French student teaches in Guyane

Monica Loveley ('05) writes from Guyane: "I'm working right now in Cayenne, French Guiana, the capitol of the only French department in South America. I teach English to students from ages 10 to 21, mostly children of immigrants from Suriname, Brazil, Haiti, Dominica, British Guyana, and the metropole. Here is complete immersion in the French language, in a culture and a place completely its own. Every day I wake under my mosquito net and my first thoughts are in French; I get out of bed and I sweat; I go to school and I sweat; I leave school and the steering wheel of my car burns my hands and so I drive with my fingertips, dodging students and bikes and trucks blasting reggae as I careen through the vibrant pastel slums. I love the work I'm doing here and only wish I had more. In my inordinate amount of free time I'm learning Portuguese and travelling as much as possible, having just gotten back from spending a week in Paris, and spending three weeks in the Dominican Republic and Guadeloupe before arriving in French Guiana in late September."