A Week in My Life- Wednesday

Welcome to Day 4 of a Week in My Life- Wednesday! I also put up a post about Tuesday today since there was no internet yesterday. Enjoy!

My school from the road

6:30 a.m. I wake up and it is already super hot! I get ready, make my kamoka breakfast and head off to school, already sweaty.

The courtyard and two of the classrooms at school. The artwork was a project of  previous Peace Corps volunteers  

7:30am-1pm – School! Today is a great day at school. My kids all listen relatively well, I finish all of my material before time runs out, and I think almost everyone seemed to understand today’s lessons! SUCCESS! I thought you might like a little run-down of my school responsibilities, so here it goes. I teach English as a second language at a rural satalite school of the main highschool in São Filipe, Fogo’s capital. My small, adorable school is attended by only 7^th and 8^th graders (highschool begins in 7^th grade in Cape Verde), and after 8^th grade, students must travel to the island’s capital to complete their schooling (this is sadly very expensive, so many students do not continue past 8^th grade, but that deserves a post all its own). There are 3 turmas (classes) of 7^th graders, and two of 8^th graders who come from numerous surrounding zones. Some walk over an hour each way to school, others live across the street, and still others live so far that they must pay for a car to bring them from their zones-making each class a diverse group of students with very different educational backgrounds. I am the only English teacher at my school, and I work alongside five other Cape Verdean teachers. Students at my school do not have English textbooks, a library, or many other resources that students in America may take for granted. Therefore, whatever I write on the board IS the textbook, adding a great deal of responsibility to my lesson planning and delivery of the curriculum. I have to get creative as far as material development since all that is available is a blackboard and chalk. So far I have made grammar posters out of empty rice sacks, used recycled cereal boxes to make BINGO cards with beans as the markers,  and countless other teaching resources from scratch.  Our school is very lucky to have internet (when it is working and there is electricity) as most people in the area do not, but at the same time, we are in need of more desks, windows, and lights in our classrooms (during the rainy season, the classrooms flood and it is too dark for the students to see the board, so we have many a chuva day (rain day) when school is canceled).  I also teach two classes of 6^th graders (bringing my total number of students to 250)  at a primary school up the hill from my house two days a week. The primary school is quant and lively and teaching this younger, eager to learn group is always a pleasure.

Happy Students at the end of the day! 

1 pm- walk home, stopping along the way to chat with people on the road. It’s pretty common for it to take an hour to make the 15 minute walk to my house when the road is busy. Stopping to talk to everyone is expected and usually pretty fun.

The goat adventure begins! 

2pm-I Txiga at my house, stop in to say hi to my neighbors, and head to my house to relax. Just then, my neighbor friend (and one of my 6^th grade students) calls me from the street. She says she wants to show me her baby goat and to put shoes on since it is far. I run inside, lather on a thick coat of sunscreen, put on my shoes and meet her in the street. As we are about to leave, the lady who sells bananas walks down our road, carrying a huge tub of bananas on her head with ease. I quickly buy my fresh bananas, chat a bit, and then we leave on the goat adventure.

An abandoned stone house and animal pen along the way 

My student, neighbor, and friend with her baby goat

2:30-5  We walk on a path, through a canyon, and through countless now dried bean fields down the mountain. We wonder through many abandoned homesteads of traditional Cape Verdean houses built of stone (these houses all used to be inhabited, but now many people chose to live closer to the road and electricity, leaving abandoned, crumbling communities behind) . We stop to pick tamarinds along the way and chat about school, how hot the sun is, and whatever we see along the way. Finally, we txiga at a grove of cashew trees, and there laying in what shade there is to be found is a tiny, nearly new-born goat and its Mommy. The baby is excited to see us and prances towards us. My friend is very proud of her new cabrito (baby goat) and poses for a picture with the little guy. We have carried water down the hill for the animals, so we dump it into their dry bucket, move them to a new tree, and rest while playing with the new addition to the goat family. Then we begin the climb back up the mountain. On the way, we stop at a fig tree and my friend shows me how to climb the tree to check if the figs are ripe. None are ready, but she picks some of the green ones to feed to the pigs back home.

In the fig tree! 

5 p.m-6:30p.m. – When we get back to our houses (they are right across the street), our other neighbor is sitting in front of her house shelling beans and holding her laughing baby, so I sit down, play with my favorite baby friend, and help shell her beans in the shade. When we finish, she gives me a warm bowl of doce de papaya she has just finished making, and tells me to come back when it’s gone and she’ll give me more. As you might have realized by now, my neighbors are also my best friends, they are like my family here, and they love to give me food.

6:30-7:30- I take care of some stuff around the house. I start dinner, put fresh water in my filter,and wash dishes using two large bowls ( I don’t have a kitchen sink, and washing dishes in two bowls of water – one for washing, one for rinsing saves tons of water). Then I water the plants in my kintal with the same water. Many of my patio plants have burst into bloom, and a particularly beautiful flower has appeared today! As I head up to the roof to check out the sunset, I am excited to see a ripe papaya in the tree-what a great surprise to end the day!!!

The newest bloom! 

Picking the papaya! 

7:30- 9 I eat dinner- rice, beans, and sweet potatoes, then sit down to write my blog post, lesson plan, and prepare a presentation for a meeting I have tomorrow.

9pm- Bucket bath time! I actually really like bucket baths and with the amount of water that they save, I may even continue the tradition when I return to America. I am now a bucket bath master and can get squeaky clean with less than a gallon of water.

candle light bucket bath! (no electricity) 

10 p.m. I get all of my materials for school tomorrow together and go to bed.

Hope you have been enjoying these posts!

Love,

Szasha