Well howdy doody everyone! I cannot believe that May is already here. It is amazing looking back on the time I have already spent here and looking forward at my remaining time left. It really seems like it will all be over before I know it. So after our long Easter Break, it was back to the grindstone of trying to inspire my students to care about science and learning English. Some days, it really feels hopeless, but then just when you are about to lose all hope, a student will do something amazing. I have always had respect for teachers, but after this 2-year stunt, my respect is out of this world. To all those teachers out there, you are amazing (and a little bit crazy).
So during last week, Claire and I set up a soccer game between our school's girls' teams. It started out all right. My girls were there on time. They even had a ball. But then stuff got crazy. I ran around for about an hour and a half trying to track down the game ball, my whistle, and jerseys. Finally, all was sorted out and we got the game going. Claire even bribed some of my male students to ref the games so we could yell from the sidelines. I was ready for pandemonium. My girls had never played a real game and really hadn't even been practicing for that long, but I was oh so pleasantly surprised. A couple minutes in, my girls find the back of the net! They weren't the Premier League by any means, but they kept the ball at their feet, connected some passes, and for the most part played their positions. There were even some honest to goodness crosses. So at half, we were winning 1-0. Then in the second half, they scored again and we ended up winning the game 2-0. After the game, I got everything put up and then went to the market to see Claire and her girls off. I meandered my way back home, stopping to get degaa, dried sardine like fish, for my cat and a to-go bottle of juice from the one and only juice man. He even had made a debut flavor, stakafelli (actually have no idea how it is spelt). I do not know what this might be called in English, but I've been told it might be related to breadfruit. All I know is that when you mix it with Passion fruit juice, it results in an explosion of deliciousness in your mouth. So after these stops, I slowly made my way home. As I was about to walk up my front steps, I saw a very strange sight, a whole car full of wazungu (whities). They waved, so I waved back, and then crazy enough, they stopped and got out. It turns out that they were five medical students from England accompanied by the Anglican Bishop. There had been in Masasi for 4 1/2 weeks working in the hospital and were now going to be in Newala for around 10 days doing more clinical work. The Bishop invited me to meet them for lunch, and despite the temptation to just stay home and take a nap, I agreed and joined. Then they jetted off to visit a nearby hospital, but then I met up with them when they returned for some beers. They even wrangled me into attending church. Now its not that I am some horrible person, I just don't particularly enjoy church here. I have yet to go to a service that is under 3 hours long, I really don't understand most of what is being said, and they always, and I mean always, make the whitie, i.e. me, get up and give a speech. And this service was no exception. While the med students got to politely wave while being introduced by the Bishop, I was forced to go to the front and had a microphone thrust into my face for a speech. But overall it was all right. I do love the music here. This service had about 4 small choirs who each got their turn to stand and sing, always with an accompanying dance. I love it. And to make things even more entertaining, "Wewe," remember him from my catalogue of Newala crazies, tracked me down and followed me into church that oh so fine Sunday morning. He then proceeded to join in every song with his own rendition of the dance. It was great.
P.S. The Bishop called me to make sure I knew Osama Bin Laden was dead (glad he's got my back and I have now apparently have friends in high places)
P.P.S. If my neighbors don's slaughter their new chicken soon, I'm gonna go over there and do it for them
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