The power just came back on. I assume they are running the generator. I need to quickly go wash dishes and flush the toilet and brush my teeth while we have water. I woke up to darkness and a quiet that let me know the power was out. I bought a book lamp during my trip home. It was on the top of my list of things to get. I grabbed the book light from my desk and the paperback lying flat and facedown by my bed and rolled over on my back, propped up slightly by my duo of pillows and finished my book. I read a lot here. When I first came I missed television, but after going home and not even getting to watch much then, I realized I must have overcome my addiction and now I just read books. My genius father somehow downloaded over 200 books for me. I am fully stocked. Now I am trying to decide what to read next. I am always open to suggestions.
This week of classes went really well. I have such eager, attentive students. Baptista returned after spending a few days out at the farm. Our missionaries there have left for their break so he won’t be going again until they get back in November, but I am glad he had the opportunity to go and just try it out and see if it is something he may want to do. He is a smart boy and Jeff, our missionary, said the he could easily get a government job as an agricultural worker if he were to chose that route. One of my students writes poetry and gave me a poem to translate into English for him. He is tall and thin and really black, much darker than the other boys. He has a gap in his front teeth. He sits on the front row. He is one of the older boys. He speaks French and prefers to speak to me in French rather than English. But my Portuguese is way better than my French but I love hearing this tall skinny very black boy speak in a French accent, so I listen and nod. The afternoon class is full of very competitive, advanced English speaking boys. I have one I call my teacher’s pet. He always stands to ask a question and always asks me very hard questions. I kinda cringe every time he asks something because I am afraid I am not going to know the answer! So far, I have known each time but it is only a matter of time before he stumps me. We had a long discussion the other day as a class on various words and how they all have various meanings. They want to know which definitions I prefer and are particularly attentive to my choice of words in speaking. They have become little parrots and I here them telling each other, “very nice” and “good job” and “that was perfect”. All phrases I use to cheer them on. I taught them how to use the word “likewise” and they ate it up. They like learning differences in formal and informal English and love finding ways to impress. But it doesn’t take much at all to impress me, they blow me away every day.
I have had help this week in the form of visitors. Iris is blessed to have hundreds of visitors a year, if not thousands if you count mission students. We, as a school, want to capitalize on this by having them come and teach in our school. I believe it is important for our students to get a broader world view to help them in their own world and visitors play a big role in this. This particular group just came to help me teach English. They were a huge help. They simply took the more beginner students and divided them into small groups and gave them more individual attention. Our beginner students could then, in a more comfortable setting, practice what words they know and build their vocabulary. All the while, hopefully, learning a little more about other people and the world around them.
I have been tutoring one on one some also. If I had more hours in the day, I would do more of this. The individual attention does work best but I just cannot give them all that kind of time. I hope that some of our mission school students will be able to serve in this capacity.
We are about to start up our first business. We plan to help 6 or 7 of our students create a business to serve as personal shoppers for the mission school. It is a simple business model that should work nicely, is low risk and will teach students about basic finance. We will distribute order forms of basic goods that one can get in town or at a barraca and our students will deliver those items within 24 hours to the client. It is kinda like Webvan, without the web or the van. So, it is more like Paperfoot but that sounds stupid. So we don’t have a name for it yet, but it will essentially be a personal shopping business and with 300 potential clients and our eager kids, I think it will be a successful first business venture.
Yesterday I went swimming with the dolphins again. I went a few times during my previous six months here. It is breathtaking. I figure my time to live on the ocean is numbered. January 2013 to be exact, unless I stay, and I want to take every opportunity I can to explore the sea. It was just a small group of us, a wooden boat. The same guide we always have. Thin, shirtless, smoking cheap cigarettes. All our wallets and cameras and gear in a plastic bucket, kinda sealed. The boat leaks. I have learned to pack light and just have my money in a wad stuck in my bathing suit top. I put the house key under the mop bucket. I wear an African kikoy as a towel. After about 20 minutes in the little leaky boat we spotted them. We all plopped over the side in snorkle and fins and dove down just in time to see a pod of 5 or so dolphin swim underneath us. We do this over and over about 6 times, anticipating them to turn or circle and stay with us. A few times the dolphin would surface with us close by or turn and look at us underwater. One guy got really, really close to one underwater. We saw female dolphin swimming with their younger maybe adolescent offspring. It was just incredible. We then went snorkeling for a little bit and were home before lunch. I walked across the street and down the road to my little house and fixed a sandwich.
Rodrigo is back and I am glad. I need his help. He drove for 8 days round trip to get to South Africa to renew his visa but was then told once he arrived that he could not get a 6 month renewal and was only given a 30 day visa. So we are both in similar situations now. They are planning on taking my visa to immigration this week and I just have to sit tight and wait and pray for favor. And then repeat this process every month until November.
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