What a week it's been

So it's been a bit of a long week. I got a new student on Monday, which just totally disrupts the rest of my class and makes my students go crazy. It also brings my class number up to fifteen. This girl is Nigerian, so that's another nationality on the list as well. Unfortunately, the craziness didn't just last for one day, it lasted the whole week. Of course, even on the bad days my kids have their bright and shining moments. We were working with the word family -it the other day. We had reviewed it a few times before, so I thought my students were ready to start trying to write their own words from that word family. I put eight letters on the board and told them to make as many words as they could. Well, they didn't quite understand the assignment. Most of them just starting writing words that began with one of the letters on the board. This is still good, but not quite for what I was looking. I went to the board and we started to review their words. I wrote sit on the board and asked what rhymed with that word. One of my boys got very excited, his hand shot up in the air and he stood up and yelled very loudly, "TITS!!" Now, he didn't say this to be crude, in fact none of the students seemed to pick up on the situation, including the boy whole yelled it out. I, on the other hand, had to turn away after quickly replying, "That's not quite was I was looking for," in order to keep from bursting out laughing. I had another student today say the word 'fuck.' She said it to one of the other girls and then said it a few more times, rolling it around in her mouth as though she were trying to get the feel for it. She looked at me and said, "I don't know what this word means, what does it mean?" I simply replied that it's not a nice word and we shouldn't use it. She was content enough with this answer and didn't say it again. First graders, even when I hate 'em, I love 'em. Oh, this one's for Maya. One of my girls looked at me today and serious as can be said, "You know the best singer ever Hannah Montana, she's real in Spain." They still have trouble with what is real and what is not real (refer to Mary in our first math word problem.)

In other news, it's been a while since I last posted. There was a huge storm on Monday night. Lightening struck close to (or perhaps even within) the compound twice. I know this because I nearly had a heart attack each time I was awoken from my sleep by bright flashes of lightening and huge cracks of thunder. The lightening struck some wires and blew out my TV and microwave. It also knocked out the internet. They've been working on it for the last few days, but so far no luck. I've only been able to access the internet from the school and the past few days have been so crazy there hasn't been much opportunity to sit down and write for a bit.

Last weekend was busy. It was also very fun. I hung out at a local pub on Friday night with some ex-pats. I feel like I'm starting to have a circle of friends here. We had a few drinks, played some darts, and threw around some (semi) witty banter. After that we disbanded, went home, and went to bed. I am generally exhausted on Friday nights. Saturday, however, I started early. I went to an Obama fundraiser (yes, even in Liberia we're raising money for our favorite presidential candidate). It was at a man's house who's a special representative I believe. Needless to say, security was tight. Guards with guns and everything, which after the disarmament here you don't see too often. It was a lot of fun, though. We all watched the VP debate, played Palin Bingo, ate delicious food, and had a few drinks. Quite a bit of money was raised as well.
After the fundraiser, we went to a party. Sunday, now this day was wonderful. Got up, ordered in brunch, and spent the day at the beach. A different beach this time, this one was cleaner and the current wasn't as forceful as usual. All in all, a very nice weekend.