I know who I'm teaching now

The way the school years work here is like this:  you start in primary school for 6 years.  After that comes middle school, called college here with a soft 'g'.  I'll be teaching the second year of middle schoolers.  They go for 4 years, starting as 6th years and leaving when they are 3rd years.  High school (lycee) is 2nd years, 1st years and terminal year, so 3 years.  I will be teaching 5th year middle schoolers, I'll have two classes of about 80 kids and I'll be teaching math.  The ages should range from 14 year olds to 20ish year olds.  I did practice teaching on 3rd year kids and I only had 7, so this will be a step down in their french skills, while increasing the number by a factor of 10.  I have no idea what to expect, but I really just need to be scary the first couple of weeks and then they will behave better for the year.  I start on October 1st.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures with my students sometime soon.  I just bought a book on learning Dioula, so hopefully my skills will start to skyrocket.  Water fall pictures coming within a week.

I read a lot

I cant remember when exactly I decided I like reading, but I think Dune sealed the deal.  Sure, accelerated reader probably helped, but I mainly did that for the points, because I like things like points; always have.  I have the most JROTC ribbons and medals in high school because I like things like ribbons and metals.  But Dune made me decide to be a reader and now Ive read something like 8 books in 3 months Ive been here.  Just finished catch22 and am surprised that no one in my past that Ive known, or not known, has ever told me to read that book. 

The person I replaced left several hundred newspaper comic sections that I assume her parents sent her over the course of her service and they have really come in handy during the first boring couple of weeks before I get to know a lot of people.  There are crosswords and sudokos and get fuzzy, the rest of the comics are just so incredibly bad.  And this is a big paper in California.  I think Americans should pay more attention to the funnies so that the quality will rise and future volunteers that discover hundreds of future comic sections in their new village houses can laugh more.  Maybe that can be my legacy in the Peace Corps.

Now things are starting to pick up pace and I read a little less.  There are people to got sit and drink tea with on Friday afternoons, under a tree.  The tea is amazing and strong and minty and they serve it in little glasses.  That's how you get things done in village.  Find the tea.