Today I think I had a good sense of what someone like Barack Obama, Madonna, or some other wildly famous person might feel like. Today I made a 50 kilometer moto ride out into the countryside to visit two different schools and spent a lot of the time shaking hands and trying to cut a path through the crowds of blue and gold uniformed students. The second school has nearly 2,000 students and I think at one time I may have been surrounded by a good 500 hundred of these students while talking with the head teacher. When the head teacher asked them why they were not off eating lunch they replied that they would rather be looking at the visitor.
These pictures really don’t do justice to the mobs that I was moving in, but they do give a taste of the day. I hope that the more that I visit these schools the more the students will not find me such a fascination and thus a distraction. The real stars of the day were the extremely hard working teachers plugging away in their classrooms, most teaching from 7:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon as they do a double shift to accommodate all the students. Much, much more on that later.
Looks kinda overwhelming but you knew you would have your usual rock star status. Is the guy on the motorcycle your "driver"? When/where will you actually be working? Stay safe!
ReplyDeleteBlue-Golds - sweet. The double shift...is it a product of not enough rooms or not enough teachers. That is, if there were more teachers, is there room for them? Just wondering - I will need a picture of you on your scooter please.
ReplyDeleteHi Erin,
ReplyDeleteA blast from your past here to put it mildly! I have always lived vicariously through your adventures with Maureen's wonderful letters. She put your blog address in the last one, and I can manuever my way around a computer enough to have found it. Yay! You continue to amaze me and I look forward to keeping up with your experiences here. I have been fortunate to go on many travels, but am more of a I'm done camping under the stars, I'd like a nice hotel, Thank you! As a previous comment said, "when are you going to write a book?!" Take care, be safe and have fun! Your long lost tennis teammate, Leah (Willaert) Krenz
Hi Leah! I think I have finally figured out how to respond on this blog to comments...
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful and exciting to have my long lost tennis teammate post a comment. I have been able to keep up a bit on your exciting life and career with your always interesting Holiday Letters to Maureen-if she doesn't get it out, I make the request. Thanks for the support and well wishes.
Hi, Amy...I am going through the comments today in an attempt to right past wrongs. Yes, they do ask a lot of questions, and really are keen to try out the English they have been learning.
ReplyDeleteTim and Scott-Good one on the Blue-Gold connection. That is my future driver. Do you notice that I do not have any photos yet of me on a moto?