Firing up the Grindstone
January 13, 2006
Ah the end of the week. I love Friday! Things went pretty well, although I feel as if I have about a million things left to do.
I am going to start my online French course tomorrow. I have looked through the books, but now I have to log in and actually do the work. It’s going to be a lot of work. I am feeling like I have a grasp of French though. Traveling through Francophone Africa will do that to a person I guess. There aren’t really a lot of places here on the mine to practice. I have learned that most of the villagers speak only Bombara. When I went to the market and spoke French they just shrugged their shoulders and reverted to sign language.
I have a new student. She is a third grader from Namibia. She is very quiet. It’s quite challenging to get a new student up and running when they won’t say more than two words at a time. I now have seven students, but that will change the first week of February when one of my second grade boys leaves for good. I’m bummed to see him go. He is very bright and energetic as well as upbeat. Such is the life on a mine. People come and go with regularity. This provides a challenge for friendships as well as teaching.
January 20, 2006
Here we are one week later. I stopped writing and never sat down again. We have been really busy.
I embarked on my online course. It took a little meandering through web pages before I was finally set to go. Now I have to actually do the work. Fortunately, I am motivated to learn French, otherwise the class might be really hard! The logistics of trying to get something like that going is almost prohibitive. I am feeling more empathy towards the mine everyday (don’t worry I don’t actually feel that much empathy for the second largest mining company in the world). Speaking of the mine, Linda sent me a great link to information about our mine relocating villages. I have included the link here:
http://www.anglogoldashanti.com/subwebs/InformationForInvestors/ReportToSociety03/com_eastwestafrica.htm
We played volleyball on Saturday and took a great walk through the bush on Sunday. We drove the car out to a road, drove about three miles in, and parked. Then we all went for a walk to check it out. The weather right now is beyond fantastic. It has even gotten down into the sixties (we actually had to put on sweaters!). It’s terrific weather for walks and outdoor activities in general.
To facilitate our need for the outdoors we bought some lengths of bamboo fencing. Our backyard is bordered on one side by a road. There is a short cyclone fence there and some scraggly, thorny bushes. The kids of the neighborhood love to stand and watch whatever is happening. I thought about selling popcorn, maybe charging admission, but decided instead to close the viewing window. It didn’t help. The two boys across the street (students of mine) decided that the bamboo was an invitation to spy. I have had to have a few words with them to settle the issue. I’m a little tired of living in a fishbowl.
Monday we went back to work with a vengeance. Conferences after school Monday, volleyball on Tuesday, teaching in the village Wednesday, and French lessons on Thursday made the week go by quick. Today we are off for Malian Army Day. We are looking forward to some down time. Tomorrow we set to work on a sandbox for the little man.
The charter company has agreed to buy me a new drum. I ordered one from my friend in Bamako. He gave me a great deal. I should have it by Monday or Tuesday.
We are feeling a lot better about our place here. We have decided that if we can live here we can live anywhere. Small town America has nothing on bored people on a Gold Mine. To test the theory we have decided to move from here to Snowville, Utah. If that doesn’t kill us nothing will.
MJR
Ah the end of the week. I love Friday! Things went pretty well, although I feel as if I have about a million things left to do.
I am going to start my online French course tomorrow. I have looked through the books, but now I have to log in and actually do the work. It’s going to be a lot of work. I am feeling like I have a grasp of French though. Traveling through Francophone Africa will do that to a person I guess. There aren’t really a lot of places here on the mine to practice. I have learned that most of the villagers speak only Bombara. When I went to the market and spoke French they just shrugged their shoulders and reverted to sign language.
I have a new student. She is a third grader from Namibia. She is very quiet. It’s quite challenging to get a new student up and running when they won’t say more than two words at a time. I now have seven students, but that will change the first week of February when one of my second grade boys leaves for good. I’m bummed to see him go. He is very bright and energetic as well as upbeat. Such is the life on a mine. People come and go with regularity. This provides a challenge for friendships as well as teaching.
January 20, 2006
Here we are one week later. I stopped writing and never sat down again. We have been really busy.
I embarked on my online course. It took a little meandering through web pages before I was finally set to go. Now I have to actually do the work. Fortunately, I am motivated to learn French, otherwise the class might be really hard! The logistics of trying to get something like that going is almost prohibitive. I am feeling more empathy towards the mine everyday (don’t worry I don’t actually feel that much empathy for the second largest mining company in the world). Speaking of the mine, Linda sent me a great link to information about our mine relocating villages. I have included the link here:
http://www.anglogoldashanti.com/subwebs/InformationForInvestors/ReportToSociety03/com_eastwestafrica.htm
We played volleyball on Saturday and took a great walk through the bush on Sunday. We drove the car out to a road, drove about three miles in, and parked. Then we all went for a walk to check it out. The weather right now is beyond fantastic. It has even gotten down into the sixties (we actually had to put on sweaters!). It’s terrific weather for walks and outdoor activities in general.
To facilitate our need for the outdoors we bought some lengths of bamboo fencing. Our backyard is bordered on one side by a road. There is a short cyclone fence there and some scraggly, thorny bushes. The kids of the neighborhood love to stand and watch whatever is happening. I thought about selling popcorn, maybe charging admission, but decided instead to close the viewing window. It didn’t help. The two boys across the street (students of mine) decided that the bamboo was an invitation to spy. I have had to have a few words with them to settle the issue. I’m a little tired of living in a fishbowl.
Monday we went back to work with a vengeance. Conferences after school Monday, volleyball on Tuesday, teaching in the village Wednesday, and French lessons on Thursday made the week go by quick. Today we are off for Malian Army Day. We are looking forward to some down time. Tomorrow we set to work on a sandbox for the little man.
The charter company has agreed to buy me a new drum. I ordered one from my friend in Bamako. He gave me a great deal. I should have it by Monday or Tuesday.
We are feeling a lot better about our place here. We have decided that if we can live here we can live anywhere. Small town America has nothing on bored people on a Gold Mine. To test the theory we have decided to move from here to Snowville, Utah. If that doesn’t kill us nothing will.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 4:27 PM
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