I'm back now too

It's been a whhile since I last wrote a blog. Things have been going pretty good with me thus far. I gave two tests this trimester to my classes. That was interesting because I wrote the tests to be very easy. The first one was just labeling multiple choice and labeling pictures that I had given them during class then completely reviewed the class before the test. I had some kids that did really well, but there were some who earned a 20% or so. My second test I made quite a bit harder because to continue my class you needed to get a passing average, and 500+ students is a little much for me to handle. The students didn't let me down and continued to be idiots. I wrote 4 versions of the same test and mixed them, so that when they tried cheating the questions were different. The made grading them harder but my entertaining cause I could definitely see who was cheating by their answers. My classes otherwise have been very hit of miss. My younger students tend to not pay attention, and follow the shiny objects. They piss me off cause everyone tries to come to the lab for every lesson. I have 23 computers and 90 students in most of my classes. That doesn't work. I made lab groups for them and they completely ignored those and tried to fight their way in. One of the classes was actually fight so much that they broke the door handle. I was not amused.

The house is coming along great. Becky finished the mural and it looks awesome. That was a lot more work than we had planned it to be. The garden was coming along well then Surreal decided to dig it up. We are going to try again by planting in basins and putting them up on tables. Hopefully that will keep her out of them. Plus we built a fence around where we want the garden to go next time.

Surreal is getting huge now. She loves playing with the neighbor dogs and ends up running off quite a bit. Not a big deal though, we just leave the door open enough for her to come back in and eventually she does. She loves playing tug of war but hasn't quite got the tug part down yet. We are teaching her to fetch and she likes chasing the balls and bringing them back.

Story time with Tim and why he's not allowed to come to Ouaga alone anymore. I came to Ouaga in December to watch some football with a couple of the other guys and to relax at the end of the trimester. Getting to Ouaga was no big deal and I relaxed at the Transit House for most of the day. I put my stuff on a bed knowing that I had reserved a spot a couple of weeks earlier. Fast forward to getting to Rec center where we can watch the games. We cram 7 people into a taxi about the size of my Saturn. Along the way we nearly caused a moto accident cause a lady was staring at us instead of the road. We arrive and get good food, good games, and find some other good people working in BF. Afterward our group is now 10 people and we are trying to find a couple of cabs to take us home. the search isn't going to well, when a plain white panel vans pulls over and offers us a ride. He tells us that white people shouldn't be walking at night. I'm not hte one talking to the guy and can't see him at all and I'm that if I look closely enough at this van I can find FREE CANDY written somewhere on the side. We climb in anyway and there are no seats, just the empty rear. Come to find out, the guys is from Canada helping out here and knows exactly where our house is cause we're kinda a big deal. I get to relax at the TH until midnight when the guard calls me over to ask some people to leave and then tells me that I need to leave too. Not Cool its midnight, I don't have another room and I know that I reserved a spot and that I was at the house way before some others who are getting to stay. Doesn't matter, I still have to leave with 4 other people. One of the other volunteers takes pity on us to try and find a place to sleep for the night. The first place we try is already full and the second option we are told is the same way. After wandering about a mile is find a hotel with a couple of rooms open at 1am. So much for a good nights sleep.

The next morning, I decide to stop off at the office to check my mail and use the internet. Walking down the main road, I have to dodge a rampaging donkey cart. Then on the side street, I'm nearly trampled by a horse that got lose and was trying to make a break for it. Later in the day I applied to my visa to Ghana for the trip with my parents. That went surprisingly well and they told me to come back the next day to pick it up. When I went back to pick it up the next day, there was a small group of us who were picking up visas and one guy who was applying. The visa cost 15000 cfa, but he only had 10000 with him. Not a big thing and one of the other people of going to let him borrow another 10000, but the embassy somehow doesn't keep change of any kind. We check around and I see that I have exactly 5000 in my wallet between small bills and change. I give him that and we head off. We were having a hard time getting a single cab for all of us, so when a taxi with a couple of spots open appeared the other guy and I jumped in. After 10 seconds I asked if he had any money cause I didn't. After 20 seconds we jumped back out cause neither of us had and I'm sure the driver thought that we were insane.
The rest of the trip goes pretty smoothly. On transport back to sight we nearly hit a donkey on three different occasions. Avoiding a donkey involves slamming the brakes a hard as you can on a bus with no seat belts or shocks. Not the greatest time. And this is why I don't get to come to Ouaga alone anymore.

Sorry no pics but we'll put a bunch up the next time we come to Ouaga.