Today I was back in Los Alamos to begin a new session of English classes. Serena joined me.

Apparently I’ve become so used to animals in the classroom that I don’t even notice them anymore. At one point Serena came up to me quietly and whispered, “Um, is it okay that there are roosters in here?”

What? Roosters? Oh. Yeah, the neighbor’s roosters. No biggie, as long as they don’t get in the way of the dogs.

I deeply appreciated Serena’s wide-eyed wonder because I know that I was exactly the same way my first few classes. I say this as though I’ve …Read More

Yesterday I gave my English class in Los Alamos their first test. I’m pretty sure I was more nervous than they were.

As a student, I never realized how desperately my teachers wanted my classmates and me to do well. But as I graded the tests, I found myself rooting for each student, silently cheering when they aced a section and feeling a sense of failure on my own part when it was clear they hadn’t mastered the material.

Out of seven tests (two students failed to show up), the average final was 78%. Two of my students ended up with scores …Read More

Since I don’t have an eraser for the whiteboard in the classroom in Los Alamos (a.k.a. The End of the World), Clare gave me a tissue to erase the board on Tuesday. I left it there to use in the future, and since today was the future, I was grateful I hadn’t thrown it away. I plucked the tissue off the narrow wooden ledge on the wall above my white board and happily erased my writing. As I reached up to place the tissue back in its unofficial spot, I did a double-take. What had to be a scorpion was …Read More

Lara and I picked up my dad from the airport yesterday, then the three of us met all the other LLI volunteers at a French restaurant in Lima run by nuns. I had probably the best green beans I’ve ever eaten, and Papa and I split an amazing dessert of fresh strawberries and cream. The highlight, though, was when the nuns serenaded us with “Ave Maria,” which they sang in French. It was beautiful.

Yesterday I visited Zone Z for the first time, which is where I am teaching an English class every Tuesday and Thursday. It is the most remote …Read More