Who Needs Sleep?

I've only got a few short minutes to write this, as the school day starts in about 10 minutes, and I have to be a teacher :)

First, I've been getting a tremendous amount of requests for my address here (that is lie - mainly from my mom and Abby), so here it is!

Cady Tolon

B.P. 6558

Kigali, Rwanda

That is actually the P.O. box for the school, since they don't really have a mail system here like we're used to in the US.  They don't really have streets here, hence no street addresses... Makes getting directions here a pain in the tuckus.

Second, a little bit about my first week of teaching here at KICS.  To save time, I'll just make a list for you of some of my favorite and/or unique events from the past week:

1. Floris from Holland, fainted on Day 1

2. Ishyaka from Rwanda, spewed his lunch all over his desk and Word of the Day book on Day 5

3. Louise from Uganda, completely obvlious to the class going on around her, will randomly burst into song AND dance (seriously, during group work, instruction time, and silent reading, I will look over and see her mouthing words to herself and doing the cabbage patch)

4. Arnold from Rwanda, on his 4th grade interview sheet, listed "my new teacher" for the thing he liked most :) (Clearly, he's my little brown-noser, but I still love it!)

5. We made a "dream quilt" of our yearly goals, and Pazi from Italy wrote: 

"I would like to build a brand new creation.  It will be a floating boat.  A small one of wood." and drew an accompanying picture.  

I'm not quite sure why this tickled me so much.  It was just so cute, and I really hate to break it to him that this isn't quite a "new" creation.  It's been done before...

6.  Mrs. Tarja, the secretary from Finland who basically runs the school, told me her favorite movie is Finding Nemo.  I was ecstatic and we are best friends forever now.

All this, plus more has happened in the past week, including my computer cord basically blowing up, a behemoth gecko lurking in the pantry, and me unknowingly mooning the city of Kigali for about 10 minutes while walking home (apparently my skirt was tucked in the bottom of my backpack and I had no clue, so a lot of people walking behind me got a bit of a show... luckily, ever since elementary school and those monkey bars, I've worn bike shorts under skirts/dresses if I know I'll be doing stuff, or wearing the skirt/dress for an extended period of time... but still, how embarassing).

And of course, being a first year teacher who doesn't have internet (or consistent hot water and electricty) at her house, I have yet to leave the school before dark each day, and with still no textbooks, lesson planning is really running my life (hence the title of this blog).  

But, of course, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

PS - Don't be impressed by my artistic endeavors from looking at that awesome signs up there.  One of the middle school students here did it for me...