I'm in love with my house

Omg my house is amazing. You won't be able to see it until I post the picture over Tgiving, but it's so great. And the annoying men have finally backed off.

A word about teaching in Guinea...

Most of my kids are relatively intelligent. They speak French better than they write it, I'm correcting their written French on the board often, not a great sign! But they are pretty good and try and most really want to pass the test to go to University. I have a couple married girls who are just waiting until they finish so they can meet their husbands in Spain or Portugal. That's a whole other issue that I'll write about another day.

But my teaching is so hot and cold. I'm teaching the 2 13th grade classes and one 12th grade. My 13th graders show up for class, make an effort even when they make mistakes and practically everyone attends the review sessions. They make me happy. On Wednesday I had a review for one of my 13th grade classes and they wrote about pictures I'd taken from my Newsweeks in the present continuous. They were all into it and I was so thrilled that they were making such an effort. A bunch of them even have dictionaries and borrowed pictures to try and write their own texts at home. Love them!

But my 12th graders are duds. I don't expect them to be as strong at the 13th grade, but they are such duds!!!!! It's like the lights are on but nobody's home. Even when I explain in French they are all staring at me with a look that can only be written as "Duuuuuuuuhh," it's so frustrating that I just want to slap some sense into all of them! And only 4-6 kids are at the review sessions, which is irritating. I'm not sure what to do, it sucks for them because none of their other teachers showerd up for the first 4 weeks of school and they are all out of learning practice. But, as I told them, I am not a magician. If they don't make an effort they are going to fail out of school and have to find crappy jobs working in the market and making babies. And they are too smart for that. I think. I'm not going to give up on them, I just have to suck it up and recognize that there's only so much I can do.

Luckily, I'm in Labe for the weekend and plan on drinking a beer and eating a pizza tonight. I'll be able to think much more clearly then.

Oh, I had the most exciting Monday ever! I got to school and heard that Americans from the World Bank were in Timbi. I was understandably skeptical, but everyone was so insistent! I went to the office of this Potato Federation (Timbi's potatoes are famous here) and there were lots of people waiting around in their fancy clothes. I made friends with a retired guy from a neighboring town and he said the WB people had gone to look at this potato holder and they'd be back soon. I waited almost 3 hours! It was so Guinean of me, just to wait and hope with no real information. But then they showed up! And it was an Indian man and an American woman who both work in DC and were here visiting...they were really nice and friendly and the woman was a former PCV in Cameroon. She promised me that I'm gaining a skill set that wil someday be worth American dollars, which is a relief to both me and my parents! We ate delicious food and I made a bunch of contacts and it was just the best day ever.

I'm headed back to Timbi to teach Monday and Tuesday before going to Conakry on Wednesday. To get to Conakry, Cam and I will get up early and take a car to the highway, about 20km. Since there's no cell phone service, we will wait there until the PC car shows up to pick us up. Yes, we will sit along the highway and wait. I am slowly but surely becoming a patient person...I'll update again in Conakry!