May Day - A Thief Sighting and Lots of Yummy Fruit

It’s a national holiday here, so normally we wouldn’t have class, but we let the ladies decide if they wanted to come to class or not.  We’re possibly going to be camping at Kafue on Friday, and we didn’t want to give off two days of class this week, so we decided to give them their holiday on Friday and maximize our teaching time.

We had five ladies in English – Sarah and four of Rachel’s.  That was nice to have this group because they are a little lower so we could adjust our teaching to their level.  After English, Rachel and I went into super-organized mode.  With it being May, we’re suddenly faced with the sad fact that we are leaving in just over two weeks.  We have a ton of stuff we need to do between now and then, so we made a list and started working on crossing things off. 

We had to run a quick errand at a shop up the street and on our way back decided to visit this excellent fruit stand Dee just showed us.  It’s just a few minutes away from our house but we never noticed it because it’s in the lot of a gas station.  We bought a pineapple, paw-paw (papaya), pears, and apples.  Add that to the fresh oranges, tangerines, and avocados we pick from the trees in the yard as well as the tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, and other various vegetables we buy from the lady who sits at a table across from our gate, and we have a pretty fantastic deal over here.  I’m definitely going to miss having fresh, organic fruits and vegetables within walking distance.

On the way back from the fruit stand, we heard some yelling up by the highway. Soon, a man, dressed in nice jeans and a flannel shirt sprinted in front of us.  He was followed by a man in a very fancy suit.  He was yelling after the man in flannel, and we guessed that he had stolen something.  A car that was driving past sped up ahead to stop the thief, and the man in the suit was able to catch up to him, handcuff him, and start beating him across the head.  While this was happening, we kind of froze on the street, somewhat shocked by what we were seeing and not wanting to get any closer.  I have no idea why the man in the fancy suit had handcuffs or why the man in the flannel thought it was a good idea to steal when there were tons of people around.  It was a pretty exciting couple minutes.

When we got back, we went around to the ladies’ houses to hand out notes that gave them the schedule for our last week here.  We’re going to have little parties for everyone we’ve taught and we wanted to make sure the ladies knew about it.  The ladies’ response to our departure date was so sweet and sad at the same time.  Sarah said, “My heart, it is breaking.  This is not fine,” and she started tearing up.  Regina said, “No, no, madam, don’t say this!  Just stay longer.”  Ella said “Why not just two more weeks?  Just stay longer, it’ll be fine.”

Tonight we had a little surprise birthday party for Lisa Sargent.  We had pizza, cake, and ice cream and played Telestrations.  Overall, it was a very productive day.