Monday, November 10, 2003

We got our signs! Before today, the cooperative operated in a virtual shadow hidden behind a wall in the market. Now, we have three large signs which proclaim to the world that we are here! With the signs and the brochure that the Vice President and I are almost finished with, I'm hoping for loads of new members.

I also taught my first two classes of English today! I was incredibly nervous and sweated profusely during the first class. The second class went more smoothly and I'm hoping there will be at least a little retention. We went over introductions, colors and numbers through 20. They all seem to be fairly bright and were very well behaved during my classes. I hoping to settle down over the next couple of weeks and get into a rhythm of review, new stuff, stories and songs. If anyone knows a website or can send me words to songs we sung as little kids but which I have now forgotten, please email me!

Book report: I finally had some time over the weekend, while relaxing on the beach in Kribi, to finish "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I was expecting it to be a stodgy classic that would be mildly enjoyable, but that at the end I would be a better person somehow... Happily, that was not the case. I found myself deep into the story, laughing out-loud at Wilde's witicisms and almost sad when I had finished. There are some fantastic passages which, although the first Wilde book I have read, show his brilliance and insight into the human condition. Highly recommended (I must add that I've been very lucky with my choices thus far and have had to recommend almost all of them). After I get settled into my new home hopefully by the end of the week, I will begin Nabokov's "Lolita".

Thursday, November 13, 2003
I finally moved yesterday! Its amazing, and I am so much happier in the new house! I even have a screened-in porch and Alucam gave me some furniture, so I have enough to put some outside to enjoy the outdoors when the weather is nice. We started at around 2pm when I went up to the office of the Delegate for Agriculture, (the man who oversees agriculture for this Department-equivalent to a county in the US-for the government) who also happens to be a friend of mine. He also happens to have a pickup which I had asked if I could use for my move. The brother of the president of the bank was with him, and we got in the truck to get the other men who my friend Gabriel "lent" to me for the afternoon. The vice-president also came by so there were five of us (the Delegate had work to do, so he didn't help out) who loaded all of my stuff and the accumulated furniture of three generations of volunteers into the truck. It took us a little over two hours and three trips with the pickup, but we got everything over. My housekeeper showed up at the end to clean the empty house, and I gave some small furnishings to her, and to one of the men who helped. To the others, I gave some money-almost a weeks pay for a couple of them, and took all of them out to the bar after we were done to relax and celebrate. After all that, I went back to the house to assemble the bed that I sleep in. I have to say that a hot shower after a hard day's work and a nice air-conditioned room is a wonderful thing.