Three weeks left of training.

2010/09/21 Three weeks left of training.

August 24

Okay, so first things, I added captions to my pictures and also took some down haha.
New mail awards – Emily H in Ireland, Sue H in Knoxville, Mom, and Jane all sent cards.  I also got a bunch of letters from the TG.  Seriously let’s pick up the slack people, I need gossip from outside my village.  I also still really want TOMS size 8.  I will be getting a new address to send stuff to so if you wanna mail me please contact Natalie or Tyler for the new address if I can’t get it listed here (because I don’t know it yet).  If you sent stuff to the other addresses I will still be able to get it no worries, but even if it has arrived it won’t be for a while (because that address is now 8 hours from me).  I will be getting another cell phone too, so I will update my two American contacts with that info once I have it too.  My current phone is super crappy and the rates are not too favorable for a PC volunteer.  Obviously it is relatively cheap to buy cellphones here.  It is about the equivalant of $12.50 for a basic phone and sim card.
The 6th week (August 24-31) we started practicums for teaching.  So teaching English as a Foreign Language is super hard for a few reasons.  First, I do not think of English in terms of gerunds, past participles and so forth.  Second, I could have a class of 10th graders who should have been in English since 6th grade, BUT many may not have had class or class that made sense so really they know nothing.  Third, teaching English is not like teaching IR theories at all.  So some students will already be mahaybe (very smart) or tsa mahaybe (not very smart).  I do not know what level I will be teaching in Ambalavao either so it is making this part of training frustrating because I don’t have the luxury to focus in on a certain level of English.   I taught “should” and “must” today, to a group of Malagasy 12th graders.  I received really good feedback but it was scary.  Writing on the blackboard and describing the difference between must and should is really hard.
We received our language assessment results and I scored at intermediate low, so after three weeks of language I was pretty pumped.  I just need to bump up to intermediate medium and I pass language training overall, so basically I got it.
Some of you have heard about the roosters that are driving me insane.  They are winning the battle right now.  My bedroom has a backdoor that goes to the backporch where the chickens and roosters and chicks sleep at night.  Sounds really cute right? Wrong.  There are two roosters.  I think they are competing for male dominance so they start crowing super early (today it was 1:00 am) and literally don’t ever stop.  Normally they start around 4:00 am.  I may be eating rooster soon.  Update though, I complained about them to my host mom yesterday and last night they crowed really funny so I think they were mishandled in my honor, or I was lucky.
There is a mouse or something in my ceiling that scratches all night.  I am going to go nuts.

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