wanted to guess the same number.. because they couldn’t be copycats, so they just guessed one more than what they really thought.  But anyway,  I keep telling them that I’m old so they have to talk louder… or that I’m old so I don’t know their new lingo.. or other various reasons why I’m soo old.  Today, one boy said: “You’re not even married yet, so you can’t be old!” so, there you have it… all you married people… you are officially old.  J   

            Today after working out (yeah, I’m posting about it again) the girls said I could come over to their apartment if I wanted to hang out!! Mission accomplished! The only reason I was working out was to become friends with them, and now that I have succeeded, I will never work out again! Haha just kidding.. but in all honesty, 90% of the reason I was going was to make friends.  And they have a wii at their house!!! And I just really like them, they are fun.  J

            I don’t like not being able to understand other peoples’ language.. I’m pretty sure a group of people made fun of me on my walk home today.  Sigh… but Tafa told me he liked my shoes!  So that was a good thing.

            Tonight, around 8:00, I was cutting up a delicious, juicy mango getting ready to go to bed..  (told you I was old) when Ruthanne came into the kitchen and said “Lauren, do you want to go to n’ice cream with Danielle and her dorm girls?”  Danielle is Ruthanne’s sister who I think is just great!  She is a dorm mom of 9 girls.. and before that she taught middle school/high school English.. so anyway.. I never say no to ice cream, even when I have a delicious mango waiting for me.. so we went, and it was a good decision!  The traffic was crazy, and it was super busy in the ice cream shop.. and I don’t know why I didn’t buy a liter of ice cream… I just got a tiny bowl. Ugh. Oh well. Next time, I will know better.  Actually, I did think about getting the liter tub but I chickened out when I started to order.

            Tomorrow the fruit man is coming again! I can’t wait!!!! And then I’m going grocery shopping, and then probably hanging out in my classroom for a while! Just in case you wanted to know my schedule..

You know your French is bad when.....

A room full of fourth graders laughs at you when you try to greet them in French.  Yikes… it happened today.  These kids are WAY smarter than me!!!

            Also, when the guards you greet on the way home have to do motions and sign language along with their words for you to understand what they are saying.  And you still don’t really understand, but you just laugh and say “oui” anyway.

            And then (also on your way home) some kids playing soccer don’t even try to speak French to you.. they know you know nothing so they just say “hello”.

            On the plus side, we did an appreciation circle today and they all said really great things like “I appreciate my classmates” and “I appreciate Ms. Fisher because she is very kind and she teaches us a lot of things” (okay, so maybe this kid was just trying to get on my good side, but im just gonna pretend she was serious!)

            Today I decided that Wednesdays are my new favorite day.  Let me tell you why!  The youth pastor’s wife baked these yummy peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bar things and had all the ladies over for “Mug and Muffin” she had coffee and tea and juice also and it was so fun!  She’s going to do it EVERY WEDNESDAY at 10 in the morning!  I know.. at ten in the morning I should still be with my kids right?  WRONG!!  There is this glorious little thing called an hour break while the kids are at French class and Recess.  It’s the best part of my day!!  I’m kind of kidding, but only kind of.  It was perfect also because I had forgotten to pack a snack this morning, and that delightful little treat just filled me right up!! So.. moral of the story.. GO WEDNESDAYS!

            Also, another way you know your French is bad is when the man at the boutique (basically a teeny tiny grocery store)  tells you how much you owe him and you have no idea what number he said so you just hold all your money out to him so he can take what he needs.  Yeah… that’s my life.  It’s a good thing I’m BFFs with Tafa (the real spelling is probably something crazy like tchogoafoa but his name sounds like Ta-fa), the owner… and the only worker.  Because I KNOW he wouldn’t take advantage of a blonde white girl and steal all her money… right?  Right.  No but seriously, he wouldn’t!  Wanna know how I know?  Because he’s psychic… and kind of creepy.

