August 25, 2006

This is some of a letter Jen wrote to me several weeks ago but just arrived in WI.

Right now I am in practice school- today I give my first test on the near future, simple future, comparatives and superlative to 13th graders. They have been great and I had a really nice time teaching them. There were quite a few girls in the class adn they did a good job of participating. It was bothersome when the girls would come to the board and then the boys would start telling them the answers...but I gave the boys the patented Jen Daum death stare and they would keep quiet. I was so nervous the first day, but as soon as I started teaching the nerves calmed down. Next week I'll have a new class of 11 and 12th graders that will include all of my sisters. It has been fun helping them with their homework. These are all smart kids who hope to go to university and they have so many questions about university and my work experience after. I have been leaving late at the end of each class to allow time for them to ask questions about the PC, the US, etc. They asked about the objectives of the PC. The objectives are 1. To have Americans learn about other cultures. 2. Teach other cultures about Americans and 3. Provide trained Americans to interested host countries. I explained that the PC is not charity and that I was there by choice.
I hope to see my house in Mamou soon. Hopefully it will be partially furnished and the air conditioning will work. Within the next two weeks we head to Conakry to get ready for the move to our permanent locations. We will have time to buy things to set up housekeeping and spend some time together outside of class.
A funny thing happened last night while we were eating dinner. We were sitting and chatting when I looked to my left and see a baby chick weaving around, unable to keep his balance. Acting drunk really. I say to Fatim "is that chick dying?" She looks perplexed and responded "I guess so". So I ask if the chick is going to die in the hallway and she responded "I guess so".
"AVIAN FLU, is anyone concerned?" Luckily the PC has given us Tamiflu. We did continue eating our dinner but the dying chick did suppress my appetite. Not so funny, now that I think about it.