Where do I begin?

Good day to all. The weather here is so funny. I awoke this morning at 4:30 in order to prepare for teaching today and it was calm outside. Within one hour, the winds were gusting and it was raining. Luckily, by the time I left at 6:30 to take my regular walk to the school, the rain had stopped, but there was a bit of a chill in the air. By the time I arrived at school, I was elated to see that the principle was not there giving his Friday lecture to the students. They were heading for their classrooms. WELL....I get to my classroom and there are only the boys sitting in their seats. The girls were all sent out to clean the compound. They had been punished. (I am not quite sure what they were being punished for and I was not able to get any information from the other students. Well, we proceeded to do some of my lesson that I had gotten up so early to prepare for....! Ha...! After my first class, I moved over to my second class and the students were still missing. But, I proceeded once again to teach the few of them. When class had finished, I took out my camera to take some pictures of these wonderful students. They went CRAZY!!!!!!!!! I began to "snap" them, which is what they call it here. They loved looking at their pictures after I took them. They were so excited. After I finally was able to calm them down, one of my girls told me that Jennifer (a girl that sits in the back of the classroom) was very ill. I went over to her and I have to say that my heart stopped...I thought she was not breathing. I come to find out that they believe that she has malaria and she was in the hospital the night before but insisted on leaving and coming back to school. I am mortified that I did not see that this was happening. I told the girls to go and get the nurse. Well, the nurse was nowhere to be found. I attempted to pick up Jennifer and get her to a bed but was not successful. A teacher came to the door and I explained the situation. He said that I should just leave her there. I was torn about the whole thing, but I do not want to ruffle too many feathers (if you know what I mean). Malaria is at its peak right now. It strikes heavily when the wet season is changing to the dry season. My cooperating teacher has been down all week with Malaria. A lot of sickness here. It is very difficult here...but, the people seem to perservere.
After my class ended today I was leaving and a boy from my one classes came up to me and said, "I love you." What do you say to that....then about 4 more boys joined him and began to tell me how much they have learned from me and how much they enjoy having me as their teacher. Can I tell you....that made my year!!!! I will be so unhappy when I have to leave them....I love these kids.....they are beautiful and smart and kind hearted. I am so blessed to have had a chance to touch their lives.....I love everyone of them...!!!
Well, on another note....last night John and I went to an art exhibit at the French Alliance club...well, there were people there taking pictures of the art.....so I decided to take pictures...well, I got in trouble...they were not happy and made me delete all the photos off my camera... oh, well...no harm done....not until John and I decided to take a different route home after dark....NOT A GOOD IDEA...let me tell you....John gets a phone call and stops to talk...I am waiting for him to finish so I take out my camera and begin to take pictures of the full moon...absolutely beautiful....well, a truck comes around the bend and turns around and stops right in front of me....A massive African Man gets out and shouts at me, "What to you think you are doing? You look very suspicious. I am going to call the police." OK, anyone who knows me, knows that I do not take well to men that verbally attack me like that. I told him that I was just taking a picture of the moon...that was not good enough for him. He continued to harass me and said that I was taking pictures of the government building. It was the agricultural building...I was not even aware of that. He said that he was going to make me "blue" (using his fist to emphasize his seriousness of the situation). I gave him my opinion and told John that we needed to start walking away from the situation. It was a bit nerve wrecking....I was shaking all the way home. I have to say that this situation was the first time that I felt unsafe. It was a strange feeling. But, I dealt with it and all is good. It was an experience. I told a good african friend today about the happenings and he said that I should not walk on that particular road when it gets dark. That is good to know.
But, all I can say that this is a very good experience being here. I have learned all about adaptation and I feel that I have done a good job with that.
I hope all is well back home. I will be coming home in about 3 weeks...I can not believe how time has a way of flying by. I have very mixed feelings about leaving, but I know that Cameroon has become a special home to me...I will never lose that. I will come back!!!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. There is a lot going on this weekend so I will get back to you on Monday and let you know more about my adventures here in Cameroon. My love to all. Nancy~