Getting my life down to a routine.

Another week down and I am still smiling everyday!

My look everyday for training in the afternoons... minus the jacket :)

I am starting to get more settled and have a weekly routine. I was teaching 28 periods a week which is a lot so they took one of my classes to lighten my load. It definitely has made a huge difference but has given me more downtime which is a plus and a minus. I have become a master at playing solitaire and have also finished a lot that I have wanted to do. I am starting to get into the swing of writing emails and everything I need to send out on the weekend during the week. My little flat is starting to take shape as my house; my home for the next year or more. My stove wasn’t working for a really long time and is “fixed”. Definition of fixed is you can only use one burner at a time or else it will blow the fuse. So I ended up buying a hot plate and actually love cooking on it. The fact that the dials don’t really work and you have to guess where you need to set it really makes me feel at home because our stove was the same way. I have my running route down to a T and my body is getting used to the 2hour a day workout. I have never felt better in my life. I have made some really good friends who I look forward to spending the weekends in Opuwo and traveling with. Friend takes on a whole new meaning here. They have become more like family than anything else. They are what get you through the hard times and help you to survive the crazy African life. This week has gone amazing! It was my first full week of teaching. The past couple of weeks there has been at least one day where there was something going on at the school so we didn’t have to teach. I am loving my Grade 7 Learners. They are so eager to learn and work hard to do so. It was pretty discouraging though when I graded their first math test this week. It was on simple addition, bar graphs, writing numbers into words and words into numbers as well as place values. I had grades from 4% to 70% being the highest. I made a deal with them that if they made corrections I would add a point for each correct correction. My Grade 6 is KILLING ME! If you ever want a blank stare look they have it down to a tee. I love them but they are very hard to teach. Their English isn’t as good as what I was expecting so teaching them math in English is very difficult. We have resorted to the basics; addition, multiplication and order of operations because I didn’t know what else to do with them. Thursday was Valentine’s Day so I centered my lessons on that. I bought each student a new pen as well as a sweet. I put them on a index card with their name and a tattoo attached to it. I don’t think these kids have ever been more excited to receive something. This is the reason I am here; to put smiles on those children’s faces! On the hard days that is what I have to remind myself. Everyday I wake before the sun even rises, 6 AM. Some days I am woken up by a call from my parents as they head to bed; those days are really good days. I teach for most of the day from 7:30 till 1:30. Have a break where I head to get a bit of lunch. At 3 the students have study hours and I get grading/planning done. Around 4 or 5 everyday, depending on the heat, I head out to the field and train my learners for 2 hours. Training goes like this: 1 mile warm up. It turns into them trying to race me as I tell them to slow down in Otjiherero (Katiti). Then we come back and stretch and warm up for 20 minutes. They really enjoy this part for some reason. After warm ups I usually make them run 4 corners with crunches, push ups, jumping jacks, and mountain climbers at each corner. Mind you, they have no idea what I am saying so half the time I am doing just as much conditioning and training as they are :) After 4 corners we do drills across the field; lunges, grapevines, suicides, squats, cherry pickers etc. all the normal drills you run for any varsity sport in the states. We end training by playing soccer for a little bit. This usually turns a little frustrating because they tend to play keep away from me. I play with the kids and the locals play on the other team. I play a pretty mean defense and the locals don't like it very much. I just laugh because I have NO IDEA what they are saying. After training I go home and do some core exercises myself and jump into a chilly yet really refreshing shower. I make dinner, finish lesson plans, sometimes head to the mine and then go to bed around 10 or 11. It is a pretty busy day but it helps to make them go by faster!