A Hazy Shade of Winter

My English club is finally underway! If you find yourself sitting at a restaurant or bar, perhaps reading this blog on your Wifi-enabled cellular phone, be sure to toast the fine students of CEG Kemon who were generous enough to make my first session a rousing (if somewhat tardy) success. Here is a recap of what was and will be done (hopefully).

My partner in this endeavor told me that he would pick me up to bring me to the club on his moto. I hesitantly agreed, but I believe that he is far more punctual than my other colleagues, and decided to leave my timely arrival in his hands.

He didn't come. Well, he did eventually come, but he arrived at my house to pick me up approximately 15 minutes after our club was scheduled to begin AT SCHOOL, a mile away. Needless to say, I had since given up on this mode of transportation and biked the way, no doubt uttering not-quite-inaudible choice phrases under my breath en route. And when I arrived, 4 minutes late, I found that I was alone. No, not even the crickets were chirping.

But they came. Little by little, 15 out of the 17 invitees arrived, the last one arriving slightly past the 1 hour mark (thus giving him less than a half hour to actually BE there). But I was happy to get anything after my initial shock of the empty classroom. Coincedentally, my late partner, who is also a teacher at my school, arrived 30 minutes late and then proceeded to chastise those who arrived even five minutes later than him. "Why are you late? We started at 13h30." I bit my tongue.

So here's the gist of it. My club is entitled "The English World." I wanted to have an English club, to which I could invite my most promising students, but I didn't want it to focus solely on the production of English words and the study of the language. I decided to bring this into a more personally-intriguing realm by incorporating an element of geography. I was thus able to teach English structures and idioms while also expanding the students' knowledge of how English fits into this big, confusing world. Here's the gimmick: each week, I will work with three or four students to prepare a presentation, probably in French, about a certain English speaking nation. We can incorporate a bit of history, a bit of economics, talk about commerce and opportunities available in each nation, and also prepare dances or food to create a world that can be more literally "experienced." We will start with the mother of all English nations, if I do say so myself: the U.S. That will take place next Wednesday. After that, we will continue with Nigeria, then England, then Ghana, etc. I'm really looking forward to the research and the preparations. Plus its a rare chance to give students the opportunity to showcase their creativity in front of a group of peers. I'm really hoping that this first group will go off without a hitch. One of my best students, Benoit, was chosen for this group, so I think it may be a successful trial run.

I'm trying to import books right now for the school library. If ever you send a package and have a spare French-English dictionary handy, I would be forever grateful if you would be so kind as to slip it in the package. It doesn't need to have considerably difficult vocabulary... Also, if anyone has any ideas about organizations to partner up with in order to import French novels, I would love to chat with you. Things are starting to move now that lockdown has been lifted, and I'm really looking forward to the new opportunities afforded by internet access, no matter how dodgy it is.

Congrats to BU for defeating the BC Eagles in the hockey match held IN Fenway Park. Amazing show, I heard. Also, a group of education students from SUNY Oswego are here tonight, so I'm going to meet up with them. The coincedences were too numerous to pass up this chance to meet them in Porto-Novo. A group of Oswegonians... in Benin... here to study the education system. What are the freakin' chances. It's a beaufitul life.