Out of Retirement

Some of you know that I "retired" from teaching last year after only a year in the field. I just decided that teaching wasn't really what I wanted to do with my life. I love kids, but spending time with them in the classroom just was neither fun nor particularly productive as far as I could tell. So I retired.

This year I've come out of retirement. Accidentally. I actually went into my District office to sign up to sub for a semester so that I could go back to school in January. (Subbing is fun. If no one dies or sets the room on fire the day you sub, then everyone thinks you are amazing.) But when I got there, the Personnel Director (aka my first grade teacher) was like, "Oh good. You're here. We have a job for you!" I tried not to give in, but she proved to be too persuasive. I took the job. I'm now teaching Math to 3rd and 4th graders, and to be honest, this year I'm actually really enjoying it. I get small class sizes and almost everything we do is movement oriented and hands on activities. (I have a lot of kinesthetic learners.)

So for today I enjoy being a teacher. Not that I won't be going back into retirement at the end of the year.

Travelling is Not For the Weak of Heart

Yeah, so I survived Africa. As far as I can tell I didn't end up getting malaria after all. To be honest though I never did take my very last dose of Doxycycline. I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me. Anyway, the trip to Rwanda was amazing. Rwanda is beautiful. The people there are beautiful. Everything about the trip far exceeded my expectations.

British Airlines on the other hand, not so beautiful. I would love to tell the story, but it is a long story and I can't find a suitable way to make the long story short, so I'll just throw out some phrases that come to mind when I think about the actual travel portion of our trip to Africa: cancelled flight, Gatwick, $35 shuttle, Heathrow, cancelled flight, six hour line, line jumpers, heated words with airport employees, $35 shuttle, Gatwick, last minute London hotel reservation, $10 hotel shuttle, illegal double occupancy room, stolen triple occupancy room, wasted Brussels junior suite, four hours of sleep, $10 hotel shuttle, 1.5 hour check-in, late departure, near missed connection. And that was just on the way to Africa. The trip on the way back can be summed up in a single phrase. Six missing suitcases. All six of our bags got lost on the return trip. We kind of already knew that was going to happen when we left the check-in desk in Kigali, but because of the language barrier there was nothing we could do about it. We did eventually get all six suitcases back (it took about a week) and there was only one broken souvenier. That's pretty good.

However, I will say this to all of you planning a trip in the near future. I found British Airways employees to be rude and very unhelpful. Avoid London airports at all costs (unless that is your destination, obviously) although the Gatwick hotel shuttle driver was SUPER AMAZING! Do not accept travel in which you have to switch from Gatwick to Heathrow or vice versa. Too many things could go wrong. On a good day the trip is over an hour. The day we were there the trip was FOUR hours (we only had 2 hours between scheduled arrival and departure times). Nobody was available or willing to tell us what was going on. The shuttle is expensive (not free, as we were led to believe). Anyway, I think you get the point. Africa is cool though.

Another Day, Another Disease

Still alive in Africa. Thought I had malaria last night. I'm not really even sure what the symptoms of malaria are, but any time I have any symptoms while I'm here I just assume its malaria. I went to sleep with a headache, dizzyness, slight chills, and a very upset lower digestive tract. I woke up dizzy, with no headache, no chills and a very tentative lower digestive tract. As the day went on I realized that whatever I had was not malaria. I felt fine by the early afternoon. The malaria crisis will have to wait for another day.

I'm not sure what I've done since the last time I wrote and I'm too tired to go back and look, so some of this may be repetitive. I promise to go back and edit whenever I get back home. Anyway, the last few days have been a lot of resting and relaxation. On Saturday I played soccer with a bunch of very cool neighborhood kids. It started raining while we were playing, but we played on. Actually due to the high altitude and the fact that I'm really really not in shape, I played for about 10 minutes and then took pictures the rest of the time, but it was so much fun anyway.

The next morning we went to church and three of the soccer boys were sitting on the curb across from the church. We went ahead in and I kept thinking I needed to go get them and make them come into church with us. The problem is I only know how to say "hello", "how are you", "I'm fine", "Good Morning" and "Good evening". When I finally decided to just go out and make a fool of myself with gestures and facial expressions that seem as foreign as the language, I look up and see that my three friends had come into the church and sat in the three seats right next to me. That was awesome. We spent the time until church started looking at the pictures in my camera from the day before. I bonded with those kids and I miss them already. Beautiful, beautiful kids.

I don't know what we did Monday. I'll try to remember and tell you later.

