Oh by the way!

I feel as though I've been a bit remise in my writing. I can definitally see that I've changed a lot in the past two years.

Two weeks ago I was offered and accepted a position teaching at the Carlucci American International School of Lisbon in Sintra Portugal. I am super psyched about this opportunity and look forward to the next step in my world tour of teaching journey. I'm not sure yet what I'll be teaching although it will probably be Kindergarten or 2nd grade, either of which would be excellent.

I've gone a bit nuts in the past two weeks with my excitement. I've spent a lot of time looking at what housing is available in the area, even though the school has already said they will introduce me to real estate agents to help me in my search when I get there. I've looked at travel agencies to find out what fun things there are to do around the city. I've spent a lot of time just learning about Portugal in general.

It's really funny how I'm different than two years ago when I found out I'd be moving to Freetown, Sierra Leone to teach at the American International School here. Then I was more worried about the school. Now I know that as long as I'm working with kids school will work itself out. Then I didn't really think to look at what my housing would be like, because it was never really an issue I faced living in the states. Now that I've been here for two years I've learned that housing makes a big difference in your life. If you are happy where you live then you can put up with a lot of stuff. If you aren't happy where you live then you don't even have that as a sanctuary.

Another way that I've changed is that this took two plus weeks to post. Two years ago as soon as I found out I'd be moving to Africa I dropped everything and told everyone I knew. Actually, thinking back, I probably told a lot of people that I didn't know too. I think I've generally been a bit more low key in my telling of people this time. Maybe because I still have four months here and don't want to bore people with insesent talk of what I'm going to do in Portugal. I don't really know. But it is interesting to note the difference.

But I am so psyched. I've heard rumors that there are bookstores in Portugal. Not such a big deal? That has been one of the hardest things about living here in Freetown. The lack of accessable literature.

I've been looking online and the pictures I've seen are beautiful. Portugal looks to combine the mountain and ocean landscapes that I've grown accustumed to seeing and enjoying here in Freetown and exploiting those amazing landscapes in a wholy new and breathtaking way.

One of the biggest advantages to living in Portugal over Sierra Leone, because don't get me wrong, I love it here in Sierra Leone, is that people might actually get to come and visit me. Traveling to West Africa is a long, difficult, and expensive experience. One that I haven't felt comfortable asking friends and family to make. But Portugal? A lot of my friends that I've made in the past two years live in Europe, which I've heard is really easy to get around, so I'll hopefully be keeping in touch with them. And my friends back at home will have a lot easier time visiting without having to take a plethora of vaccinations and getting ridiculously expensive plane tickets.

So in case I didn't say it before, I'm really excited about the move. I know that there are going to be things that I miss about living and working in Freetown, but I know that the next two years of my journey are going to be amazing and I can hardly wait for what is in store.

Trip to the Guma Valley Dam

So this week I took the Kindergarten through Third grade classes to the Guma Valley Dam to learn about how electricity is made. We had such a good time. The gentleman, Mr. Koroma, that showed us around did a FANTASTIC job! He taught us all about how the water gets from the dam to the transformer rooms and then is purified for drinking water. He took us around the whole water works and was very patient with the kids.

After our tour we went to the dam to have a picnic and play for a while. It was the perfect day for it. The dam and surrounding mountains created a beautiful backdrop for our outing. All in all it was one of the best field trips I've ever been on.

Temperature rising

AAARGH! What is going on?

I feel like I've angered everyone that I work with. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what it is.

I had my feet up in a chair the other day and when a teacher called me out on it, making me feel like one of her students, I got frustrated and said things that would have been better left unsaid. She's still mad at me and I'm o.k. with not talking to her.

Our curriculum coordinator had us doing some work that she herself said was just for her and that we probably wouldn't see again. When one of the other teachers asked why we were doing it, I responded that it's bullcrap work that was for the person coming to do our accreditation check. I know I shouldn't have said that, it was profoundly unprofessional and I later apologized, but that's what it is. Noone will ever use it for anything. We were told that we can make up what we put on it. And in a few months someone is going to come in, take a second to glance at the paper as he shuffles through binders worth of equally useless pages, and that will be the reason for our extra hour plus of work. What is the point in that? I left the states in large part due to it's push for loads of papers just like this one. Why not have teachers spend that time coming up with authentic assessment for the kids? Or work on grading? Or putting up announcement boards? Or something that is actually going to benefit the students?

My aide was mad at me today. After the meeting about the useless papers she asked if she could talk to me alone for a minute. She said that she didn't sleep last night because I had embarrassed her yesterday on a field trip. I had incredulously asked her, probably louder than I should have but I was a bit flabbergasted, if she was eating one of the student's lunch. She was! Just walking through the students, parents, and drivers, casual as you may, eating one of the kids lunch. I admit that the best course of action would have been to pull her aside and quietly ask her why she was eating a kid's lunch. But again, with the surprised thing, and it wasn't that I was yelling at her, just asking in a loud and, again, incredulous voice why she was eating a six year old's food. She went on a bit while we were talking about how rude that is and how they do things differently here, apparently they would take food from a "suckling baby" to teach them the benifits of sharing and she felt she wasn't in the wrong. When I tried to sit down and talk to her about this and about the "other" times I had done something similar in front of the kids she mumbled and said not to worry about it. INFURIATING!!! If you are going to bring something like this up, and if the person with whom you have a problem wants to sit down and figure things out so they don't happen again, WHY ARE YOU GOING TO MUMBLE AND WALK AWAY FROM THE CONVERSATION??? She is the one that has a problem. I am the one trying to find out what I can do to make the problem go away. WHY WALK AWAY???

I guess I've forgotten a bit about my mantra of patience is a virtue this week. It could be that we are all a bit tired and need a break. Or that I'm tired and need a break, whatever. I need to stop and look at things from other people's perspective. That's what I'd try and teach my kids anyway. And I say all these things and yet it is still difficult to do.

So I'll say my sorry's, and mean them, because if I make someone upset I really am sorry about that. I don't, for the most part, run around trying to make people mad. That was me half a lifetime ago and I'd like to think I've learned a thing or two since then. This week it's kind of hard to tell though...

The things I've been given

I was given a crying flower today
I wasn't sure I should take it
But I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it

I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it

I was given a hug round my neck today
small hands wrapped tightly around
Oh, I was given a hug round my neck today
The hands with their palms that were browned

I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it
I was given a hug round my neck today
The hands with their palms that were browned

I was given a mighty big five today
the sound it echoed throughout
And I was given a mighty big five today
Followed by an enthusiastic shout

I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it
I was given a hug round the neck today
small hands wrapped tightly around
I was given a mighty big five today
followed by an enthusiastic shout

I was given a small pink card today
on the inside a handwritten sonnet
Lo, I was given a small pink card today
though it was hard to read the words on it

I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it
I was given a hug round the neck today
small hands wrapped tightly around
I was given a mighty big five today
followed by an enthusiastic shout
I was given a small pink card today
though it was hard to read the words on it

I was given a headbut to my belly today
I'm not really sure why
But I was given a headbut to my belly today
By a girl who stood four feet high

I was given a crying flower today
I couldn't bring myself to refuse it
I was given a hug round the neck today
small hands wrapped tightly around
I was given a mighty big five today
followed by an enthusiastic shout
I was given a small pink card today
though it was hard to read the words on it
I was given a headbut to my belly today
By a girl who stood four feet high

The things that I've been given today
would have no value to some
But the things that I've given today
are what have made it a special one

I was given a crying flower today...