Hello from Africa!  This past week has been amazing, both for the spectacular people we have befriended and the magnificent natural world we’ve explored.  The kids continue to thrive at the American international school, meeting students from around the world and diving into sports they’ve never even seen before (cricket and rugby).  The Headmaster is a terrific guy, born and raised in Chicago, but a secret Red Sox fan on the side.  As for Elkanah, where I’m teaching, it is unique and enlightening on every level.  The students are very polite, calling teachers ‘sir’ or ‘mum’ in classrooms and hallways.  At first, I couldn’t help but turn around to see who they were referring to, but now I appreciate it as a cool trademark of their culture.  In the classroom, the learning is certainly rigorous.  In English, the juniors are working on their 600-word research paper aimed at defining consciousness.  So many were challenged by this task that the department pulled me in front of all 70 students to share my American perspective on expository writing – most finding my accent more valuable than my ideas.  And though the first several minutes of the conversation were devoted to making sense of MacDonald’s food and Donald Trump (an exercise in futility), the next ten amounted to a fascinating brainstorm on writing and speaking.  By the end, the students and I had established a friendly rapport, and I came away with a much clearer sense of their collective learning style.  Just hearing their view on what effective communication meant was invaluable.  Clearly, Elkanah and AHS seek similar learning objectives, merely from different angles, which makes the next weeks all the more exciting.  That’s it for now.  My very best to AHS.  Here’s to a great first week for all of you!