            So, one day I was walking home from school.. all alone.  I think it was the first time I walked home alone.. but don’t worry I would never walk home alone in the dark.  and its completely safe to walk alone in our neighborhood during the day time.  I know because I asked all the dads of teenage daughters that I know (all two of them)  if they let their daughters walk alone in the neighborhood and they said “oh yeah, its totally safe.. but during the night she’s not allowed to walk alone.”  So, if they let their daughters walk alone… its safe! (that part was just for you mom)

            Okay, so there I was walking back from school.  And I say bonjour to Tafa.  He says it back and does the whole how are you thing… and then he tries to speak more French to me.  I never know what to do when people do that.  So I just shrugged my shoulders and gave him the most apologetic face I could make.  He said “you don’t speak French?” I said “nope, sorry!” and he said “me neither, only Wolof” and I said “and pretty good English too!”  and he said “French is too hard.”  And I said “yup, I agree!”  (this is where the creepy psychicness comes in.. are you ready?)  He says: “Lauren, right?”  and I said “WHAT!” and he said… “LAUREN FISHER!!!!” and I got so scared, but then he pointed to my nametag.  So he wasn’t actually psychic, just a little bit creepy.  So that was the day we became BFFs.  Now every time I walk by he says “LaurEN!”  he says it with a really cool accent and I just like it a lot.  So, that is why I trust him to take money out of my hand.

            Today during work out time (that’s right, I worked out today.. and I’m sneakily posting about it in my blog..) I asked the other girls if they were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and they said “eh no not really.”  I promise that I always have at least 15 bites on me at all times.. mostly on my legs. Its horrible!! Even after I spray a gram of insect repellant.  (yup, I now measure in grams and kilograms and other cool things like that) Ugh, if I make it out of here without getting malaria it will be a miracle.  Ok so anyway.. the true point of the story that I wanted to tell you all is that their theory about mosquitoes is this: they attack all the new blood, and you have a really bad reaction to it but then they keep biting you, but you kinda get used to it so don’t have as bad of a reaction.  I don’t really know how much sense that actually makes, but I’m hoping I quit reacting soon.. I would really love to not have itchy red dots all over my legs at some point.

            Okay, I think this might be the last story I have for tonight…  I was thinking about what I could have for dinner tonight and then I remembered that our house help was coming tonight and cooking for us! Wooo hooO!!!!  So I stayed a little longer at school and got some good stuff done..  and then I came home from school and the apartment was seriously a whole new world.  It was SO clean.  She is amazing.  And the food was soooooooooooooooooo yummy.  It was this rice stuff with beef in it and some seasonings.  She also made sweet potato fries YUM.  And this salad that it would be okay with me if she never made again.  But anyway.. she made SO MUCH food.  SO MUCH.  So we took the rest to our neighbors down the stairs.. a lot of the rice and beef stuff and all of the salad since it was so *delicious*.. I know very generous of us!  But I can see how some people might like it… I just wasn’t a fan. 

So now it is time for bed. Past time actually! And tomorrow is already Thursday! Yahooooooo! J

3 day weekend here i come!

tonight is FRIDAY! open house is done, and now i'm looking forward to this year even more! The parents are all SO nice, and i couldn't understand all of the things they said... accents... but they were smiling, so i just smiled back!
i dont really have much else to report.. except the fruit man is coming to my friends house tomorrow and i get to go buy fruit from him also! im so excited!! i need to stock up on those mangoes :) mmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy! i could spend a whole paycheck on those babies.

Another near-death moment...

...happened today around 4 in the afternoon.
The housing coordinator (Jill) has been asking me every day (meaning just tuesday and wednesday) if i wanted to work out. During work out hours she is called Jill Sargent.. get it, like drill Sargent? and she lives up to that name for sure!! On tuesday I didn't because it was the day before school started so i still had a lot to do, Wednesday was the first day of school so i had to prepare for the second day of school, and I finally gave in today because I knew i wouldn't do it tomorrow because tomorrow is open house.  Actually, when she asked me today, I think i said yes on accident, but then I had already committed so i was stuck. in the best way possible.
Apparently, these ladies work out EVERY day, and i dont know how they do that.. because I can barely even type right now.  We did a Jillian Michaels DVD and boy oh boy.. in her own words "this work out is no joke".  i dont think i will be able to even write on the board tomorrow! okay, enough complaining.  The kids were definitely more comfortable today.. lots more talking. BUT, they aren't disrespectful at all, so im still happy, because all kids talk.
I met one of the moms today and she said "if you need anything let me know.. cookies, cupcakes." I want to email her and ask her for both.. and then take them home all for myself. would that be okay?
aaand i think thats it for today! SO glad tomorrow is friday and theres no school on Monday!! YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Still alive...

