hey! i'm back again.

lots of people have asked about my shoulder. some ligament that holds the joint together is still broken, but it doesn't hurt anymore. well, unless i'm riding a bicycle or sleeping on that side. it is easy to live with, but i will probably let the peace corps pay to fix it when i get done here. before if i really need to visit home, but i like the idea of staying here in africa for my two years.

my health, in general, is great. at the start of our vacation i went for a 90 minute run and felt good doing it. the rest of the vacation i didn't run much because we were hiking or traveling and i hurt my foot a little bit. so, for now i'm not complaining about anything.

school starts the day after tomorrow. i should have about 10 days worth of lessons planned when it starts, which is plenty. it doesn't make sense to plan much more, because i never know what is going to happen.

it doesn't look like we're ever going to get a phone and the internet at our house, but it may work out for us to subsidize unlimited monthly access for the primary school. they need to pay their old bill, which is ~us$300. it might happen.

i got lucky today and made an unplanned trip to town. it will be good, because i only had dry food at the house, and i will be able to get some fruit, vegetables, and meat, as well as sending some email.

i don't remember if i've posted anything about our school calendar. we have 3 terms... january through april, june through mid-august, and september through the start of december. much of the last term is occupied with students taking exams, so the last one and this one are when most of the teaching gets done.

if this term is any indication, about 1/3 of the students will do well (c or better is considered great), about 1/3 will slide through with 'd's to 'g's, and about 1/3 will do so poorly that they get 'u' (ungraded) marks. my students did better in my subjects than many of the others, which is good because math and science aren't the easiest subjects. the best students (there are 1 or 2 in every class of 40) get averages about 90% and make getting up in the morning to go to work pretty easy.

that's about it for now. if you're wondering about anything specific, email some questions and i will try to answer them on here.

hi everyone.

school ended april 30 and i've been on vacation. i've done a few really enjoyable things that you'll like hearing about.

first, after finishing my 'learners' progress reports' (students' report cards) i hopped on my bike and rode it to see my girlfriend. it is about a 100 km trip on a road that is only really passable in a 4 wheel drive, so it was a pretty big undertaking. i ended up carrying lots of water and crap (tools to fix the bike and camping/backpacking gear for a hiking trip through fish river canyon). it started poorly when the drunk guys hanging out around the store stole some of my water as i stopped in. then, the rack on my bike broke as my heavy pack bounced during the ride. then, my seatpost collapsed when i started carrying the pack. it got better. my level of soreness stopped increasing and i settled into a long-ride rythym. it ended up taking me 10 hours, but i'm sure the trip is possible in more like 6 or 7 when i go lighter and faster and ride my new, not going to break, bike. it felt great to head out into the relative isolation and to be responsible for getting myself where i was going. those of you who worry should know that it wasn't that isolated -- there are some farms along the way and i met some people on the road. also, the girlfriend knew i was coming and would have come looking if i hadn't shown up.

maybe my favorite part about the ride, was the fact that not a single person i met along the way asked why i was riding a bicycle to bethanie. people were very friendly and seemed to think it was pretty normal to go see your girlfriend on a bicycle if you had one. farmers are usually pretty nice people anyway.

ok, so i did that. then i went to windhoek and stayed at a game lodge for "re-connect." it is basically a few more days of training and sharing among volunteers to help us deal with problems that we're experiencing. it was great to see all my friends from training and swap stories. i think we're a pretty positive group, because a lot of us are pretty happy with our situations even though the problems i've talked about experiencing on here are common at other sites as well.

next, i went to otjiwarongo to spend some time with my host mother and her family. it was really nice to see her and eat some of her porridge. nobody makes porridge like mom. my youngest host sister, jane, is speaking english really well and doing much better in school this year. it was great to see how well she was doing and pretend to eat bugs from each others hair.

then, 10 of us went to fish river canyon and hiked. i'm told that the hike is pretty similar to some grand canyon hikes in that the descent in to the canyon is pretty strenuous, with some rock-climbing and ledge crawling, then the trail is pretty rocky but flat as you follow the river through the canyon. we did something like 12 river crossings and walked around 50 miles in 4 1/2 days. it was nice. you won't beat the night sky here in africa, and i saw a few really cool moonrises and some wild wildlife.

so that brings us to now. i'm going to hitch-hike to bethanie with my girlfriend so she isn't hiking alone and then ride my rev. b bike home. i will spend the rest of the time until school starts (on april 26) planning lessons, getting experiments ready for science class, grading old homework, and other teacher stuff. i think the second term should be pretty good, but the first few weeks will probably be a little rough because there weren't many teachers around at the end of last term and the kids got pretty wild.

so that's what's going on. i had some fun and relaxed, which was good, and am ready to work again, which i needed.

take care. if you haven't had a chance, drop me a line and let me know what's going on and how you're doing. i look forward to hearing from you.