Reflections:Last Year and This Year

As many of you know last year was my first year as a teacher. And if you can remeber,I did not study to be a teacher, but rather a chemical engineer. A little more than a year ago I decided that after 4 years of chemE school I needed a break,I was burnt out. For those of you who know my family, you know how volunteer work is valued,hence how I found myself teaching chemistry in Rwanda.
I wanted to take this time before a new year starts to reflect back on last year-both the ups and the downs.
I think I would like to get the downs over with first..(this is going to semi be a list/mash up of it all)..
~not having any books,dittos,worksheets,materials.language barrier. cultural barrier.my closeness in age to students(some were older than I). my temper.having a curriculm to big to cover in one year. an at times disorganised school. my house being inside the boarding school~

Now onto to the ups
~my students. my students.my fellow teachers(most of the time).my headmistress.all the school activities I did with students,from watching dance and modeling competitions to playing football and running with my girls.Living inside my boarding school~

Although this is just skimming the surface, somehow these points are really all that I say about last year without going into crazy amounts of detail..

Now here I find myself about to embark upon another year of teaching. Hopefully this year I will have found that in some teaching aspects I have improved or at the very least learned to deal with the status quo of the situation.
I find myself partially scared of the year to come, yet in the very next instant I am oddly excited. All I know is that I will do my best for my students and my school,and at the end of the day thats all I can do.