On Monday night, I thought I was a goner for sure.  There was another huge storm, and the thunder was SOOOO big this time.  i have NEVER heard it that loud.  I felt like a little kid who needed to go sleep in the parents bedroom.  I was just praying and praying for it to be over.  It was weird though because since it was so loud, i thought it would be super close, but it took longer than i thought for the thunder to happen after the lightning happened.  So every time the sky lit up i was DREADING the thunder.  for about 6 seconds. it was horrible!  But I made it through the night and was able to go to the LAST day of orientation! woo hoo!  Our last meeting was a "newcomers" meeting where we talked to "Shrink Lady" (as my principal calls her which i just found out today and think is hilarious) aka the school counselor.  She asked us what our frustrations and needs were at the time.  Everyone was going on and on about how they were frustrated about this and that... and i just wasnt saying anything so shrink lady said "lauren, what about you?" and i felt guilty to say that i was doing fine.
I finished up my classroom and went to the grocery store to buy dinner things and found some CHOCOLATE!!!! and it was on PROMO (french word for sale... im doing good!) i thought that it had hazelnuts in it, but they turned out to be just regular old peanuts (okay maybe im not doing so good).   but i also bought some kinder chocolate.  YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. i think i deserve it.  and, i hate to admit this, but im actually starting to kind of like the powdered milk.. i just make it with mostly powder and just a little bit of water so its so creamy and kind of sweet.... yum.  so after getting my chocolate fix, i made some dinner.. i really dont understand how some women are teachers AND mothers... or even just wives, props to them!
and TODAY was the first day of school!!!! it went so well! all the elementary kids and parents met in the auditorium at first, and then we went to our classrooms. i just have to say, my kids are adorable and i love them. we had so much fun.  now i just have to figure out what we are going to do tomorrow.. BUT the good news is no school on Monday! because of some muslim holiday called corte or something.  they have to see the moon.. i dont really understand it.  but either way, monday=no school.  im sure i will end up there anyway, but it will be nice to have some prep time.
Also, i am SO thankful for things like p.e. and art and music. 30 minutes of pure joy baby.
the director and his wife had all the new people over for dinner tonight.. it was SOOO yummy something with peanut sauce that their house help made. i ate sooo much.
sad fact of the day: i heard mangos are going out of season soon :(
ok so, this post was mostly about food, so i guess now would be a good time to tell you that i have gained 32 pounds in my time here.  but thats okay.. my students won't know me as any different!!
Also, all the parents are SO nice. like extremely nice. speaking of parents, here is an embarassing story... one of the moms introduced herself to me after school and said "Is it meees or Mrs.?" (she said mrs. without an accent.) she is from brazil.  So i said "its mees... i mean miss." her accent threw me off! and i think she noticed.. ughhhhh. oh well! told you im a freak! :)

monday, tuesday, WEDNESDAY!

More meetings today... but the one good thing about the meetings was the pop (or should i say POOP???) quiz about traveller's diarrhea that the nurse gave us. I like her.. for obvious reasons :)

I love when people have birthdays.. There were two this week and one of the ladies made some delicious cakes... YUM! I wish birthdays happened every month.  But then everybody would be twelve times as old. Yikes.

After the cake, I had a plethora of energy to work on my classroom.  It is looking GOOD.  I am so excited!!    I was finding a lot of ways to take breaks though, and on one of my breaks I went to the office to make some copies and as I was walking down the hall, the office lady said "THERE SHE IS!!!" very excitedly.  One of my students was there visiting and I got to meet her!!! :) She is such a cutie! She shook my hand and said "nice to meet you!" What 4th grader does that???  Let's see if she's still like that when her parents aren't around. :) The rest of the day, I was just so excited I couldn't handle it!
Also.. I introduced myself as "Ms. Fisher" it felt sooo weird!

We now have a class pet, which I'm not too excited about.  He (or she... IT. it doesnt deserve to have a gender)  IT is a cockroach. a HUGE one. ewwww.  Im just glad it wasn't in my house.  I can handle it being in my classroom, but if it was in my house.. I would hang a hammock on my ceiling and sleep in there.. because cockroaches can't climb walls. (don't correct me, just let me live in a happy false world).  

Right when I was about to leave (I decided 5:45 was a good quitting time), a knock came on my classroom door!  I opened the door and two adorable little people were standing there.  One of the teacher's kids (an 8th grader and a 5th grader) had come to see if I needed any help.  How could I leave at this point when I still had a lot to do and two willing helpers?  So, I put them to work and then left around 6:30.

I came back to the apartment to find a PARTY going on!!!!! Okay, not really.  But one of the guys was trying to set up our internet, and it wasn't working.  Our neighbors were also over trying to help figure it out.  But anyway, we still don't have internet.  Luckily, My computer has an unsecured network that I would be happy to use for the rest of the year, but Ruthanne wants to get real internet.. but why is it so expensive here? 60 dollars a month! just for internet! oh well..

