Hey all!
Things are going well at site...busy busy (ana madzgula kthir), but I'm having a great time. My day to day has become routine, and I'm settled in, so I thought it might be time to write a bit about my day to day life.
I work Sundays through Thursdays in my special education center. I usually wake up around 7 and get ready for work. If I'm lucky, I'll skype with Justin for a few minutes, before heading out around 7:40am. It's about a ten minute walk to my center through my neighborhood, and I usually arrive just in time for a cup of tea before classes begin at the merkez. The teachers at my center are wonderful (funny, dedicated), and we greet each other every morning with "kafiks?" and smiles. At this point I've been making a lot of little resources for the center per request...when a teacher has an idea, I help them make materials, such as behavioral reinforcement charts and lesson plan activities. I'm still observing a lot while contributing to the day to day schedule without being too much an imposition. We've done some fun things since I've been working here, like Valentine's Day crafts and a field trip to the Merkez Shebab. Things are good, and I'm optimistic for the next to years.
Work is done by 1:30 every day, and I'll walk home through the sug where I can buy groceries for the next few days. I love the fresh eggs and bread, and have been cooking myself mainly vegetables and rice (I don't cook with meat in my house, because I've become perfectly content with keeping things simple in the kitchen). After returning home, I like sitting in my house or on my roof with a good book, which I either read or set aside while I nap. I'll usually go downstairs to visit once or twice a day, sometimes going down for lunch at 4:00, but always coming down for conversation and Alia (a Turkish soap dubbed in arabic that has become my favorite TV show here). My mudeera and I walk every night for excercise, though it always turns out to be a good opportunity to bounce ideas off of each other.
My weekends are usually spent relaxing, doing laundry, and visiting with families in town or my Peace Corps friends. I went on a lovely picnic with my landlord's family a few weeks ago to their farm outside of Zirqa, where we barbequed kebab and enjoyed the sun and conversation. I like the sponteneity of my day to day life here... I never now exactly how my day will play out when I wake up in the morning.
Just a bit for now...I'll write again soon. In the meantime, you should look at the website I helped create for my center: www.almafraqsped.weebly.com!
Take care!
Steph
