Oh Happy Day!
This morning I made the fantastic decision to change out of my statistics class. It seems to me that it is way smarter to get out of a class that is miserable and in which I will learn absolutely nothing in favor of something better, and simply take stat at home where the professors actually teach (novel). I am now in Environmental Law. Strange? Not really. It's actually very enjoyable! We are currently summarizing info on International Law before we move onto the more specific environmental law, and the professor is organized and encourages discussion, so it's pretty interesting. Plus, I like the environment. In other class news, the Swahili professor showed up today, and it was AWESOME! Most of the class is people from my group, so we're pretty comfortable around each other, but the best part is our professor. Why, you may ask? Because he's Russian. That's right, we have a Russian teaching us Swahili in English. How cool is that? If you're thinking that's silly, it's really not because as a non-native speaker, he actually knows standard Swahili instead of a local dialect. He also knows what it's like to learn Swahili and so is able to understand the common pitfalls and difficulties in the process. We spent the class listening to him introduce the class in his Russian accent and demeanor, and then we worked on pronunciation, which meant we got to say funny words in a funny accent and laugh about it.
At the orphanage today I followed Liuba, the nurse, around and she let me give nose drops to the babies and cough medicine to all the children. They get it every day because they all have some kind of respiratory issue due to the dust and the fact that they are playing with a bunch of other kids all the time - hence the permanent boogars. The older kids (by older I mean able to sit up/walk) are so good and just open their mouths and take it (and we all know what cough medicine tastes like...gross!) Liuba had to hold the babies' mouths open, and one was so stubborn, she clamped it shut and wouldn't open for anything! So funny! Smart baby I say. I also met a little boy who actually has Malaria right now. He had just taken medicine, which makes him super tired, so he looked aweful and I was really worried about him until she told me about the effects of the medicine. She also took me to the medicine cabinet and told me what every single medicine in there was and what it was used for. Boy did I have my notebook out for that one, there were so so many! It was great though!
At the orphanage today I followed Liuba, the nurse, around and she let me give nose drops to the babies and cough medicine to all the children. They get it every day because they all have some kind of respiratory issue due to the dust and the fact that they are playing with a bunch of other kids all the time - hence the permanent boogars. The older kids (by older I mean able to sit up/walk) are so good and just open their mouths and take it (and we all know what cough medicine tastes like...gross!) Liuba had to hold the babies' mouths open, and one was so stubborn, she clamped it shut and wouldn't open for anything! So funny! Smart baby I say. I also met a little boy who actually has Malaria right now. He had just taken medicine, which makes him super tired, so he looked aweful and I was really worried about him until she told me about the effects of the medicine. She also took me to the medicine cabinet and told me what every single medicine in there was and what it was used for. Boy did I have my notebook out for that one, there were so so many! It was great though!