Training

This week was the start of model school. Over 600 children in the town have registered to take classes with us during their summer vacation. They set up the school just like it will be at our sites, there is a principal, vice principal and discipline master. We have a salle de professerurs and staff meetings. We have a flag raising ceremony every Monday morning. (At the opening ceremony of model school they had us education trainees sing the American National Anthem... it was pretty painful.) When students are late or they derange in class, we send them to the discipline master who usually makes them do manual labor as punishment. So, if you look out the window there's all these kids cutting the grass with machetes. (Manual labor is allowed, while corporal punishment is not.)

I'm definitely happy to get a chance to practice teaching here before getting to my post. But, this first week has been very difficult. I'm teaching the premiere class (advanced) and the sixiemes (lowest level) so its a good sampling of the differences. The classes are quite large, 40+ students here in model school although probably much larger at site. And the ages and levels of the students varies extraordinarily within each class as well.

Jamna! (that means hello) I tested into the French level that I needed to attain. This means I have begun taking Fulfulde classes, the local language of the extreme north. The Fulfulde classes are being taught in French which sort of makes my head spin. Even though I tested into the French level, I'm still taking French lessons b/c I don't really feel as confident as I would like.

Additional confusion arises because I usually don't even register when people are talking to me. The Cameroonians are very confused that I have two first names. Sometimes they call you by your last name anyways as a sign of respect. So I get a lot of "Kelly" and have no clue they're talking to me. I told my students to call me Ms. Kelly, but they usually just say "madame." Additionally, there is another Claire in the training group, so half the time I think I hear my name, its not even for me! Or people simply refer to us as "the Claires," especially since we're both heading to the extreme north.

Saturday we had mountain bike training which was a nice break. They showed us how to detach the bike wheel and take out the air tube to patch it. I also learned how to replace the break pads. Then I got on my bike to ride home and promptly fell off, scratching & bruising up my entire leg. In my defense I had a bag on one of my handlebars and these dirt roads are anything but even. So, since I ended up walking the bike the rest of the way home with a bleeding leg my host family thinks I have no idea how to ride a bike (which can just be added to the other things that I couldn't figure out... lighting the kerosene lamp, assembling the water filter) . I have yet to get back on the bike since the fall, but I'm pretty excited to go on some rides and it will definitely be very helpful at post. There will be a number of volunteers within biking distance of me and hopefully I'll stay in shape!

I'm off to faire les sports for our Thursday afternoon activity and then there will be beaucoup de lesson planning this evening. I hope I'm reclaiming my followers back from other Claire's blog. She did do a much better job blogging in the beginning, I admit. Both of our dads were the ones to suggest the title CameroonClaire for our blogs, what a coincidence!