The Forgotten Village

I’m back in Africa. After three wonderful weeks of recharging my batteries, eating good food, drinking good drinks, and visiting with family and friends, I’m back in my quaint little town of non-english speakers and even non-portuguese speakers. My job for this next year reflects the obstructions of the protagonist in this book. I once again will teach 8^th grade chemistry, which means my main objective this year is to convince my students that they don’t have to and shouldn’t cheat on exams; that if they put their minds to it, chemistry can open a whole world to them; and that I’m here to help them learn chemistry, rather than simply talk at them for 45 minutes twice a week. The difficulty? These are new and very foreign concepts to students entering secondary school. As humans have demonstrated countless times for millennia, we are creatures of habit. It takes a long time for new concepts to sink in and gain acceptance. Perhaps the second year of teaching will show the start of this process.

Since I’ve not yet shot any photos since my return, here are a couple from my lovely trip home and to Madison.

It's year two in the works