Catching up

Well, hello again. I have been meaning to write this for a really long time but never got around to it. Then, as time has gone on, the post has become more and more intimidating to write. Now, I just feel like I am not going to do justice to most things that I have done in the past month. Sorry I have been a slacker! I'll try to make catching up exciting.
I'll start with New Years. Unfortunately my friends and I (KFC - The Kambia Family and Crew. We have t-shirts.) were not able to take a boat all the way down to Freetown. We got about halfway, but it still took us about 3 hours on the boat. There was a guy named Pedro that was laying across me and Chris shaking out of fear for the water! These people are ridiculous about water.
We went and hung out at the hostel for a night. It wasn't all that fun, since there were so many people there. After that, I went down to Bo alone in order to see my host family. I stayed with these people for ten weeks, and they really became a sort of family for me, so it was very nice to visit them for a little while. Unfortunately I got there so late and had to leave early the next day, so we only visited for a few hours. I think it was enough just to greet them.
The beach was wonderful, as always. This time though there wasn't really any waves to surf, so my plan of surfing all day and being a beach bum was a bit diminished. I stayed until the 1st. It was a pretty standard party, but it was a lot of fun to just be in such a far off place with such a diverse group of people. The group that started the surf club is this German NGO. They are there sometimes, but mostly the place is run by Sierra Leoneans. Our bartender turned out to also be a medical doctor. He bandaged up this guy that got pushed into the rocks. That beach is dangerous! I spent my day snorkeling, walking around this island you have to swim to (barefoot; bad idea), and living an unproductive beach life. It was fun for the time I was there.
I was happy to get back home after the holidays. They weren't as relaxing as one might hope. It was very relaxing to just sit around at home and do whatever for a bit before school started back. The first week back was another week of giving exams. The class I was invigilating (proctoring) for was the SSS4: the senior students that are about to graduate and take the WASSCE. One of the girls came every day because her dad is one of the teachers here and she lives right next to the school. Another of the girls came a couple days. For the most part though, the SSS4 just did not take their exams. In fact, I am sitting behind about half of them taking my chemistry exam right now. I am being nice enough to allow them to take it now instead of giving them all failing grades.
Another thing that is happening right now that is new: we have a band! Some minister guy donated a bunch of brass instruments and drums to my scchool so that my school can even be more awesome than it already is. Unfortunately they sat in a room for a long time before we started to use them. Now, we have some guy coming for a couple days each week to teach the students. The band is not balanced at all. We have two trombones, six trumpets, five snare drums, and one bass drum. Somehow it will work. These kids are amazingly musically talented. I can hardly even describe it to you. I have never seen people pick up instruments as fast as some of the kids have. A few days after we started this program, I heard somebody in the distance playing the school song perfectly on a trumpet. I have no idea why they are so naturally good. I'm impressed and happy, pretty much. I think the band will give huge repute to the school and lift us even higher nationally.
I am happy to be part of such a successful and famous school - all of it is due to strongly well intentioned administration, and mostly solid teaching. Even the students are serious. I hear horror stories from other pcvs, but for the most part I am not seeing any of it with my students. I feel like all of my skills are being taken advantage of and developed here. I have realized just how broad my education has been. I am successfully teaching hard science topics in physics and chemistry; I have smart, serious, and interested students; I get to play around with and be in charge of a nicely equipped chemistry and physics lab. I am lucky.
Okay, now for sad things. Over the holiday while I was back at site I was taking Themne lessons with my counterpart, Muhammed Kargbo. One day I went up to the school to see him, but he and his wife were busy having to take their infant son, Ishmael, to the clinic. I liked this little boy. I saw him every day and was looking forward to watching him grow up a little bit before I leave this place. He seemed to have a fever and wasn't really eating. He didn't look that terrible. I figured he would just get over it. Later that night, I guess after struggling, he died. I got a text in the morning from another teacher letting me know. I got a text from him in all caps saying "my son Ishmael has died!". Waking up to this just made the whole day dismal. I went up to the school for the wake/funeral thing. Lots of people were there and we just sort of sat around in silence. One woman came wailing. I wasn't really sure what to tell my friend, and I still don't, but he is at least smiling again. Children die here all the time, unfortunately. His wife's mother came the next day from another city and ended up taking away his wife. I guess his mother in law now wants him to prove his love for her daughter or something before she allows her to come back and live here.. She still hasn't come back. I think this is ridiculous and that a father and mother should be allowed to grieve together over the death of their son. But, yeah.
One of the senior teachers had a stroke and we have all figured he was on his death bed. I have figured that up to about an hour ago when I saw him walking around with a cane. He is still not well, but he says he is recovering slightly.
My friend Eytal's older brother recently died. I decided to not go to the funeral.
Right after all of this, a couple pcvs came to visit my town for the day. They came, we walked around, Shebora's family prepared delicious food for us, and then we left and went to another town to see more people. It was nice to spend time with a small group of people in the area.
Then.. I went to a city in the center of the country for a birthday. I thought lots of people from my group would be there, but only two other people actually came. It was okay, but a little bit disappointing! There was supposed to be a dance competition at this one place, but that never happened, because this is Salone. That was this past weekend, so I think I am mostly caught up. If I would have written a blog post a couple weeks ago, it would have been much more ranty and detailed. Maybe you are happy I haven't endlessly ranted in this one!
Language. I am having a lot of fun learning Themne. Even though I get impatient sometimes with my progress, I think I am probably moving pretty quickly with it. I know a whole lot of vocabulary, and it is getting easier and easier to quickly memorize words. Unfortunately, I struggle a lot with piecing them together. The connecting words and the grammar is sort of hard to figure out. Everything changes depending on number and possession and the like. I think the language is well structured and intelligently put together, but nobody really knows how to teach this aspect of the language besides people that have studied it, like my counterpart. Unfortunately, since the death of his son we haven't really had a class. I think my brain is unconsciously starting to figure it out though. I seem to be getting better at hearing what people are saying even though I don't really hear the exact things they are saying, just maybe a few key words. This has been really neat. I have basically discovered that learning language is not impossible - it just takes time and work. I think learning a language that is actually spoken by a large number of people and isn't a dying indigenous language would probably be really easy, comparably. I have no guide, no dictionary, no grammar book, no cassettes. I can't wait to be fluent in this language, and I think once I figure out the grammar that will come quickly. People here love me for learning their language. I think I will be one of a very small number of westerners that are able to speak and understand Themne.
Okay, I hope I have hit most of the big things. I am going to go home and relax, and then wake up and do it all again.