We are experimenting tonight with a recipe in the missionary cookbook we got.. pancakes in the oven.  hmm. I am so hungry, though, I would eat our pet cockroach!  Okay.. not really. I would rather starve to death than eat a cockroach! sick! 

Okay!! love to you all!!

Sunday Funday!

Today we had a "dedication service" at school.  I don't remember if I already wrote about the church situation here, but if not, here it is.  There are two main churches that DA people go to.  One of them is ICF, where I went last week.  This was the only Christian church in the area for a long time.  Then, they started having church at the school because the other one got too big! So now there is ICF and DA church.. i think it has a more official name than that, maybe not.. i dont know.  Anyway, today we went to the DA church for the dedication service.  It was soooo hot in there.. no AC :( the other one did have AC.. major plus!!! :) and i forgot my water, so i felt like i was going to pass out a few times, but i didnt!
So, we basically just had a short talk about dedication, and then had a bunch of prayer sessions.. for the students, for the parents, the staff, and administration.  and of course we had singing!  It was really good!  I was reminded once again how thankful I am to be teaching at a school whose mission is to glorify God!! Thank you Lord!
After church, we went to a family's house and had a yummy lunch.  The plan was to go to the beach after lunch, but there was a HUGE storm last night so a lot of people didn't sleep very well and were tired, so we just played games instead!  Although I was really looking forward to the beach, games were a good alternative! :)
So now I am home, and tomorrow marks the first week of school!!! I can't believe we start on Wednesday!! yikes!  I am sooo excited and so nervous! Mostly excited :)

hero of the day... saved my life, saved my life!

(if you haven't seen that video, shame on you!)
but hero of my day award goes to (drum roll please)..................
the kindergarten teacher Patti!!! We had just gotten done with all our meetings for the day so it was classroom work time. Yesterday during that time, i'm pretty sure i went past the point of crazy being locked inside my classroom for 3 hours (It may not sound like that long but with no human contact it seemed like for-ev-er).
So, today.. i was kinda not really looking forward to it.  I was thinking of a million things i could do to get around it.. still productive things of course like talking to the other teachers.. about necessary info.. but eventually i just decided it was time to be a big girl.
So i started walking to my classroom and on my way there was a cleaner lady.  I got so stressed out because we had just had a cultural learning session about ALWAYS greeting people, no matter what. even if you have to interrupt their conversation.  because if you don't greet people, they think you hate them.  it will RUIN their day if you dont greet them. so obviously, there was a lot of pressure on me.  oh and also.. if its a man, you can't extend your hand to them to shake their hand because that means your in love with him or something... not that i ever shake hands anyway, but YIKES! and you can't make too much eye contact with a man because that means you want to marry him.  and you cant laugh around a man because that also means you love him.  BUT if you just straight up ignore this man, he will be so sad. ugh. theres really no way to win!!!! rules rules rules.
so anyway.. usually im walking with someone and i just let them do the greeting because im afraid my french just probably sounds stupid!  but this time i was alone, and luckily it was a woman.. so i said "bonjour, sevah!" (thats probably not how you spell sevah, but thats how you say it! i thought it meant 'how are you' but i learned today that it means 'are you well' but then it can also mean 'im fine' so you could just have a conversation by saying 'sevah' 'sevah') anyway she said it back and i think i was supposed to say something else, but i just half-laughed like a weirdo and kept walking.  bahhhh.
once i was safely inside my purple classroom i realized i had to go to the bathroom.  i looked out my window to see if there was anyone i would have to greet on my way.. and wouldn't you know it, the same girl i greeted was out there cleaning the steps...  well you are probably saying "its okay! you already greeted her, you don't have to do it again!!!" well you are wrong! because apparently no matter how many times you have already greeted them, you greet them EVERY TIME YOU SEE THEM! every. time.  so, i did what any normal person would do and walked around the whole building to go to the other bathroom. well this was the wrong choice. because not only did i cross the path of ONE man, but TWO men walking together. ahhh.  OH! i guess it would help you to know that there are workers on campus called "National workers".  So they are Senegalese people that are hired to do maintenance and janitorial stuff.
Okay.. so back to my sad story. two men coming my way. panic mode. they think i want to marry them if i look at them, but they cry if i ignore them.  so i just look at the sidewalk and say "bonjour sevah" and keep walking. they probably thought i was some freak that they hired out of pity. oh man.
but, dont you worry... the story looks up from here. this is where the hero comes in.  so im walking back from the bathroom and i see a lady i have never seen before.  she says "hows it going?" and i tell her and she introduces herself and follows me in to my classroom and says "oh you have THESE curtains.." haha. yup. they are that bad.  BUT then she says "I am doing my classroom in a safari theme so i have some extra zebra stuff im not using!" so i say.. "no thats okay, i would rather decorate my classroom with other boring things."
......
......
NOT! i say "I WOULD LOVEEEEEEEEE THAT!"
soo she takes me to her WAY cute classroom that i wish i could go back in time and be a kinder for and loads me up with all these goodies! not only that, but she comes back with me to help me decorate it!! what a pal!!
I had done my bulletin board already with a border that had all the fruit of the spirit.. but i wasn't really all too excited with the way it turned out.  Not because i don't like the fruit of the spirit, but because it was just a white background cause that was the only paper that matched the border.  anyway, now it is black and has a zebra border and i love it!
So, I had a totally productive day, all thanks to God for sending me my human hero of the day!

