A sheepish update

Dear Friend Who Reads My Blog,

Regrettably, I have not done this in awhile. But better late than never? Here are 10 things that have happened:

1) I got a paying job! At a small English school called the Cape Town School of Languages. ("Languages" because there is this one polyglot, a bitter man named Brian, who spends his days making language tapes and teaching the occasional Portuguese lesson. But really it's an English school.) My students are mostly adults and mostly from DRC. I make mistakes, but I make them less and less frequently. And I have one very candid student, Nancy, who tells me when I am boring. I love this job. I am able to be creative and use my nesting instincts to make my English class a little sanctuary. I play the same music at the beginning of each class while people are coming in. For continuity. They may or may not notice...

2) I have moved in with 3 Dutch students. They are all younger than me, and it feels that way. They party most nights. Sometimes they make me feel boring, but for the most part I'm ok with that.

3) I am lonely sometimes but I am not panicking about it.

4) I have played at 3 open mics in the last 2 months.

5) This house had the squeakiest doors in the universe. I discovered the South African version of WD-40: Q-20. Silence.

6) I had my wallet stolen in the train station, then immediately given back to me by the same guy. Right in front of the pastry store. No one saw this happen except me and him. I feel very lucky.

7) Sometimes the train just stops between stations for no reason. On Wednesday morning, this happened. For a moment, my fellow passengers and I could hear the cool wind whistling through the trees and down the streets from inside our cozy compartment. Such stillness.

8) Sometimes I get attention just for being white. This inspires complicated feelings in me.

9) I learned that Coltan, a mineral used in portable electronics, is mined almost exclusively in DRC. Profits from this mineral fund the conflict in eastern DRC, which is very deadly and is so never-ending that it has stopped making the news. Coltan is in laptops, cell phones, pagers, and other things in that category. Some companies are committed to not using Coltan from DRC though. If you are buying a new laptop, it would be worth doing some research. I know Apple has turned a blind eye to the situation. I am typing right now on my Mac. Problematic.

Love,

Rebecca