Called Lisa At 10:30 Last Night
Which was 5:30 this morning for her. Since she leaves for work about 6am that was the only way to slip in a call on a weekday- GRIN -
She opened the small packages we sent her earlier. We sent her a card indicating a gift made in honor of her Birthday to Heifer International - of "A Basket Of Hope" - and two small packages of edible treats. We have more gifts at home for her to unwrap when she gets back in December! Then we chatted till she had to leave for school.
Peace Corps Medical Update
I gather PC called and told her that her blood work came up positive for schistosomiasis but since she never swam in fresh water while in Africa they think it may be a false positive. They'll do more blood work in December before she leaves and if she indeed has it she'll be given a prescription for meds for it. I gather it's very common in southern Africa. Ahh well - just another issue to deal with.
School
As I said in my last blog - the 10th grade learners are gone but all the other's are in the midst of finals - they spread them out over several weeks. Which makes things easier I guess.
Her Entrepreneur Class got an unexpected break. She had gotten through all the chapters with her class already so while she was at Peace Corps for her medical stuff she assigned them the practice exam in the back of the text book as review.
As it turns out - the exam sent to the school looks a lot like the practice exam. Lisa figures they never expected the classes to get that far - grin - but since the practice exam was right there for any learner to go over she doesn't feel bad about assigning it. Of course she realizes that being exposed to most of the test won't make a big difference - the learners that study will do well those that don't study won't. Sigh - no easy way to reach all the kids all the time.
Speaking of exams - I guess when the state exams come in the teachers have to go over them and check the answer keys to make sure everything is correct. The joys of paperwork!
Irena
The new Peace Corps Volunteer is settling in with her host family - and even though she isn't supposed to - she's teaching already, monitoring exams etc. According to Peace Corps she's just supposed to be observing things. Yeah right - when a school gets a teacher it's impossible to keep them from putting her to work! GRIN
Lisa is surprised how similar they are - Lisa was a bio major, Irena a chem major. They both seem OK being on their own away from other English speakers or other Peace Corps Volunteers (very necessary when you're placed in Aroab!). They're both from the northeast - Lisa from Schenectady, Irena from Long Island. They both have Jewish Fathers and Catholic Mothers . They both like to read in a heavy duty way. And of course they both chose to be Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa. Small world.
I think she'll be very happy to inherit Lisa's stuff when she moves into Lisa's house in January - Peace Corps wants her with her host family till then. But she visits Lisa a bit since she can use her electricity, phone charging, water etc. and it's on the Hostel's nickel - whenever she uses water or electricity in her host home (one of the local Minister's and his family) she's aware of how much is being used since the Minister must go into town and buy more. Something I hadn't thought about before since Lisa didn't pay for electricity or water directly - it was just part of living on Hostel grounds.
Odds and Ends
Lisa finished reading her 120th book of the year.
Will update again this weekend - Take Care one and all - and
Happy Veteran's Day
Susan Rothman
