burning out

Be careful for what you wish for…because usually, it comes true!

You may recall that at the beginning of the school year, I was struggling and lost the battle to take a class that I had last year. And then my colleague who was their teacher had her baby, back in January/February…and I was able to take over her class. And it was super exciting at first.

And then the 18 hour work week was really starting to get to me; especially the waking up super early for the 7 am classes three times a week! Eeew! I know you all know that I am NOT a morning person; so this had been kinda like torture. And mix that with the SUPER hot days were having and you get one grumpy girl, also known as Michelle.

So, at our weekly English staff meetings I had been trying to figure out if Madame was going to come back…and it turns out she did! And she came back when she said she was! My standards have been lowered :-/ And as a result, I told the 5eme class (the non-favorite class) that I was letting them go, that they’d be getting their old teacher back…ahhh, the tears I caused! No, not really, but the majority were outspokenly opposed. Oh the little cuties…So I think it’s gonna be a smidge awkward as I make my way out to their class. 5m4 is in the paillote (sp?) classroom. A paillote is a nice-ish stick shack, flimsy, sometimes a thatched roof—we have tin roofs instead; thatched ones are cooler, and breezy! I wish we had paillotes back home. But I don’t think that the weather is very conducive to them.

I have to admit that I am starting to burn out. Every day is something new. And whether I plan it out or not, every day is a busy day. And that sucks, especially when I don’t have a car, the sun is punching you in the face, you sweat more than a fat man in a sauna, and there’s no time to take a nap.

Today was a market day. I met up with my post mate Nathaniel and Sarah to pick out même tissue = same fabric for our Mono (department) hoodies! We’ll be showing some solidarity at our COS conference, which is coming up sooner than I wish it would. I feel like there is much to do before then, and it’s getting in the way of what I need to do…but I am also looking forward to it a lot.

Peace Corps is putting us up in a really nice hotel with air conditioning, a nice pool, and WI-FI and CNN (satellite TV) in our rooms!!!!!!!!!!

That’s all for now. I am super tired and going to sleep.

PS
I finished up two books this week:
The Red Tent—A really good book about Jacob’s one and only daughter, Dinah. I highly recommend this book.
and
The Sex Lives of Cannibals—An entertaining travelogue about this guy and his fiancé who move to the Equitorial Pacific island nation, of Kiribati (did you know it’s pronounced “Keer-E-bas?”). It’s one of those cross-cultural books. It’s good, not as good as I heard it built up to be, but entertaining.