my brain is growing

so one of today's meetings was about staying healthy in senegal.. drink lots of water.. check. don't wash vegetables with unfiltered water... check.  don't get bitten by mosquitoes... uhhh woops! i have been bitten every night so far.. i think im just going to start wearing insect repellent to bed.
P.S. i just learned pandora isn't available in my country :( sad.
anyway, back to mosquitoes.. its amazing to me how tiny little things can affect our bodies so much.  I got to skype with Christa tonight and she was talking about her bee sting and how it made her feel yucky the rest of the day.. craziness.
So, apparently there are different kinds of Malaria in different areas.. the one in our area has some horrible scary scientific name.. i don't remember it but apparently it is the deadliest one out there.  but the good thing about our kind (if there can be a good thing) is that once i leave africa, i am no longer at risk of getting malaria.. until i come back to africa.  some of the malarias work like this: if you get bitten by a carrier mosquito but don't get malaria at that time cause you are on medicine for it, you can still get it 10 years after you leave africa.. it stays in your system.  craaazy.
another thing i have learned is about mango worms.  apparently, these little guys crawl into your body through your clothes and make little homes inside of you.. DISGUSTING!  they get in your laundry when you hang it out to dry, and you have to either iron everything to get the worms out or let it sit inside for 4 days before you wear them to let them die. sick.
so anyway.. those are my fun facts for today.  I got to work in my classroom for a bit today. :) the principal stopped by and talked to me about all my curriculum.. and then proceeded to tell me that she wasn't my boss, she was just part of the team.  and to never look at her as a superior but as somebody i could come to whenever i needed to.  let me just put some of her words into quotes for you.. "You will have bad days.  when those come, just step right into my office, and lay on my couch and i will read your kids a book. its okay. we will make it through.  At the end of the day, you can come talk to me about how you miss your family."  So anyway, she is very approachable and very supportive, which i am very thankful for.
Also, I am SO thankful for my neighbor the third grade teacher.  She's the one whose internet I used.  She stopped by before going home to ask if I needed anything.. and i just like her a lot! :)
we had dinner tonight at a family's house who lives on the first floor (yup, the cockroach floor).  Luckily, we didnt have any visitors, that i know of.  They were soooo nice and i like them a lot too!  The lady used to be a nurse, so she was debriefing the health session for us.. she wanted to make sure we really understood the staying hydrated part.  So, she explained to us that if our pee was really yellow, we were dehydrated.  if it was more clear, we were fine.  I thought it was funny that she talked about this at the dinner table.. it didnt bother me at all. if anything it actually made me like her more. :) i guess it was just kind of funny because she was so proper about everything else.. not really proper.,.. i dont know the right word for it.  but shes a keeper for sure.
Anyway... probably more details than you all need, but its time for me to go look over my one curriculum book that i brought home for tonight.  My boss.. i mean.. notboss told me to take one home each night and look at it so i dont get overwhelmed.. so thats what im doing. if i can keep my eyes open!!

I hold the keys!

