Wednesday, January 27th

Hello again! The past two days have been really busy - hot and humid. We all feel like melting ice cream cones Ohhhhhhhh sounds good. I might have to have a Brusters White Turtle when I get back even if it's snowing.

I wasn't able to wrap up the teacher observations yet, but did get news that there would be some Fulani Muslims planning to attend Tuesday. Murphy's Law struck! There was only one new Student, and she was not from the village. We worked on their names anyway. I think this makes them feel rather accomplished to be able to print their name. The class went well and Muhammed sat in to observe.

Today I completed the observations, met with one teacher at 8 am to go over his observation. Met with a second teacher at 1:30 when the students went home. We've worked up an excel spreadsheet for them to keep track of the "topics" that each student has masterd in English and Mathematics. The headteacher Agnes is to meet with the teacher and I but so far has been unable to do that. I will give her a report later. We will also do a spreadsheet for her to use in checking the teachers progress so she will have record of it.

The school is from our Kindergarten to Fourth grade. The students are in the class that matches their level of ability - not their age. As I observed today I was amazed again at the differences between our classrooms and theirs. The teacher, if she has a small child, carries him/her on her back as she teaches. There is also a small mat with some giant Leggo's on it. The baby will sit and play there, or lay down and nap.

My "advanced" class this evening had one new member. She doesn't speak English, but her friend does - so that helps a lot. They didn't show up until 4:45, so we had only 45 minutes of class. We did accomplish quite a bit though. We reviewed all letters and sounds, the greeting phrases, read two stories from the Queen's Primer II. Then each student told me one thing they had in their house. I wrote the word on the easel's (boy have those come in handy). Then went back to each one and had them use that word in a sentence and I wote that on the board. They copy this in their notebook and then practice it at home on their day's off. They had asked last week if they could take the Primer's home, and I finally got permission from Head Teacher Agnes for them to do that. She said they must return them or she will find them and demand 200 Naira. They all laughed when I told them this.

After dinner we gathered on the porch and had a wonderful time of fellowship with the Nigerian Leadership team and the work team from Wenatchee, Washington. The six on the work team will leave tomorrow about noon. We shared commuciation at the end of our time together. What a touching time of sharing. I will truly miss them when they leave.