Happy Friday everyone!

Teaching is in full swing now. It's starting to feel like a real routine. I am sick again, but (i guess) unfortunately for me, this time it's not a bacterial infection, since I don't have a fever. Without a bacterial infection, I get no help from antibiotics, and will most likely have to just suffer through it for several more days. It's kind of funny sitting around thinking about what your game plan is going to be if you're teaching and have to run to the bathroom in the middle of class. Maybe I should just start having some exercises on hand for the kids to do in case I need to sprint to the latrines.

Today was the first day I taught without being unobserved. Normally the LCFs (language and culture facillitators - basically super-language teachers) and the technical training staff all sit in on people's classes so you always feel super nervous because you're getting critiqued all the time, but today I got to teach without observation which was nice since I didn't know what it was like yet. I was less afraid to just talk and explain stuff however I wanted in a more conversational style this time, which is always intimidating to do infront of your teachers who are fluent in french and a bzillion other languages. I really needed to do that though because I had been just teaching out of the book, but the book just makes no logical sense in the context of what these kids know and don't know at the start of 8th grade (they don't even start chemistry type classes till this year). So I'd been using the term viscosity over and over with respect to distinguishing different types of lava and eruptions and the like of volcanos and I was pretty sure they had no idea what that word meant. So today i bit the bullet and asked them if anyone had any idea what viscocity was - and they all said NO. So I did my best to explain and it was all ok in the end but wow that french must have been a hoot.

Yesterday we had a cooking class! We were given money and time and supplies to cook a full out meal in our language classes. It was great (minus my chronic diharrea). We made macaroni and cheese, crepes with mango jam, a tamale pie and onion rings (healthy, i know). Some of the current PCVs compiled a whole ton of American food recipes in a book they gave us (called Where There is no Microwave) which was such a relief to see. There's a lot of American food that could be made here with the food and supplies but without the recipes that have been tried and tested by PCVs, there would be a whole lot of discouraging trial and error. We also learned how to have a canary to have cold water, learned about the benefits of composting, and learned how we can easily dry our own fruits and veggies and meat if we want, especially for those folk headed up in the Sahel where they can't get a lot of fruits and veggies for some parts of the year.

Two days ago we had a the police commisioner come and talk to us about safety and security here in Burkina. He told us that things like murder are truely rare and that stealing accounts for 60 percent of crime here. Which is actually kind of confusing since I was told by multiple sources that if someone stole something from me in a market (or anyone else) and someone yelled "theif!" that a mob of people would form and chase the person down and kill him. So there are places here where stealing just doesn't happen. On the other hand, the police commissioner himself had his own cell phone stollen from right beside his own head during the night while he was sleeping. So I guess it just depends. He said, and all the staff agreed, that the best thing any of us can do for ourselves is greet our neighbors. If you greet your neighbors when you see them every morning and night then you will have nothing to worry about if you are ever in trouble because they would always come running and help you. But if you don't great your neighbors than you shouldn't expect them to help you out if you're in trouble. GREETING IS REALLY IMPORTANT HERE. I doubt I will ever be able to explain that well enough.

I was hoping to get some picures up but the internet is not cooperating today. So alas, the next time.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAYS TO MY MOTHER AND DAN!!