Getting Close

Or at least it feels like it’s getting close. One of my best good friends, Stephen will be coming out the 2^nd of March staying until the 10^th of April, also the day I’ll be leaving, just incase anyone was wondering…

So as I said before, I’m “teaching computer” which in all actually means I teach typing. I would say over 90% (and I’m being generous) of people at Faith Alive don’t know how to type. A fun little factoid about me: I HATED typing as a kid. I hated typing class, I hated typing exercises, I hated everything that had to do with typing. And now I’m teaching it. Talk about your ironic circumstances.

So anyways, I went to meet my first appointment of the morning at 10:00 sharp. It was only hour later that realized she wasn’t coming. Checked on her later that day, she got caught up doing something else and forgot about it. No problem I thought, I got some nice reading in (I’ve smartened up from previous no-show experiences) At 11:30 when I hadn’t seen the next person who was scheduled I thought, the heck with it, I’m leaving. On my way out I ran into him. “Oh, was that this morning? I thought it was in the after noon.” No no, it was this morning. I’ve discovered there’s a lot of initial excitement about learning computer/typing, but not a lot in the way of follow through. There have been a handful that have come as scheduled, but most my experiences have looked something like my morning.

So, after all that I decided I would do something ‘productive’ and swing by Blessing’s shop and have her walk me to the market to return a faulty DVD. I wasn’t expecting super high quality it was $4 after all. On the way to the market, there’s this street that’s lined with wagons and makeshift tables and carts over flowing with pirated, I mean, totally legal and legitimately made, DVD’s. The guy who sold it to me said I could bring it back to him if it didn’t work. This was after a very long and extensive conversation about why I had doubts the cover with Chinese symbols was going to play in English. Turns out the guy “wasn’t around”, at least that’s what the guys standing next to his booth said, “You can come back tomorrow” You bet I will. At least I got a nice walk out of the deal. You see all sorts of interesting things on foot that you might miss from a car window. But mostly you’re dodging cars and motor bikes. Number one, there seems to be no official rules of the road, or none that are closely followed anyway. Number two, they just don’t look where they’re going. I’ve had some pretty close calls with both car and motorbike alike.

Post lunch I had two more appointments back at the clinic. I had seen both of them earlier in the morning so I was feeling pretty confident they wouldn’t be standing me up. Sure enough, at exactly the stroke of 2:00 Dauda was waiting for me, all smiles. And then an hour after that, there was good ‘ol Alex, who, by the way, has never touched a computer in his life. I’ve been doing a lot of deep breathing with that one. Until next time, A-S-D-F-G space, H-J-K-L-; space.