So in my now established just-write-it-down-and-hope-it's-readable fashion I feel obligated to really dig down and give you a taste of how I am feeling. First I have to say that I am healthy. I have some bacterial intestinal issue, but it's effects are far less severe now and I'm hoping to have an antibiotic in hand by midweek. I am thankful to hear of all the support from my family at the meeting house. It's humbling to know that so many people are following me in my trip.
SCHOOL
School has been getting better, with the departure of another missionary has come a bit of cover work that looks a bit daunting. But i'm very encouraged after meeting the teacher who will be filling the other english teacher position. She was away due to some medical reasons but is now returning, I am hoping that she does not over exert herself in the next few weeks as to avoid further injury and recovery. She will be starting in 2 weeks, meaning I am taking the classes for the two weeks, it's about 30 hours in class and I'm not really sure how it will go. But I know I have my church, friends and family's(not mutually exclusive lol) prayer and support. I am also actively reforming my disciplinarian profile. I have been a pretty slack authority figure, I don't like, like really don't like, punishing, or seeming like the bad guy. But almost every voice of experience I have spoken to has told me that severity is essential for an effective teacher in a Chadian classroom. I have begun to see that many of my students don't respect me as an authority figure. Initially my french was too weak for me to really work through some issues, like students not bringing books to class or needing to leave the class for some complicated reason. I have since grown as a French speaker and am not letting things I don't understand immediately pass. I have also had a hard time keeping my students quiet in class. The school here has an awesome system set up to help teachers with such issues.I haven't really known how to effectively access this resource, but I am gaining confidence in progressive action against, and reaction, to students not participating or disrupting the class. On Thursday I sent my first student out of the class due to disruptive behavior, my second student followed shortly after..
COMMUNITY
The church I am attending here has just celebrated it's dedication. It was quite the party. The choir and worship has been incredible to witness and be a part of. I don't understand all of the songs, but anyone can understand the message. EVERYONE dances in the pews, I have a video(it's really common for some one to just walk up in the middle of the service and take a picture of the pastor, choir or congregation)of the choir and the ensuing dance party. It's great. I'm not going to try to upload it, you'll just have to wait for my return. I'll upload it them then. I have to say that entering the community here has been a bit different than what I expected. I will say this before I say anything else, any and all difficulties in establishing an intimate sense of community here has been my responsibility, the people here are very welcoming and interested in my presence here. They are open and hospitable. I think the greatest hindering factor has been my own linguistic limitation. It is hard to really have a meaningful conversation when I am unsure to ask them how to ask how their day was. I have however really connected with the two boys I am living with here. They have been my most prevalent French teachers and have really allowed me to laugh at myself and enjoy life here. I really think that there are enough potential friends here that I just need to really test my French and make a more conscious effort of seeking people out.
EMOTION
I have started to become irritable. I think it is due to the increase of work load aided by the constant cultural abrasions.(always minor and slightly humorous at time. but ever present and ever so slightly discouraging)I also think that I have been shutting myself in my room too much. I'm going to try to spend less time reading or watching tv shows on my laptop, and more time just being around people. I think that will really help. Other than that I'm doing really well, I'm feeling more confident as a teacher and as French speaker, two huge obstacles I'm sure I will struggle with through my entire trip, but I am feeling encouraged and optimistic at the moment. I am feeling really glad to have been blessed with the opportunity to be here and be exposed to such a different and jovial community.
STORIES OF THE WEEK
I think one of the really neat moments I had here was the other day talking to some visiting family from Nigeria. My host father (Dingamyo)’s brother was talking to me about how hard it is for him to leave the privileged lifestyle of Nigeria to see the poverty of Chad. I have also had a conversation with a family here; the wife told me that she cries every day for the poverty in Kenya. I’ve really begun to feel that there is some significance to perspective more than anything else. That people we would consider to be horribly impoverished sit and talk about how horrible the poverty is in some other country blows my mind. Early in my stay I saw a man in his office supply store in the grand market. I thought that he must be very proud of his store as it was one of the biggest in the market. I thought of him becoming incredibly vain and proud of his possessions. I then thought of how humble he would be if he knew about staples. How in his world he is the top dog; that he takes such pride in what he has, but that it would be laughable by any employee working. I then thought of how God must look at our pathetic accumulation of material here, and how he must see our pride as such a joke.
Other story, less important but way more fun, I found out that leopard geckoes are indigenous here. This is awesome because my family almost bought one in Canada. Turns out that people here are petrified about them, there are roumers that if you boil water with one in your drink you will gain the ability to walk through walls, and there are other fears that their skin gives off a potentially lethal oil. It’s true there is an oil, and it can lead to some very light skin irritation, but nothing serious at all. SO I picked it up and handled it a bit. This is when I remembered that when a leopard gecko feels threatened it will drop its tail.(it stores all of its body fat in the tail to distract predators) I have some pretty sweet videos of him and me scaring my host brothers SO badly with it. Again, when I am home I will try to post that video too. It’s hilarious that a house pet for kids can scare some one soooo badly here. It was not what I expected at all.
Other story, there was a massive fire here the other night. Some oil drums went up and burned an entire mini market to the ground. No one was seriously hurt, but the financial toll is beyond what I can imagine. There were vehicles that were completely destroyed by it, and apparently explosions that woke other members of my family up in the night. (I guess I’m a very deep sleeper) We went by the next morning and I took a few pictures (SUPER sketched about it, I have to have a photo permit there and have already had people yell at me when I pulled out my camera (tried to take a picture of guys repairing a power line, NO safety standards) the guy walked towards me all angry, I thought he was going to try to take it) hiding my camera from the army personal walking around. It was really brutal to see the devastated shop owners sifting through the ash.
Let me know if you have any questions, this is really long and I am done with this computer for the day.
Thanks for all your support!
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