Well the election results were just announced and the current President, His Excellency Ernest Bia Koroma was reelected for his second term. Everything seems to have happened peacefully with no disturbances in or around Fadugu. So hopefully everything continues to go well!
The election didn’t disturb school nearly as much as people had predicted in the beginning of the term. A lot of people were saying we would have at least 2 weeks off for the election but luckily we only took off 2 ½ days and continued with classes the Monday following the election. So I have just been teaching as per usual. Which is good considering I have so much I want to cover with the students and soo little time! The first term is already almost over. That means I only have 2 terms left with them. Wow! Time flies! Before you know it I will be back in America for good. It is kinda sad to think about. I mean this really has become my home over these two years and I really do love a lot of my students and neighbor kids. It will be hard to leave them.. And don’t even get me started on leaving Keba! ha
Okay so moving on before this blog post gets too depressing. Well despite not having turkey or mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie, my Thanksgiving weekend wasn’t too bad. On actual Thanksgiving I didn’t do too much. I taught all day and for the extra classes after school but that night I made salsa and Mohamed and I had a drink and watched some episodes of Game of Thrones. Friday after school my girls club came over after prayers and we cooked together. It was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures and video of them. I am trying to take pictures and video of everything so I can make a movie about my Salone experience. It isn’t too shabby so far I must say. ha Hopefully a rough version will be ready by Christmas time so I can show everyone. Anyways, we cooked and then practiced our World AIDS Day songs. Today (Saturday), Mohamed and I cooked a nice breakfast of eggs with onions and tomatoes. I also experimented with making different kinds of fried dough. So here they sell fried dough rolls with a small amount of fish and tomato inside so I bought the dough and made my own filled with cheese and tomato paste (i.e. pizza flavored) and a breakfast variety with butter and cinnamon sugar. They were actually quite delicious! When I get home I will be quite the chef!! So all in all a pretty good Thanksgiving Weekend.
World AIDS Day is December 1st so my girls club is preparing for it. We have a couple of skits about AIDS prevention and causes that we will perform at the two secondary schools in Fadugu and a World AIDS Day song written by yours truly. Also, on World AIDS Day we are playing football against Chelsea’s Girls Club and then making a dance to raise awareness about the issue. Hopefully, everything goes well and in addition to having fun playing football and dancing, people actually learn something too!
The last thing I’ve been working on is the World Map. I am getting pretty far along on it. I have painted 5 of the colors so only 3 colors are left to paint. Then I just have to label it and it will be completed. And I have successfully tricked everyone here into thinking I am a phenomenal artist. It is going to be hard going back to America and not having everyone automatically think I am a genius and gifted in nearly every endeavor I undertake. I guess I will slowly readjust to life as an average Joe but it was kinda nice to be treated like a celebrity for a few years. Although I now have a better understanding and empathy for celebrities when they complain about their complete lack of privacy. It really can be obnoxious at times.
All righty well that’s about all I’ve got. I am super excited to come home and see everyone in just a few more weeks! 