Today we visited a clinic here in Kigali. It is amazing. Check it out: http://www.we-actx.org/. I'll write more about that later. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep.

Hippos and Zebras and Giraffes, Oh My

frica continues to be amazing. We got back yesterday from Akagera National Park where we took a two day safari. We saw tons of birds, giraffes, zebras, impalas, hippos, a mongoose and all kinds of plants. Absolutely beautiful! After that we drove about 2 hours to the Tanzania border. We passed through all kinds of interesting villages on the way. There were people walking on the streets all the way. We also passed a refugee camp. We stopped at a little souvenir shop and bought 60,000 amafrangas worth of crafts, then we got to see the "workshop" where they were being made. And I have pictures of all of it, but you have to continue to wait.

I'm in Africa

Muraho! After a very long and trying journey to Africa, where almost every leg of our flight had to be rescheduled, we finally made it here to Rwanda. We have been here for two days so far and so far we are absolutely loving it. There is so much to see and to take in, but somehow the pace here in Africa keeps it from becoming too overwhelming. The people here are beautiful.

Yesterday, we went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial. It was a very moving exhibit explaining the events leading up to the genocide that is depicted in the movie Hotel Rwanda, as well as sharing information about other genocides around the world.

We have done a little shopping in a very westernized (though quite small) mall and have spent a lot of time exploring the neighborhood. The Rwandans stare at us a lot as they aparently do with all "muzungus" (aka whities), which incidentally I love because it feeds my delusions that I am a beloved celebrity. I have had several amazing interactions with neighborhood children, including a group of kids who were carrying bundles of bamboo and who kept yelling "Muzungu" and trying to speak to us in French. I took pictures which I will post when I get home.

Today we spent part of the day in a Mother Theresa orphanage feeding little babies and loving on (being tackled by) toddlers. I didn't get to take pictures inside but if I spent the rest of my trip feeding babies and being tackled by toddlers at the Mother Theresa orphanage, I think I would be happy. The kids there are well taken care of and seemed happy. I don't mean to say that their circumstances and lives are not completely sad and devastating, but the kids there are just so beautiful.

I think none of what I'm saying is making sense. It is past 2 in the morning and I need to go to sleep. Maybe when I get home I'll edit this so that it says what I'm trying to say. Until then you're on your own to figure it out.

Tomorrow we are going to visit a different type of children's home which also serves the needs of widowed women. I'm looking forward to this experience. I also think we are going to get out of Kigali and experience some more of the Rwandan countryside. In that case it will be a few days before I am able to write again.

And We're Off...

Today I begin the long journey to the Motherland. In about two more hours, my mom, my aunt and I will drive to Houston to catch a plane to London to catch a plane to Belgium where we will spend the night and then catch a plane to Rwanda. My cousins live in Rwanda. Not sure what all we're going to be doing when we get there, but I don't think it will be possible for it to be anything but adventurous. I have a new camera so rest assured I will be taking tons of pictures. I will try to post updates here over the next two weeks, but: a.) Electricity and running water are unreliable where I will be so I'm sure internet is even moreso and b.) I doubt I'm going to feel like sitting at a computer typing when there is going to be so much new stuff to see and do. But we'll see.

Oh! And as a side note: Anyone planning to leave the country in the next year or so who needs a passport or who needs to renew, DO IT NOW! I managed to get mine in before the rush, but Mom had to renew hers and it didn't get back in time and so we had to go to Houston and wait all day while they processed a new one for her. She had to take an extra day off from work and the weeks leading up to today were more stressful then they needed to be. Don't listen to the timeline given by the government. It won't be fast enough. One lady who works in the passport office in New Hampshire said she is going on a trip in a year and has already applied for her renewal because of how slow things have been going. Don't wait.

Last Week of School

This is the last week of a very interesting year as a seventh grade math teacher. You may be asking why I haven't ever written anything about it if it was so interesting. It just didn't seem appropriate. You know with the FERPA laws and everything. You'll just have to trust me that it was interesting and look for my book to be published soon: Why Some Children Should Be Left Behind: Memoirs of a Teacher.

Anyway, now I'm back to that place where I always seem to find myself. Trying to figure out which opportunity I should pursue next. Oddly enough I think standing at a crossroads between 7 different opportunities has become my comfort zone. After I get back from Africa in August, I will have to decide between moving to Austin and moving to New York. I'm sure I'll come up with about 9 other options by August, too. I hate to make any decision too simple.

Ok. Well I need to go to sleep. I have a feeling this is going to be a long week.