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Day 157 - 7 December 2005 EXCEL-ing ‘n Sanpadjudu So i started teaching Excel this week in my class (finally). It’s unfortunate that we really only have one week to cover this complex program, especially when most of the students really want to learn more about Excel than that last program. Oh well, better planning next time I suppose. so of course my young kid is having trouble keeping up and I think I’ll just have him jump right in and I’ll take the whole class slow since all of them don’t really know much about it. only problem is that they learn quicker than him and will get bored. oh well, they can rough and repeat while he learns. it’s only 4 days of class anyhoo. which does limit me to whatever sort of “teste” (that says TESH-tuh, not what you think it does...perverts!) or quiz I can give on the quick excel lesson comin their way. I might even let kids do tests in pairs if we’re too packed. that way they’re guaranteed to do better with two minds workin together. which I think is a valuable lesson to teach since a lot of professional jobs are team based. WORD...i mean, Excel. «fingers crossed» so I called my host family today and wanted to talk to my mom to see if I could understand her even better this time. alas, she wasn’t there, but I quickie convo with my host bro and we seemed to understand each other pretty well. I felt really accomplished. it was super funny at the end though, cuz he said “bu papia Sanpadjudu!” and which point I replied “sim, diskulpa, mas, min’d’podé fala badiu. é difícil pa bu entendi-m?” and we both got a good laugh out of it. at least it sure seemed like he was laughin with me and not at me. I told him to say hi to mom and to wish our sister a happy birthday. hopefully he passed on the note and isn’t continuing to try to get ride of me like he used to. (I once found some glass in my lunch the hard way when he brought it one afternoon during training, but it probably just broke off the glass container it was in on his 45 minute walk to my school.) I miss my fam back in the south. my host mom’s cookin and rides in the back of dad’s police truck. it was great to be able to communicate with him for the first time without misunderstanding or constant repeating. maybe even my mute bro will talk to me next time. <--- prova prova prova!                diplomas! --->