a few quick words

Just wanted to say hello, haven't had much time lately on the computer, but I try to kick Andy off his at work at often as I can. Today was another day at the nursery school, we are slowly making progress there, its just diffcult because I can't be there every second of the week. I have started giving the teachers I'm working with now, "teacher assignments" where I give them one particular aspect to work on for that day on a notecard, like today it was using positive praise, which is not something they even think of here as something that should happen in the classroom to encourage the students in behavior and in academics. I explain it a little, we talk about it beforehand, and then they put the brightly colored notecard on their desk in front of them, so that they have it there as a reminder of what they should be working on all day. At the end of the day, they write how they thought the day went concentrating on the particular assignment on the back of the card, and we discuss what I observed, they can ask me specific questions, etc. It is a good way of focusing on one issue at a time, and that way we can see progress and keep track of what we are working on, instead of just piling on all these things that we need to work on at once.
So, the weather here is very hot during the day lately, as I'm sure you already got. Its the kind of heat where I walk with an umbrella to shield myself from the sun like when I'm going to the market, and even though it is about 5 when I usually go, I immediately have sweat dripping from the crook of my elbow that is bent from holding the umbrella above my head. But despite the heat during the day, the nights aren't too bad, like last night I was wearing a tank top, and sitting outside chatting with the family, and I was a bit chilly! When I took my bucket bath before going to bed, I had goosebumps! Crazy.
And some more random topics:
The oranges you can buy here are not the color orange, they are a good solid green, and light yellowish inside they are called "lemuno". They are pretty tasty, but I don't know if I would be saying that if I had one when I first got off the plane, if you know what I mean. But the other day I saw an amazing sight,... a orange colored orange! When I went to buy one, the lady mistakenly thought I wanted one of the green ones (the lemuno), but I said no, and pointed to the orange colored one, and she said, "oh, tubab lemuno" If you don't know already tubab is the word for white person/outsider, that is constantly berating us where ever we go. It made me laugh that she called it a tubab lemuno. But it was soo completely delicious, and juicy and orange.... even inside! It was expensive, (for the cost of one of the tubab oranges you can get 4-5 green ones. Anyhow (Guess you had to be there!.... so come on, get here!)
Another story about tubab. When I was at the nursery school observing a new class, the children were turning around and looking at me in the back of the classroom. They kept calling out "tubab" For some reason in this school they call the teacher Auntie, (so Auntie Mary, Auntie Fatou, etc.) So when the teacher tried to correct them, and said, "no her name is Auntie,... what?" The children said without hesitation, "Auntie Tubab".... hehe. One track minds I tell ya!
Well, thats it for now, gotta do some computer work for the college. Hope to hear from you soon. :)