August 20, 2001

Monday through Thursday means getting ready for school, which will start on Saturday. Elizabeth will be teaching English (7th grade, some classes with 11th grade, and some classroom assistance with grades 1-3), and Marthame will be helping Abuna Aktham teach 9th-12th grade religion class. We had a meeting with the English teachers today and touched briefly on some potential activities for next year, including getting an active English club up and running and how the two of us might best be used as a resource for the rest of the teachers. We'll see what happens.

There shouldn't be any more meetings this week, but all teachers are supposed to be at school from 9-12 each day in case somebody needs to do some planning. In some ways the village is still operating the way it was five years ago, before there were telephones. Nevertheless, it gives us the chance to get prepared for classes.

Animals everywhere!

We had lunch today with some friends in the village and played with their menagerie of cats and turtles. Whenever we ask people if they name their "pets," they tell us the Arabic translation of the animal - they think it's something bizarre to give a human name to animals.