Mobile + Water = Bad. Who knew?

First off, I'd like to put get well wishes to my uncle Mike here. Hopefully he will have a speedy recovery.

Also, I have been going through email withdrawal this week as I decided to drop my phone in my water while I was watching my clothes. It's stopped making funny noises, but it still only has a white screen when I put the battery in. I wish I could claim this was the first time that I've done this. I will go to Voi next weekend, I think and try to find some kind of phone repair shop.

And a quick shout out to Elfa (sp?) for calling me yesterday. That definitely made my week. It was nice to hear a familiar voice, and she definitely understands the time difference better than certain sisters of mine...

I remember volunteers attesting that whatever qualities you are most emphatic about when you try to make requests for your site placement, you are sure to get the opposite. Now, while I think Eric did pretty well on his requests (he is teaching near Lamu right now and got pretty much exactly what he requested), my main request was that I go somewhere that would not overburden me with schoolwork so that I could work on community projects. And I definitely got the opposite. I am now slated to teach 30 lessons a week and supervise the laboratory, and I am using every fiber in my body to resist setting office hours as an English tutor (the school English teacher covers literary analysis of Ibsen, and the students still don't understand commas). I also missed school on Wednesday to go to a meeting for the zonal science congress. Apparently I will be judging the math projects for our zone (think sectionals for those of you in the US) and advising students in my school as they start on their projects. The congress is in two weeks.

I spoke with the Board of Governors (school board) last week, and they seemed generally supportive of me taking up lots of projects, I just need to find time and maybe funding.

Finally, our school has gotten rid of the math teacher, which means I am teaching math classes now. Also, the physics teacher is taking some math classes, so I am also teaching some physics. That brings my current load to Agriculture: 3rd and 4th years (8 lessons/week)
Chemistry: 3rd years (5 lessons/week)
Math: 2nd and 3rd years (13 lessons/week)
Physics: 1st years (4 lessons/week)
As you can see, I spend a lot of time with the 3rd years, and I think they have concluded that I'm pretty wacky. I guess their pretty perceptive. The 2nd years are warming up to me a lot (they were disappointed to go to lunch today before I could finish explaining why fractions give repeating decimals). The 1st years are still unsure of me, and I think the 4th years find me pretty serious, since I am always stressing their exams (I think they would find it frustrating if I weren't so serious about them).