Last week was the first week of our 5th marking period. It was so refreshing to be back in the classroom with my students after being away for a while. We kicked off the week reviewing the material that the substitute covered while I was gone. I am constantly amazed with the progress my students are making. Their writing has improved so much from the beginning of the year. This semester we have worked on paragraph development, and they have even written a couple of short stories. It is exciting to watch their creativity come out in their writing and to see them so proud of their accomplishments. Math continues to be their biggest struggle, but progress is still being made. We began subtraction with larger numbers this semester and it has been a huge challenge. When I returned from the US there were still only about 5 students who had mastered this concept. We spent all week talking about what it means to borrow, and after much practice, something clicked on Friday. It was like watching a light bulb come on in a room that has been dark for a long time. The students were so excited to finally understand something that had been so complicated the week before. They were all eagerly raising their hands to come up to the board to solve a problem in front of the class. It was one of those moment when I said to myself, "This is why I am a here."
Testing week is often referred to as "dead week." Olu makes it very clear to all the students and teachers that no extracurricular activities are to take place during testing week. It is a full week devoted to studying for the tests being given. This meant no basketball practice. Monday was my first day back at practice with the girls, and I was greeted with lots of hugs and "we missed you." It was like a homecoming! We practiced on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon and did conditioning in the evening. Holly changed our conditioning time while I was gone from 5am to 5pm. What a great idea!! This does make for really long days, but it is so much better than waking up at 4:45 to go run. This change has also led to a better turn out, daylight, and more energy. It was definitely a nice surprise to come back to! We have our next basketball game on Thursday at the Sports Commission in Monrovia. We still have lots to work on before the game, but the girls are excited and hopefully it will be another victory for the dragons!
This weekend Holly and I are staying in town with our friends in Sinkor. They work for Harbort International, the company building the new US Embassy. We were invited to their work party last night that was here at their compound. The night was filled with good food (samosas, a whole hog, mini pizzas, hummus, texas caviar, chicken wings, etc.), live music (a local cover band), and lots of dancing. When I woke up this morning I was sore from 5 hours of dancing. It was a blast! It was an experience when I couldn't help but look around at the diversity of the group and feel inspired. There were people from Ireland, Nigeria, Algeria, the US, Liberia, and the Philippines all dancing, eating, hugging, and socializing with each other. I wish these experiences were not so few and far between. We had an amazing time, and had no trouble falling asleep at 2:30 am.
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