14 Feb: Teaching

This morning I taught two bio courses, one to form II and one to form III. Form III went very well, but I'm worried that form II is having a lot of trouble understanding me, which would make sense what with all the trouble Im having understanding them (this would become the theme of my teaching experiences). In form II I was teaching about fungi, which to be honest bores me to tears both now and when I was learning it in high school. I would so much rather be teaching human biology but I have to stick to their syllabus so that they will have all the information they need when they take their government exams. Thats one thing I never really thought about, is that teachers have to cover everything, whether its something they enjoy, or something they loathe. Whenever I thought about being a teacher, I have only imagined teaching something like calculus or human biology.

Between classes I threw up again. Great, the first two classes Ive ever taught and Im throwing up. The past day or so Ive been finding myself looking at food in terms of what will taste best when coming back up. After my second class I went back to our room and spent the rest of the day lying down and reading. I want to be more interactive right now, but its difficult since I cant keep things down. We made our way to the soccer field (football pitch) and saw the students warming up for a game. That might have been the most intense warm-up Ive ever seen. If I was feeling 100% and had participated in the warm-up, that would have been it for me. These kids do their warm-up and then play a full ninety minute game. Unfortunately we couldnt make it through the whole game, so I went back to the room and pondered a number of things:

1) How dehydrated can I really get without being dangerously ill?
2) Should I start the antibiotics?
3) Will I be able to eat any of the African food while I'm here (we brought a large stash of food for emergencies)?
4) The Score is awesome (second time Ive watched it on the trip).

I figured I had better try to put away some fluids before bed since I was worried about going another six hours during the night with no water. I did, and kept it down. Thats a good thing. Right before bed, I used the phone we bought for the first time and called Liz. This first week has been very difficult, and having the opportunity to talk to here for a couple brief minutes was amazing. Happy Valentines Day.

Inset: The building with classrooms for form IIA, IIIA and B.

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