passport stamped!!!

the rooster is crowing again and i am up and about. coffee poured. attempting to open emails from my one tiny bar of internet reception. i really must hurry and i don’t know why my desire to sit and write and revelation of things to say either comes in the night just before deep sleep or in the mornings when i am on my way out the door. still in my pajamas. i got my scooter back yesterday! they had it for ONE MONTH! i had to pay $112. i am pretty sure i have now spent as much on the scooter as i paid for it. he returned it with no gas. i took it in with a full tank. he replaced parts that didn’t need replacing but i was not there to argue and i don’t have the vocabulary for all that fussing. i did yell about the gasoline and how long it took. it didn’t make me feel any better. i was just happy to be scooting again. the walks to the other base have done me good though. i need the exercise. i plan to still walk some but i already know how that will work out. i am already excited to have an extra 20 minutes this morning to get ready. i can actually prepare breakfast or do my hair. read a a few more pages. 

heytell and whatsapp have changed my life and i love hearing your voices. even if they come sporadically and only when the 3G is up and working. if you have a smart phone, get these! and send me a message. you can find me via facebook through heytell and via my phone number for whatsapp +258824077677. 

last week rodrigo and i looked at property just for fun. we found a property with a huge wrap around porch. possibly six bedrooms. we walked around it and imagined opening and restaurant and guest house here. using our students of course and having a training program that operates out of the business. we could still do English courses but then open the business as a training grounds to train up students in a variety of trades. chefs, waiters, receptionists, gardeners, housekeepers. just dreaming about what could be another phase of the school and about big, huge possibilities that seem way out of reach, that only God can do. it was so much fun. 

we have help now in the form of mission school students. three of them want to help us with the actual vocational training school and help us brainstorm about courses to offer, finding curriculum and with administration. they also have expertise in small business development. another is a math teacher and two more are helping teach English, all in the afternoon sessions. we have started our small business of essentially buying groceries for the mission school families. we will add more students later. today is the first day. we are anxious to give our students something tangible to work on. 

i finally have my passport in hand! i know that no one here who reads this would take the details of this event and report them to authorities but after being arrested for being presumed a reporter or Al Qaeda? i really think i will not write about it. i will save that story for the book. :)

my english classes are going fairly well. the helpers take the beginner students and i am working with the more advanced in grammar. we are still on the present progressive and simple present. they are not grasping the difference and i have explained it every way i know how. so i am also introducing new verbs and those that are regular and irregular. they know a lot of verbs and i am impressed. but they struggle to actually speak up in class and use the verbs they know in sentences. they use the same sentences over and over. if i have them fill in the sentence, “ I am going to...” they always say, “town” or “beach”. always. no one says “ Timbuktu”. 

so i have spent my extra 20 minutes here and i must get ready. i am hoping that the empty tank Luis left me will at least get me to class and to the nearest petrol station.