Priorities shift
Attitudes may even change grudgingly
But our fears are the hardest to lose.
I must look lost
Several people have asked me, what do you do all day?
I wave my hand with a flick of my wrist and answer in some sort of bebop rhythmic manner. Why would you want to know what I do?
I survive like my neighbor, though she doesn’t understand a word that leaves my lips.
I thrive like the hibiscus shrubs in my yards.
I teach the market vendor on my street bits of English in exchange for a better price on my pineapple and lentils.
I encourage the bread baker to keep trying to speak English so he can interview for a job in North America.
I discuss conservation issues with David who is studying to be a National Park guide.
In short, I talk, and I learn. My sponsor is the English Center of Antsirabe (ECA), the oldest English language school in Antsirabe. Students pile into crowded classrooms for 2 hours at night three times a week to learn American English. Their schedules come to a halt when they enter the center located behind the Christian radio station just off the main road, Avenue des Thermes. I am training to be a TEFL teacher which includes leading conversational sessions with ECA students.
Long held insecurities are ever present; lack of self-confidence, distorted self-image, anxiety. Unable to outrun them, they just came along for the ride. But I continue with my own language studies so I will one day be able to describe to the shop owner how delightful their store front is. I am learning how to teach a foreign language to a captive audience.