Today I started training my substitute. He's training with me for the next 5 days. It was actually really exhausting having to explain everything to him. My SO says that I'm being too nice and I should just explain the minimum and not tire myself out. When I started at that school, no one explained things to me. Basically the previous teacher left all his materials in a box and I just had to figure it out. The sub has never worked with small children so he's observing my teaching and hopefully, he'll pick up some ideas on how to make ESL fun for kids. He has previously only taught high schoolers in the Malian system. And you know what that equals? He probably just writes things on the blackboard and the kids copy it. And memorize it. That is pretty much the Malian system.
In other news, I'm finally almost done with our initial visa application (by the way, I called it an 'application' on VisaJourney and got shut down...I guess it's not an application, it's a petition). I am so sick of translating things! I had to translate our marriage certificate, Rokia's birth certificate, rent receipts, things that prove I work here, pregnancy certificates, etc.
My final tasks are to print out pictures of us throughout the years (can't do this at school because the color printer doesn't work) and go with my SO to get our US sized passport-style photos taken. And then we'll send the petition to my parents who will add on the check (didn't bring my checkbook to Mali
) and send it on! My original goal was to send it off by the end of September but that didn't happen. So my new goal is by the end of October! No excuses!
Okay...picture time!
We got a turtle! My colleague owns a bunch of turtles so she gave us one. His name is....turtle. He lives on our balcony (it's huge) and he loves hiding under things. So we've left a bunch of old fabric out there and he hides in them. Rokia loves him and we go and check on him many times a day. He eats any leftovers- especially veggies and fruits. We've been giving him a lot of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, watermelon, egg shells (good for calcium!), rice, etc.
Bonus pictures from last night.
