My students are often helpful, but often equally mysterious. I crossed a river by boat with two of them and at the end, they didn't pay for the crossing. They said it was because they are students that they don't need to pay. There really didn't seem to be a better reason, but I was wondering why I had to, as their teacher.
Visiting Jesse and Zach this weekend was a good time. They have a nice, fairly isolated home in a very quiet area. They've really just settled in, getting electricity all hooked up recently and getting things squared away with their embrogada. They've got plenty of room and little furniture, but it's really just a matter of time before that gets remedied.
Really, they don't know what to do with themselves with all the free time they've made for themselves. Now that they're in the routine of biking a large hill to and from school, buying food every day, etc., they're realizing they need hobbies. Interesting that we all get to that point at different moments of our time here.
They seem fairly close with their community - it's helpful that their community is small and isolated. But they are regularly invited to parties around town and generally have adopted a more Mozambican way of life. Also, they don't get cellular phone service where they live which surprisingly has a pretty significant impact on their social lives. All in all, they are inseparable.
Well, I think my little experiment worked well, but it seems obvious that only talking about others really reduces the impact of the personal experience and growth - I definitely need to think outside of myself more, and it's a gradual thing. Nothing that one half-assed attempt (I still ended up writing from my perspective) can change. It's got to be every day, looking at the world a little differently.
Word has it Nelson Mandela might be in the area soon. Visited the HIV/AIDS hospital today. Got a sunburn walking about 5 miles today.
Peace
John
