school!

Classes start Thursday! October 1. I'm pretty excited to start my job and feel purposeful for the first time in a month. I mean, I understand that the Peace Corps wants us to have time to integrate into the community, get our bearings, maybe have a little time off after the overscheduled-ness of training, and I've certainly enjoyed it. I've been cooking, baking, painting, drawing, sewing, biking, yoga-ing, reading, lots of very nice things. But I've felt more integrated over the past few days, since I started seeing my coworkers and other teachers have moved into my neighborhood, than I did the entire first few weeks.
So there are six teachers at my school, with a couple more coming for just a few classes. And there are 412 students registered so far, in four grades (with one grade split into two classes because it's so big.) And there is a total of 136 credit hours to be taught. I personally feel like a huge bum, because I am currently scheduled to teach only 9 hours at that school, the middle school (although that's still in question- I'll likely get at least one more class!) while other teachers have up to 5 distinct courses to teach. But it is my first year, and I'm basically unpaid- my money comes from the Peace Corps, so as far as Burkina Faso is concerned, I'm a volunteer. That's how I justify it at least.
It's possible that the number of students versus teachers has caught your attention. Well, schools here tend to have classes that are somewhat on the large side. Like, in 6eme, which is the large grade with two classes, the director of my school limited the number of students to 96 per class. Meaning that I'll go into a classroom of 96 students with nothing but chalk and my lesson plan, and try to teach them order of operations. Hm. At least my physics class will be smaller- only 64 students have registered so far. But again, teaching materials equal chalk and whatever I bring in to class. No lab out in the bush! I'm planning on lots of science fair project-type experiments... baking soda and vinegar volcano!!! I expect it to be a big hit.