Huh

I just had a most marvelous and unsettling weekend. I learned how to make chigumu, African cake, out of soy and corn flour. I hosted 3 volunteers for a sitemate party at my house. We made delicious tortillas ("Tortillas, #1! Nsima #4," says John, my watchman) and ogled People magazines (Lady Gaga wore a dress made of meat? Justin Beiber! Cher! Ah!). Good times. But the night before my next-door neighbor beat his wife. She and Bridget, her adorable 3-year old daughter, moved away. I'm still in shock, and feel really bad because she and I were on the outs (navigating the neighbor relationship, the "I'm not your store, you can't come around for cups of sugar and cooking oil every day" issue). I thought I'd have the next year to iron things out, but...I'm proud of her for leaving, and I know that these things happen, with or without my intervention. I just wish she had left with us being on better terms. Just another example of the lesson I keep learning: no day but today!

Last week at school was drama-filled. First the Form 3s refused to adopt the reforms I proposed in order to make the Prefect Elections free and fair. (Democracy, pah!) They prefer corrupt elections (where the results are generally disregarded by the teachers, and the teachers just pick their pets if they don't like who was democratically elected), because, in their own words: "But madam, what if someone wants a position and then doesn't get it?!? Other people will laugh at them!" THIS was their objection?!? They would get eaten alive in American high schools. "Fine, you want corruption? Just let me know what position you want and bring me 500 kwacha after class and it's yours." No takers. Sigh. On the other hand, my kickboxing lesson was very well received on Friday. Thanks, Billy Blanks' Tae Bo tapes! So, in Thavite, for those keeping track, that's

Billy Blanks (Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, etc.) - 1

Democracy - O

That's my life of late. I started playing volleyball! I suck...nightmares of a horrific volleyball camp I went to in middle school coming back. I'm the only girl, so the 1/10 times I actually do something right I have to put up with very patronizing "Good job!"s, but it's fun and at the health center-potential for future projects/events/working together, woot! I'm nerding out with White Man's Burden (Easterly) right now, and thinking about how I'm going to change the world. The lake, me and my swimsuit were finally all in the same place last weekend, so I went swimming (or bobbing) in the lake for the first time. Sometimes the beauty of this place still blows me away.

Counting down the days 'til summer break...5 weeks, 2 of which are tests, 1 of which will be Jeopardy-style review, which means only 2 more weeks of teaching/lesson planning. Yeah!