Lauren Clapp & Jimmy - I'm warning you in advance, these are spell-checked excerpts from letters I'm dropping in the mail to you tomorrow. So, you can read on -or- you can wait til you get the real thing in my 5th graders spelling & chicken scratch. Up to you! (chances are pretty good you'll have forgotten it all by the time the letters actually make it to you anyway)
21 march 2010
letter to lauren clapp:
Man, when you're 21, find a bar in your college town that has an outdoor patio and serves some of the best known, strongest, $5 long islands in town and go there, on warm fall days when the leaves are changing colors or on spring days - right after the winter thaw, just as the leaves are coming to life. Go there, soak up the sun and great conversation with one of your closest friends and allow your eyes to see right through the superficialness of the fake blondes with their black spandex, Uggs & North Faces, walking by.
Holy shit, girl. I didn't always love college, but that, those afternoons on the patio of the Peanut Barrel with my closest friend who's now 1/2 a world away. That was college for me. That's what mattered. That's what made all the difference.
20 march 2010
letter to jimmy:
So every few weeks or so, my school director sends some students (usually girls from my English class) over to my house to sweep up my "yard" (I really miss grass!!) Well, today I wanted to sleep in but Samocho (pronounced: sam + 8 in Spanish), he's one of the village boys who brings me eggs every now and again, and i guess he thought it'd be a good idea to show up at an American's house at 7am on a Saturday (as you can see, some of these cultural differences are just unacceptable) So he woke me up, bringing me a dozen eggs.
A dozen!
I'm only one person and I have no fridge so you've gotta eat them pretty quick you know.. within a few days. Well, I gave him 1000 RWF and took 10/12 eggs, just cus I didn't want to take any less and have him have to run and get change. So, got my eggs and climbed back into bed. But, it probably sounds silly, but I'm becoming a pretty big fan of the
- coco powder
- peanut butter
- bananas
- porridge
mix I have for breakfast every morning. So I gave up on trying to fall back asleep, got outta bed and made my magic. of course, just as I sit down to eat, I get another knock at my gate. It's my girls, here to sweep my yard (that was a big ol'circle I just took you around, still holding on?). So they sweep and then I hear "teacher, teacher!!" and I look outside and see them throwing sticks on the ground at something behind this little flower bush.
"What is it?" they ask, panic in their voices. i go and have a look.
Well shit, what the heck is it?!
Part bird, part slug, part fish?
Gross, gives me goosebumps just thinking about it rolling around, tossing and turning all over the ground!
I decided it was some kind of monster caterpillar. Africa, gosh.
I poked it a bit with a stick and the girls freaked out. One of them told me that if it touched my leg, that my leg would get really big.
Poison!
So next thing I know, the girls are telling me that we need to build a fire to "died" it. I run in the house, get some matches, the girls pull dry leaves from my fence and all of the sudden, I've got like a Native American cremation ceremony going on before my eyes to kill this (shudders!) caterpillar.
The girls stood back and admired their fire and their fine work protecting their teacher.
"Teacher, what will you do when you see it again and we aren't here??" they ask.
"Stay in my house" I tell them.
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