Thursday, September 11, 2008-12:24PM (CVT)

It has been a while since I have written on the blog. So much has happened and as usual I am unsure of where to start. Everyday I am amazed at the progression of my language. For everybody who has taken language classes in the States, like me, the speed at which your proficiency increases just by being in the country is exponential. NO COMPARISON. I feel like the less amount of language classes you take in the States before going to the country the better it is. On some level, I am thinking in Kriolu. I’m definitely not having dreams in Kriolu or anything but I can have a far more fluid conversation in Kriolu than I can in French. Its no longer a systematic or academic thing.
On other things, today is the last day of Model School. Its been going real well in general. My first week was more difficult because the kids did not know as much English that this week but that’s understandable since my first week I taught in a more rural zone while now I’m teaching in a city. Teaching English is definitely more difficult than I thought it would be, not to say that anybody who speaks fluent English couldn’t do it, but there are just things that you wouldn’t otherwise think are necessary in order to teach someone to speak a language. For example, when I speak English, there are really no phrases or tenses that I find to be far more difficult than others. Sure some words are big and hard to pronounce but as far as tenses they are all about the same for me. Now here, I need to actually think about what is a difficult tense to form and what is not. Then on top of that when I’m speaking to the students in class I need to only use the tenses that I’ve taught them or else they may not understand what is expected. Weird little subtleties like that are really annoying but I dealing with it.
Most of the new pictures that are up are from either my birthday celebration which was the most fun I’ve had since I been here or they are from our trip to the biggest tree in the country. Sounds kind of lame but actually it was a REALLY BIG TREE. There is no other way to describe it. The hike to it was pretty cool too because it was in a valley which makes sense since the country does not get a lot of rain year round. What was even better was that on the way back from the tree we ran into this “pool” which was randomly placed in the valley. I write “pool” because it really was more like a tank and the water was pretty dirty. The tank is used for irrigation purposes but kids also use it to swim when it is hot. Although the water was dirty and none of us had swimming trunks, some of us, including me, decided to jump in anyway. Good times. I definitely had a little cold the next day but hey, I’ll only be in Africa for two years once in my life. Plus we went on my birthday and you only have a birthday once a year. What other birthday will I be able to say I swam in a dirty pool in Cape Verde in my boxers.
On other news, at the end of next week I move out to my actual house that I’m going to be in for 2yrs. I’m definitely excited about this. If you want to know more about it send me an email. I can’t leave my site or have visitors for three months but I doubt that any of those two things will need to happen. Overall, I think I still get nervous about the fact that I will be here for two years. At the same time, I grow more confident that I can make it my home. Life now really is not difficult although there is no running water and we do not have electricity all the time. Adjusting definitely was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Also, after seeing volunteers’ houses which in my opinion would be a nice apartment in any country, I definitely have nothing to complain about. Plus, my roommate and I will have electricity most of the time and have running water (possible both hot and cold). I’ll definitely make sure to take pictures once I move in. Once I do move in I will miss my host-family. They were the main reason that I was able to feel comfortable here so quickly. My host-mom was excellent and I would not have wished for a different family or location. They treated me exactly as they treat their own eldest son. If I had to choose one thing that I think the Peace Corps did really well it would be my host-family placement.
Lastly, I just finished reading Lee Strobel’s Case for Christ. It was a pretty good read. I decided that I needed to read a book like that because it presented A LOT of proof to say that the stories about Jesus are reliable. Anybody who has gone through many years of schooling which has taught them that the scientific method is the only way to find truth, like me, should read this book. Its not that the book teaches you a different way to discover epistemological and ontological truths but instead it uses the scientific method of analysis to prove the stories of the bible and other characteristics of Jesus. Definitely what I was looking for. At the very least the book is interesting. I don’t know where I am on the spectrum but I guess I have the rest of my life to think about it.