Good times

It is late here, about 1 am. I had habitat duty tonight. Habitat duty is when I have to put the children to bed. So I woke up at 8 am today, spent the day teaching and working with the students. Then at 10 pm I start part 2 of my job. Only once or twice a week do I have to do this extra part. At 10 pm, we make the boys shower and get ready for bed. Then, at eleven oclock, the lights are shut off and the boys make fart sounds for a while, then laugh and fall asleep. Sometimes the boys are such angels, and then other times they are, well, not angels. Tonight, a group of boys, some Turkish and some American, wanted to do yoga. It is against the rules to not be in the beds after lights out, however, I told them if they really did yoga and were quiet it was no problem. I checked on them several times in the 30 minutes they did it and they were great. When they were done, they went to bed. Techniques to get twenty boys to be quiet and go to sleep vary greatly with each group. To quiet another group I told them I would sleep in the dorm with them. It's fun getting to know these kids and finding ways to work with them and have them respect you while you discipline them. This week an astronaut, Dr. Drew Gaffney, from a space shuttle mission (STS-40) visited us here and has given several lectures and informal question and answer talks with the students. Good night...