a small taste

I love working at the deaf school. I have taught 6 different classes now and they are so fun. It is a whole different ball game. It is a real challenge to come up with something that is the correct ability level that can be taught with the few signs we know and mostly gesture and with hardly any supplies at all. But I love it. The kids are unbelievably excited about art and soo proud of the littlest things. They crave attention and eat it up when you give it to them. One thing I hadn't thought about before that is that most of the deaf students also have other disablities in some form... whatever caused the deafness also affected other functions. Also here, instead of a child staying at his/her ability level, the teachers keep passing them so that they can reach tech. school and learn a skill. I can understand that, but at the same time it is odd to have mostly students with an ability level and another way behind. You just sort of encourage and give extra help. I'm really excited though about it all. :)

Home-stay is also going really well, even though I am hardly ever there. I think I'm getting a really different experience than most, because there really isn't a set family that I live with. I live with the queen mother of the village, her parents, and then a whole host of random people who are distantly related somehow. There is one boy who can speak english really well, so he is my interpreter. The house is arranged in a square with about 9 rooms all facing an inner courtyard. Everything happens in the courtyard. washing, cooking, hanging out... I do have my own room which is really nice and have tried my best to make it homey.