Djembe and african clothing!

Wednesday the 7th.

Today we woke up a bit worried about what the day would bring. All I knew was that I was going first today and I really didn't know if my mentor was even going to show. I know that Jevi wasn't really looking forward to the day since yesterday was so overwhelming, but we musseled up the courage to get a taxi for day II.

Today it was just her and I. We arrived around 8:45 because we had stated yesterday that we wanted to start school at 9 am so we could get out earlier. We wound up waiting around until 9:30 when our Vice Principal finally showed up and rounded up the kids in our usual classroom. I knew I was starting today, so at least that was for certain. My mentor showed up just in time for me to ask him how he wanted to check homework assignments. We each grabbed a marker and circled the room. I put all five problems up on the board and asked for student volunteers. I had three come up. We went over the problems that they did, and then I did the final two but with class guidance. I also posted the steps on the board for everyone to see and to write down, since we didn't do this yesterday and it bothered me. 1) Eliminate the brackets, 2) Transpose, 3) Summarize, and 4) Divide. I led the entire lesson today since I made the plans and since we didn't disucss them. I was teaching the same concept, but this time focused on fractions. It was nice to have him in the room though to come in with a different explanation if he felt the need to do so. There were some examples that I had him lead, just because there were so many ways I could attack the problem, I didn't know which way was best. He was very supportive and encouraging.

After I was finished, he came back to talk to me. He told me what he would like to do for the following day. He told me that he wanted me to come up with a test to give to the students. I asked him how many questions and he said that 10 would be fine. I wasn't really comfortable with this since we were flying through the material at break neck speed, only speaking and walking the students through the problem, rarely letting them do examples on their own. I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but my teacher also yells at the students if they are writing while I'm talking or he's talking. I don't understand why...only about 5% of the population learns through simply listening, and I feel like less than 5% are learning anything in my classroom.

Walking back, Jevi and I were super pumped. Today was the day that we would be getting our djembes!!! I couldn't believe that Lamin could turn them around that quickly! Either way, I felt like we almost ran home to see if they had arrived. As we approached the house, Lamin was out front to greet us. He told us that the taxi was on it's way and that the drums would be here soon. We went inside to grab some water and to cool off. Lamin came around the corner with two bags: a red one and a yellow one. I immediately fell in love with the yellow one but didn't want to say anything because he hadn't turned the corner for Jevi to see them. As soon as he did though, Jevi said "Can I have the red bag?" and I said "YES! I wanted the yellow one!" We walked over to our bags and opened them up. In my bag was a dark wood djembe with a traditional string wrapping. In Jevi's bag was also a dark colored djembe, but with the traditional goat fur wrapped around the top. The fur was dark brown in color with a black stripe. She looked at mine and said "do you want to switch drums? The fur kinda freaks me out". I excitedly said yes again. I looked at hers when we opened our bags and was a little jealous, so I was happy when she wanted to switch. I think I grabbed my drum for like a half hour. I was in love. We decided to have our drum lessons every Sunday at 10 am. I was really excited to start learning how to play. He told us that drum lessons would be about 75 dalasi, so about 3 dollars. I was completely ok with that! Now I just need to finalize what I want carved into it...I'm thinking a giant Baobab tree, the trunk spanning up the front with it's branches spreading out crazily over the sides with my Gambian name on the bottom lip "Nen Bally". I was thinking about having "I bless the rains..." carved down on the bottom so that you could only see it if it was flipped up. There's another funny saying that is a proverb that Megan is having carved into hers "If you want to catch a monkey in the grass, you have to take it easy easy." I think this is wonderful.

Today we also had our first 2 hour language lesson with Baboucarr. It went really well, despite the fact a part of me always wants to respond in Spanish. Let me tell you...this is the weirdest feeling ever. Whenever I walk into a restaurant or store, I think in English, then Spanish, then respond in Wolof. Talk about feeling crazy.

So I lied...we actually got our Gambian clothes on Monday when Awa stopped by. Regardless, here are some pretty sweet pics of me in my new fabrics:


Really nothing else exciting happened. For all of you who follow this, I'm really far behind. I'll be combining the next several entries to save time and memory. Sorry for the delay!!