December 2, 2011

A cold and foggy day greeted me. The square at the PedInst was almost devoid of any students as they tried to stay warm indoors. As I waited for my classroom to be vacated, my group of students started to gather in the hallway. Aziz, one of the most fluent students in this group, said: “Yesterday was a sad day for us.” I asked him why thinking that maybe something horrible had happened to the group as a whole; however, he replied that they all had felt very bad about having to discuss HIV/AIDS in the classroom. When I probed further as to the cause of the discomfort, he wouldn’t go into any details. This was the group where one of their teachers had helped facilitate the discussion and I still lean toward the hypothesis that his presence contributed to their unease.

I had cobbled together a series of beginner/intermediate grammar quizzes from online sources and started to review with the students in preparation for their upcoming final exam. In the midst of it, Mr. Boroni, the teacher that had accused me of teaching the students “air”, walked in with a portable heater for the classroom. Students were delighted, but it doesn’t really make much of difference to me as I always stand and walk around as I teach and don’t tend to get cold.

Fridays tend to be dreadful days for me as I have to teach for three hours back-to-back thus not having a chance to use the bathroom. I had scheduled a visit to the American School at 2:00pm that same day, but had to bail out because my bladder would not put up with waiting another 2.5 hours after I was done teaching. When I walked outside, rain was beginning to fall and it was so cold that snow seemed to be afoot. I had to wait quite a while to find a mini-van with an empty seat and barely made to my apartment before the rain started in earnest. It was good to relieve my bladder, get the heating going and eating a hot bowl of soup. Mariam came in about four and brought me four slices of a fluffy cake dusted with confectioner’s sugar she had just baked and was still warm. I think it was the answer to my prayers for something sweet, delicious and warm.

I think that for the first time in my adult life I feel that I can eat joyously and with total abandon knowing all the calories consumed will be quickly burned during my long and arduous walks all over the city. Hooray for that!