Today, I got the keys to my first ever classroom!!! how crazy is that???
I am super excited! All the elementary doors are a different color.. mine is purple.. for Justin Bieber!!! :) AND, my classroom has air conditioning!! sooo wonderful!!! I am thinking that when the power goes out, I will just walk to my classroom and sleep in the blessed air conditioning.  Although, i guess the power has to be on for the air conditioning to work. so before i leave for the day i will turn it waaayyyy down to about 5 degrees... (we speak celsius here) (I dont even know what 5 degrees celsius equals in fahrenheit it just sounds cold enough) and then when i come back it will be juuuuuust right!
so anyway.. all the cabinets and stuff inside (even the water buckets) are purple! The room is pretty small, but I think it will be perfect, especially cause I have no idea how I'm going to decorate it (ideas, suggestions, anyone???) The curtains are kind of hideous, but in a very lovely way.  They are orangeish brownish greenish with framed zebras scattered all over... very african :)
So, I have a lot of work to do in my classroom, but I can't wait to get it all set up and meet all my students!! I talked with the third grade teacher last night (she is my neighbor) and she was telling me some of the info on all the kids. She said one of the challenging kids left last year, YAHOO!! but, there is still one in the class.. but thats okay! I can handle one.. I think!  I am just praying that maybe she has changed big time over the summer!!
We had new staff orientation today.. so lots of meetings.  One of the ladies did a really good devotion.  The staff takes turns doing devotions, and I am toward the top of the list!! WHY would they do that to me?  TEN MINUTES!! i know how to talk to kids, but not really to adults... eeks! okay so anyway... meetings meetings meetings today.  Nothing really too exciting to report I don't think!
We just got back from dinner at the apartment directly under us.  I am so thankful that the other staff members are providing dinners for us this whole next week! They are taking such good care of us!! The people we ate with tonight used to live on the first floor and were telling us stories about their old apartment... I AM SO GLAD WE ARE NOT ON THE FIRST FLOOR!! They had HUGE cockroaches!! yuck!! and lots of mosquitoes.. Thank the Lord that we are on the 3rd floor!  Lots of exercise!  Although.. the other day I bought a huge 19 liter water bottle because I just can't stand the way the "filtered water" tastes! So, luckily when i bought it we were in a car and one of the men who lives in our building carried it up the stairs for me. BUT when i have to get it refilled, I will probably have to walk from the store to the apartment.. so I better start working my muscles out now!
anyway.. as a summary: i. love. air. conditioning.

Sunday!

We went to a church called International Christian Fellowship.  A lot of people from DA go there, and also some other people too! I met a lot of nice people, and I now know who two of my students are!  The people we ate with last night have a son who will be in my class and a boy at church (who was actually on the same plane as me) will be in my class as well!
We went to the mall after church and ate in the food court. I ordered a greek salad.. it was pretty yucky.  I guess thats what you get for ordering greek in africa.  I also ordered a bottle of water and it came out as a glass of green stuff with a lime on top... i guess my french is really that bad.
I am now sitting in my neighbors' apartment using their internet.  They are really nice, I think we are friends! :)
This is going to be a short one since I don't want to steal ALL their internet.
BUT i did have my first power outage experience today while we were grocery shopping.  Next time, I am going to bring a flashlight, just in case! :)
i think thats all the important info I have for you all!
xoxoxoxooooooooooooooo

updates!

August 3

            Here I am sitting in my apartment in AFRICA!!  Sweating my face off, but I’m a happy girl!  We don’t have internet yet though, so I am doing this the old fashioned way and typing it in a word document! 

            Today may have been the longest day of my life!  BUT, God has been reminding me of his faithfulness and provision already!  I got to the San Francisco airport at about 5:30 in the morning.  Checked in with the airline and the lady was telling me that I was going to have to claim my bags in Washington D.C. and re-check them before I got on my flight to Senegal.  She checked again, though, and found out that my bags would be taken care of all the way to Senegal.  She was surprised by this, and also surprised that a boarding pass was printed out for my flight from DC to Senegal. Praise the Lord!

            I didn’t really sleep during either of the flights, on the first flight because I offered to share my cookies with a middle aged lonely man.. biggest mistake ever.  He only took a crumb of a cookie and proceeded to tell me his life story.  If you’re going to tell me your life story, make it more worthwhile than a stinkin crumb of a cookie!  I mean, yes, I ended up with more cookies in the end but I could never have offered him the cookie and he never would have talked to me.  On the second flight, I think I was maybe too excited.  Because even after taking a Benadryl, I didn’t sleep.. but I did have the pleasure of watching Men In Black.  I forgot how good that movie is!  Seriously underrated!  I also watched We Bought a Zoo.. that’s a winner as well. 

