Teaching- through the eyes of a child

We've been working on surface area, so this afternoon I had Diaboundi and Bapougini work the same problem on two different sections of the blackboard, to try and figure it out. It was a compound shape, a rectangle with a right triangle on the side. A trapezoid, if you will. Bapougini ran back to quickly fix the units, and wanted to look like he was working when i took the picture :). You can see the pride on Diaboundi's face when they finally came up with the correct answer :)

Meet Diaboundi. This is a drawing of his family. He tells me which ones are dead, which ones live in Fada, and which ones live near here. He tells me that the 6 at the top, with no names or faces are for the family members he doesn't know. He says its difficult to remember them all. He writes their names below the ones he remembers. Most are just an initial, because Diaboundi is deaf and uses name signs for his family. He can write the family names though. He is a very bright student, and learns quickly. He is still 100% boy though.

Some more pictures

It rained in Mahadaga today. Rain is so special here in Africa, but very hard to photograph. It's especially difficult to photograph people in the rain. In Africa, although it is a joyous thing to have rain, the people do not enjoy being caught in the rain. The American kids run out and stomp in puddles, but the Africans stay out of the rain. I am not sure why, except that being muddy bothers them. They don't like getting their clothes dirty, even the young children. It's an interesting thought.

We keep the windows open when it rains, and enjoy the cool wind that comes, but the Africans get chilled, and it is not uncommon to see them pulling on jackets, and even earmuffs after the rain. Today the students were shivering when the temp dropped to what felt like mid-70° These kids hung out with me while I got my hair done this last time. It took 3 and a half hours, to get my hair cornrowed into a ponytail. I really like it this way, I think it will last longer than the braids did. Hopefully long enough for me to chance in front of a camera and get the 'do on film :)

Tutoring- First day

Today I worked with Angela, who came from Messiah college to tutor the blind students in math and english. I learned so much about how the blind students learn, practically. In this picture, you can see Mattieu and Kounjoi working on math. They use tableaus and dice-like braille cubes. They were making calculations faster than I was!

Cliff View

Check out how green the trees are! All this in just the few weeks of rainy season. Its so exciting to see the green leaves :) This picture was taken a few evenings ago when I went up on the cliffs with Christine, her last chance

Waterfall

Here is a great photo from the waterfall we went to yesterday. This is as close as I've ever been to paradise.

Some photos!

We have these amazing cliffs right behind the village, and yesterday we went hiking with a group of friends. Here is a great shot of what I enjoyed at 6:30am with sweat literally dripping off my face :)