Day 48

Universal characters at schools world wide: the phys ed teacher, the cafeteria ladies, the kindergarten teacher. Watching the Haitian soap opera. I dropped off and picked up Benjamin from school today. When returning to pick him up, I got to watch the anarchy that passes for recess – kids of all ages running madly over, around and through the schoolyard strewn with trash including, most distressing to me, broken bottles. While watching the madness, I noticed that I was able to pick out several personalities – the phys ed teacher who, even if he wasn’t wearing a shirt saying “educacion fisicul” (or something like that), would have been recognizable by his attire which, besides being completely non-uniform - compared with the rest of the teachers – included the previously mentioned t-shirt, sneakers, a baseball hat, and a gait that you aren’t allowed to use – more of a strut – unless you get a degree in physical education. Even though this school doesn’t have a cafeteria, you can spot the cafeteria ladies, who in this case sell fried dough, hot dogs on sticks, and a variety of candy - that would make the Cumberland Farms back in our ‘hood jealous - off of a couple broken wooden tables

I’ve been getting bolder and bolder in my Spanish vocabulary excursions. This has resulted in two responses – a) the person on the other side assumes that I speak Spanish, and responds at full speed, leaving me to weakly say “I only understand a little” (yo comprende un poco). b) they look at me with a look of incredulity that says, in any language, “WTF?”

Big thought for the day: what ten words (and their combinations) are the most important words to know at the beginning of any language?