            ANYWAY.. I landed in Dakar and still felt like I was just away from home, but not in a different country.  I got off the plane (most people stayed on the plane, their final stop was Johannesburg) and stepped onto a hot sweaty bus.  Luckily, we only drove about 10 feet..okay maybe 100.. but I feel like I could have walked as far as it drove us in the amount of time we waited to actually go.  Then I filled a form out, gave it to the passport checker and he mumbled something I didn’t understand, and he got frustrated when I didn’t know what he was saying!  Too bad for him, speak up man!  Then, I went to get my bags.  Some of the workers kept asking me if I needed help.  Do I look like a weakling? Okay, maybe I do… Once I got my bags, I walked out of the airport and saw Ken and Julie waiting for me on the other side of the gate.  They were within reach, but in order to get to them I had to go in a maze.  Ken told me where to go and said “just don’t let anybody take your bags”  Very reassuring!  So I walk through the maze, trying to look like I know what I’m doing.  I don’t think it worked (probably because I’m WHITE) and these men kept trying to take my bags, get me in their taxi, and sell me phone cards.  It was the most terrifying airport experience ever.  One man grabbed my bag from me and I was so scared he was going to run off with it.. but I punched him and knocked him down.  

            I finally got through the maze and got in the AIR CONDITIONED car!! What a treat.  (yes it was already hot and sticky at 5:30 in the morning).  They took me to the apartment and I got to have first pick of which bedroom I wanted since I was here before Ruthanne.  I feel a little bit guilty for taking the room with the bathroom.. but just a little bit. 

            The first thing I did was blow a fuse on my electric toothbrush charger. : ( I am so sad.. but praying that maybe it will come back to life!! I believe it could happen!!!!!

            I tried to lay down and take a nap because I was exhausted, but I kept thinking I was hearing Ruthanne come in.  Right when I actually fell asleep, the door opened and she was here! 

            We hung out and talked for a while.. and our front door opened and somebody said “bonjour”  The next thing we know there is a lady in our house walking in to the kitchen.  She looked at it and said something in French to Ruthanne and then left.  She was super nice, but I don’t understand why she was there.  Ruthanne seemed to think the whole thing was pretty normal.  Needless to say, I’m going to start locking the door always.

             I took a nap while she unpacked her room, so now she has a cute unpacked room and I have a cluttered, messy room with half of a bed.  But that’s all I need!!

            OH!  Did I mention this part of God’s provision?  There was a HUGE basket of food waiting for us and another HUGE basket of cleaning supplies.  Also, the fridge was stocked with eggs, cheese, ham, bread, and bottled water.  What’s missing from the fridge I ask you?  That’s right.. milk.  Well the funny thing about that is they drink mostly powdered milk.  Which was in our care basket!!! Yum!  Then later, some pretty flowers came for us!! Thank you Lord!

            I have been so thirsty and drinking a LOT of water.. the bottled water is delicious.  Once we run out of the bottled water, we will start using our filter.. which is two buckets stacked on top of each other.  They are connected to each other so the top bucket drips down to the bottom bucket.  There are 3 ceramic things that somehow filter the water.. I don’t understand how it works but I had some of that kind of water at dinner and haven’t gotten sick yet! It tastes kinda funky.. but welcome to Africa I suppose?

            After I woke up from my nap, I still felt tired but we decided to take a little walk.. first ever roommate adventure!! We went to the school, met some people, and then went to a little supermarket called Casino.  Turns out they do have razors here.. but I’m still glad we stopped for those anyway : )

            We came back to the apartment, Ruthanne taught me a little French (oui oui!)  and then there was a knock at our door.  It was the director of the school coming to welcome us and give us an advance on our paycheck so we could have some money for our tour of town tomorrow (thanks once again God!)

            Then, Ken came to pick us up for dinner and we went to the Vaughans and had rice with this yummy shredded meat (maybe chicken) with peanut sauce topped with tomatoes and pineapple, bread and green beans!  The bread and green beans were separate.. not with the tomatoes and pineapple. I mean I guess we could have put them on top of our meat, but yuck!

            Desert was ice cream and some yummy apple crisp!  I almost fell asleep a few different times at the table, but I kept my eyes open.  Barely. 

            Speaking of keeping eyes open, its time for this sleepy girl to get some shut eye!  We have a tour of the town tomorrow, can’t wait!

            Okay.. this was long and I don’t know if there are too many details or what!! But you better enjoy the details while you can get them, because I have a feeling once school starts, I will have much less time for all the details!

