Week Twelve: Kinyarwanda-ing While Sick (Again)

Following up my particularly grim post about the president elect is another equally upsetting post about illness (Part Two and Three). I had the sniffles last week, and I didn’t think much of it, because the weather was changing, and that happens. Then my nose became like a faucet, and pressure built up in my head. Finally, I went to the doctor, and she told me that I had a very severe ear and sinus infection, and kindly prescribed me an antibiotic. I have taken these horse pills as I should since Friday evening, and I thought I was getting better (for the most part), but now I have entirely new symptoms that impact upon my stomach. It’s totally distracted me from most of my studies, including that of Kinyarwanda. I am so disappointed, but I’m not sure I could have done anything differently.

Needless to say, I did not meet with my language partner this week. In the interest of self care, I slept in until 10:00a.m on Saturday (which is unheard of in my household). When I felt up to it, however, I tried to spend time on what I would classify as the less active activities, including reviewing digital flashcards and contributing to Google Translate.

As per the syllabus, I constructed a page for my language-learning website. I decided to make a lesson on three practical verbs, to be, to have, and to want, and as simple as that should have been, I found it to be a bit of a challenge. Indeed, I did not want to overwhelm them with information on verb tense and object prefixes, but then again, I didn’t want to leave them ill-equipped to handle these verbs either. I ultimately decided to give them a glimpse at the present tense and the present habitual, knowing that I will explain them, as well as other verb tenses, at greater length later.

I also submitted a final self-assessment tool, but I modified the one I used last semester, because though I found it to be effective, I also identified areas where I thought it could be more challenging.

Anyway, I’m sorry there was nothing terribly exciting to report this week. I hope to provide a more riveting narration once I feel better. Hopefully, that will be next week, but I have learned there are no guarantees! I am so tired of being sick.