Rambly mc rambleson

Just another Wednesday in Africa,
Today was a very good day. I woke up feeling not up to the craziness of teaching, because yesterday was the end of Ramadan and we got a day off (though I realized this after meeting some people in the market who were confused why I was dressed up for work). Its nice to have a surprise day off but it really screws up your week and your mindset. The next day to work is always a bummer. But yesterday I spoke with the two Anglophone teachers at their house and they seem very interested in my help and my ideas, though I think I overwhelmed them because I throw so much at them at once, they seemed a little confused. I guess if you are Anglophone it doesn’t mean you can understand American English, I guess it’s the same with me when I try to understand Cameroonian English- its very funny.
However, today my students were angels. I’m not sure if someone scared the life out of them or what happened but they were great. They were interested in the lesson and I varied the lesson and they were understanding things and motivated it felt like teaching mattered again. Then I taught an hour early in my 4eme class because they don’t have a professor before me and I used the idea of getting out of school early to make them behave. This lesson was productive but we are already totally behind. I also taught the kids how to do the I-love- you sign language and they keep doing it to me and I think they are raising their hands, its very annoying. But what can you do?
Something very interesting happened today though. I was out for my run- which was incredibly brutal because its been terribly hot all day- there’s nothing like Africa with no air conditioning, tin- roofs, and no air-flow to get you sweating! Anyway, I’m running down a particularly rural road which I run down often and this woman stops and starts doing this interesting hand gesture to me and muttering lot, so I take out my ear phones as I’m running past her and say Bon Soir, and she continues in sorta a daze and looks as if she is either blessing me, protecting herself from the white woman, or sending me courage and health on my run. She didn’t seem upset or scared so this leads me to believe that I’ve been blessed today, literally, which is sorta cool.
I’m sorta mad though because now as I’ve been running more my knees and my ankles are killing me, is my young body not as awesome as it used to be? C’est vrai!
So I’ve started using a new tactic in my English classes, I’ve started using a lot more French. I find that the kids are behaving themselves and very happy with me because I’ve relented, maybe we’ll get somewhere now.
Also, tonight my neighbor who I made tortillas pb and j sandwiches and popcorn for came over and gave me dinner- legumes (mixture of vegetables that has an interesting taste to it and looks like its made of grass) and plantains (these can taste like potatoes if boiled, sweet French fries if fried, and a mixture between a banana and potato of heated and that’s my favorite way and that’s how he made htem. It’s pretty exciting to not have to cook one night, but now I have to eat the veggies I bought this morning for breakfast or they’ll go bad. Anyway, this post is really random, I’m watching diamonds are forever as I type- Connery is a bit old in this movie- but at least they aren’t dressing him like an Asian.

Cheers,
Lov eyou all
Thanks for the emails from everyone- elyse