August 4, 2012

            I thought I would have a hard time sleeping last night, but it wasn’t too bad with the fan pointing right at my face.  People keep telling me that I just have to get through the next 3 months because they are the hottest, and then it will cool down.  Also, it is supposed to get hotter than it is now which I don’t really want to think about, but apparently the hotter it gets the more the power goes out.  Ruthanne said this was because people use more power so the power plant runs out, but I just hope it doesn’t go out in the middle of the night.  If it happens, I have a plan to go sleep in my shower with the cold water running over me the whole night.. take that power plant!

            I tried the powdered milk with my cereal this morning… I don’t want to complain, so that’s all I’ll say about that…

            We had a tour of Dakar today, so I now know my way around the city.. NOT!  It is so confusing.. no street names (not that that would probably help direction-senseless me) and people just kinda drive wherever they want to, whether there is a road there or not.  But I do know I don’t have any desire to drive in this city! In the course of 3 hours, we saw two accidents.. both involving motorcycles.  I mentioned something about not wanting to drive here and the man who was driving the van said “it’s not too bad.. you just have to realize two things: people are going to cut you off, and you have to cut people off.” Sounds like a bunch of rudies driving around to me!! But anyway.. we stopped at this yummy bakery and had some treats.. my first purchase in Senegal was a chocolate croissant. It will also probably be my best purchase ever. Delicioso! 

            We ate lunch at a little restaurant right by the ocean.  There was also a hotel right next door with a swimming pool.  The pool looked sooo nice and I just wanted to jump out the window right into the pool but I resisted the urge.  I’m trying to make friends so I don’t want to bring out the crazy too soon.  I have the timing down to a science from my many years of experience.

            It was raining a lot during the tour, which I was a little bit sad that we were in the van and couldn’t get out and play in it.. but just a little bit because we had air conditioning in the van!

            When we got back, I learned the lesson to not leave anything by an open window.. because sometimes when things get wet, they get ruined.  Luckily, it was a journal that I hadn’t written in yet and its drying by the fan now, so I don’t think too much damage was done.  Ruthanne and I went up to the roof to check it out and there’s a beautiful view up there!  (Pictures to come!) You can even see a little bit of the ocean from up there.  We have a pretty good view from our apartment as well, just no ocean!  We are going to eat dinner up on the roof tonight with the other newbies and some oldbies too.  I’m nervous for when the time comes that people stop cooking (and basically doing everything else) for us.  We have been so spoiled!!  The food here is a lot harder to make because its literally all from scratch.  For example, if you want spaghetti, you have to hand make the noodles.  Ok. That’s a lie, but its pretty scratchy!  I guess some people hire cooks, which sounds crazy because I would just feel like a richy mc richerson if I had a personal cook.  And, I think we are already going to hire a lady to clean for us.  A lot of the missionaries here do it not only to save them time but also as an outreach to the community.  

Maybe I DO have the gift of prophecy...

I fell asleep in the car on the way to San Francisco today and had a dream that i got to Africa with the yuckiest hairy legs ever. I woke up and thought "phew, just a dream" then i realized I had forgotten to pack razors! woops! but don't worry! we stopped to get some so I can now show up without hairy jungle woman legs! yahoo!
We got into town around 8 and went to dinner at a fancy shmancy restaurant! the bread was the most delicious ever.  Soo I planned to stash some in my bag for a snack on the plane, but then dad asked the waiter where the bread was from and he said "across zee street!" that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.  The waiter told my dad to go get some before the bakery closed and that he wished he could give us more, but they had just run out.  So dad went "across zee street" to the bakery.  Then, the waiter came back and said he had phoned the manager downstairs and he was going to send up some bread for us.  A few minutes after dad got back with the bread, the waiter came over with another whole loaf for us!  what a sweetie pie!
So we started talking to Mr. Waiter and somehow got on the topic of Africa and we found out that he was from Ethiopia!!!  I thought that was so neat.  He gave me the same tips that everyone else has given me.  "Be safe.. don't get too close to anyone at first.."
We ate our delicious food and our waiter came back with a business card and had written his email address on it and the name of a hotel that his friend owns.  He said if I ever am in Ethiopia to go to the hotel and say that Solomon (oh yeah, his name is Solomon.. like the KING!) sent me and I would get the room for free.. or half price!  So.. who wants to go to Ethiopia with me? :)
Anyway.. how cool is it that he was from Africa?? thats right! super cool!  I think it's safe to say I had a good last night in America.. complete with some sea salted carmel hot chocolate straight from Ghiradelli square.. or not so hot chocolate :( but I won't complain, because I made a new friend tonight and I'm officially leaving for the airport in approximately 5 and a half hours!  YIKES! I don't know if I'm ready.. but either way, here I come Dakar! :)