Books

Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember. In fact, one of my earliest memories is of sitting on my dad's lap, reading a book about sleeping animals and stumbling over the phrase "Sheep sleep" -- well, you try saying that three times fast! One time, after my brother and I had spent all day inside reading, my mom kicked us out for some "fresh air," and we  just plopped down on the front lawn on top of our sleds and continued to read. I must have read my favorite book, The Giver, at least two dozen times.

And yet, when I got older, something happened to me that has happened to a lot of people: I stopped reading. Well, not really -- I was studying at Rice, and I reading more than ever before. But after hours or poring over badly-scanned PDF pages about Finno-Urgic agglutinative morphemes or vowel length in Bantu languages, all you really want to do is sink into the couch and watch Friends until your brains slowly ooze out of your ears. Coffee, TV, an friends slowly monopolized my increasingly limited free time, and books fell by the wayside.

Then I joined the Peace Corps, and everything changed. For the first time in many years, I had no coffee and no TV, but I did have enormous amounts of free time. So I picked up a book (I, Robot) and read it. I liked it, so I read another one (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and I liked that one too.

Then I set a goal for myself: A hundred and one books in two years. And I got to reading.

This morning, two years and many pages later, I closed the cover on the last book. Yes, I've finished, with 29 days to spare! I've read fiction and non-fiction, history, biography, comedy, tragedy, short stories and monstrosities -- and all were first-time reads.

Phew!

I'd like to take a moment to thank Mrs H., who, aside from sending me several books that I particularly enjoyed, has always been so supportive and kind. She taught me from a young age to love books, and always has fantastic book suggestions. Thanks for teaching me to love reading!

I hope that, wherever life takes me from here, I will be able to make time to keep reading. I probably won't be able to read quite this much, but I'd like to think that I'll be able to take an hour out here and there for a good read. There really isn't anything else like it!

Hey, when was the last time you read a good book?

English Theater Competition 2014

OK, maybe they don't look that riveted...

A nervous murmur filled the air as one hundred expectant secondary school students sat, waiting. After months of preparation, finally the big day was here!

I took a breath, stepped onto the stage, and took a deep breath.

"Welcome, everyone, to English Theater 2014!" I said, smiling broadly.

I, too, had been preparing for the big day for months. This year, in addition to helping Laura coach our kids with their ten-minute skit, I was in charge of coordinating the whole competition.

"Scene One: At School"

Though I was paranoid that something terribly awful would go wrong, the day actually went really smoothly. The groups presented their skits -- some of them funny, some serious, some...well... a bit boring, but they all worked hard and showed off their skills with pride. One skit was about a group of siblings trying to convince their parents to let them finish school.  Another dealt with a girl whose family forces her into prostitution, and she eventually gets HIV. Heavy stuff.

This guy very reluctantly ended
up playing the leading lady.

My own group's skit was about a young couple who, after a disagreement on whether or not to use condoms, go to the hospital and find out one of them is HIV positive. This was particularly challenging for our kiddos since all two girls in our club dropped out two weeks before the competition, so we ended up having some cross-dressing. Still, they dealt with it like champs, and this year we had no line-forgetting disasters like last year. I hope those kids that don't graduate this year continue to do English Theater again next year.

After all the skits had been presented, we had lunch while the judges deliberated, and then everyone came back for prizes and certificates. While my group didn't win, or even place, I was very proud of them anyway. They competed against pre-university schools with 11th- and 12th- grade students who practice English on a regular basis, and they held their own. Pretty impressive for a super-mato school. Laura and I gave them a pep talk afterwards, telling them that if they study hard and work well, they could someday attend one of these big-city schools that won.

Everyone, winners and non-winners alike, received miniature English-Portuguese dictionaries, which were a big hit, and everyone went home smiling. Personally, I went home and fell asleep for 14 hours, but that was just me.

English Theater 2014: Success!

Mavudzi-Ponte's 2014 English Theater Team:

Me, Laura, Redi, and our nine boys. Love Izaquel's face (brown shirt)

Spring is in the Air!

Too much cuteness has been going on here lately. First, my neighbor Quizito got a puppy. Then, my cat had kittens. Finally, all the kids have been out and about at play. I figured it's about time to share some of the adorable goings-on from recent times.

2-day-old kittens

Bella, Quizito's new puppy

Simpo has his first bike ride.

"Mommy, wake up! I wanna play!"

D'awwwww.