September 9th, 2004

Well, we have now finished our first full week of school and it looks as if the school will be pretty normal compared to schools back home. Many of the same problems already, such as kids pretending to be lost, determining who will be your favorite class, etc. It is the differences, though, that are truly amazing. We have been very surprised about the fear of failure many of the students have. I think most of this is not really knowing what to expect from the American system. In the national system, they are required to memorize vast amounts of information. So when I give a lesson and I don't give them any dates to memorize or notes, they become very concerned that there is something they are missing. Yesterday, I had a girl come after class and ask if there was any part of the chapter I would recommend for her to study. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that we are nowhere near taking any exams or anything.

Some of the differences are down-right funny. I was having my PE class with the youngest grades (playing soccer of all things), when the girl's coach and I could have sworn that we heard one of the boys say the word, "Shit" when he made a mistake. I called him over and asked him if he said a bad word.
He replied, "No sir, I did not say a bad word."
Me:"Well, we could of swore that we heard you say the "S" word."
Student: "No, I did not say ass. I said shit."
Me: "You said what?"
Student: "I said, that I said shit, not ass."
(Trying to compose myself) Me: "Well, Shit is a bad word, much worse than ass. You should not use this word."
Student: "Okay sir, I am sorry. I will not say it again."

Only later did I learn that many of these kids don't realize that this is a bad word because they hear it so much on t.v. and in the movies. I guess I can't really blame them. One little girl told us that her grandparents use this word all the time and they don't even speak English.

Anyway, it is the weekend now, but we will still see the kids tomorrow. We are chaperoning a trip to Ain Sokna, which is some beach resort somewhere. I don't know. We hear from everybody that it is beautiful there though. We'll send pictures if it is nice.