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I am beginning this report while sitting at a computer in the library at the University of Stellenbosch. I feel as if I must be a million miles away from Lesotho and St. Rodrigue. You would never guess that it only took 16 hours to get here from Maseru. Now that I wrote 16 hours, I recognize that is a huge amount of time, but in Africa everything takes longer than you think it will, and 16 hours is short. Particularly since I have had time today to read Lauren and Ali's fourth reports, and Liz's first report for the first time. I have almost caught up with all of the emails that I owe people. I read more than 5 plans. But most importantly, I HAD CHEESECAKE FOR BREAKFAST. Decadent perhaps, but I needed it.
Last week, Liz and I marked so many papers, that if the papers had turned into money, we would be the richest people in southern Africa. Was that really only last week? Marking papers is an all-consuming activity. If you spend a week marking papers, you end up feeling insane and seeing red pen when you close your eyes at night.
I think that I need to remind myself that I am supposed to be writing a report about the past few months since my last report. Liz and I are becoming much better cooks. Let's talk about how good the bread is from Liz's Fabulous Bakery or the excellent herb-garlic sauce at Rachel's Restaurant. These might be the two best places to get American food in Lesotho. Or anything besides meat, papa, or moroho.
Okay- The Past Few Months. I think I'm winning. Maybe some of you don't know me and you don't know what "winning" entails. A person "wins" when he or she gets that happy/full feeling in his or her stomach. I think that is the best way to describe it. I'm happy to be in St. Rodrigue. Every little success of the students is becoming my cheesecake in the mountains. I am getting better at not falling into a state of depression when some of the students fail my tests. I am making small, but definite progress. And I have had a strange realization: I think that I might enjoy teaching math.
I'm not saying that it is something that I will want to do for the rest of my life, but I love watching these girls, who thought they would never pass "maths" celebrate their little victories. After marking the D2's maths exams, I returned them to the girls and so many were so happy they started jumping up and down. One girl started singing, "I am going to university! I am going to university!" She had only passed with a 52%, but simply passing made her feel like she had performed a miracle. In general, the students seem to have done better on my tests than they did on their other exams. I am not sure that this shows that I have been doing such a good job teaching, or it it is because I am an easy grader. Either way, these students are gaining confidence and therefore more likely to put effort into studying math, and I am happy.
Things are changing though. When I go back to St. Rodrigue, it will be different than this first semester has been. We will have a new Grinnell fellow with us (Welcome Molly!) and four of the Basotho teachers have left, so there will be new ones (we hope). I am hoping that all of my students also return from break. I have already had 3 students leave my class. One is pregnant and the other two simply have unknown whereabouts. Although I worry about this quite often, it does not seem to be an uncommon occurance.
Little by little, I am learning how to teach and how to live here. My goal of becoming a Masotho may yet be reached. I think that I must be becoming more Basotho because I love to use the present continuous tense. I am loving cheesecake.
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