This morning was the same as any morning here in Namibia. I got up, ate, blah blah blah. Then I spent from probably 11am to 12:30 putting together phonics exercises.
I'm trying to teach this thirteen year old kid Rodney how to read. This morning MaryBeth brought him to his old school. Apparently he was having some issues with his third grade teacher, and just wouldn't show up for school, and he ended up dropping out multiple times. They didn't want to let him back in, but MB convinced the school that he has really changed his attitude, and that he really wants to be in school learning. Really he should repeat third grade, but quite obviously they won't let him because he is thirteen. So tomorrow MB and Rodney will sit in on a fourth grade class and see if he is up to starting there (which he is not- by any means), but MB told the school that she would home school him for two weeks before he actually enters the classroom as a student. Hopefully things will work out. MB brought him to the PEP store to buy his uniform. She got him two pairs of socks, trousers, a shirt, and new shoes. All that cost about 25 US dollars.
On our way to the BNC, we passed the shopping center, and saw that there was a big crowd and a lot of police. Apparently, a man tried to steal from Shoprite and a security guard shot him in the leg, and the man ended up running into the road and getting hit by a car. There was a huge pool of blood in the road.
I spent almost the entire three hours at the center working with Rodney on his reading and math. It is so frustrating that he is thirteen and basically at a first grade, even kindergarten reading level. And enrolling him in the fourth grade? It blows my mind when I compare how old I was in fourth grade...eight...and when I was thirteen? In ninth grade.
Towards the end of the day at the center, the kids were looking at the palms of my hands and pressing on them. They were completely amazed that my pink palms turned white wherever they pressed. [side note: BECKY: CAPILLARY REFILL!!] It was cute.
Taura (the woman who comes to the center to play guitar for the kids) came and let this teenie tiny girl strum the guitar. It was adorable. Taura always dresses so nicely and is so beautiful and so happy around the kids, and you would never know what a hard life she has had.
Tonight at the house was sooooo funny! We sat around after dinner debating about politics and terrorism and who terrorists are...it's really too complicated for me to go into detail about now, PLUS I'm exhausted. Anyway, afterwards things just got so outrageously hysterical. There was a cockroach on the floor behind a chair in the living room, and Ilga went over to it to put it outside. She put a jar over it and accidentally chopped it's head off! BUT the body kept moving, and it was creepy! Ajay came in and told us that they can live for a week without a head! Then Ilga decided that we better let the body out, in case there were eggs inside that could still possibly hatch. THEN MB came home from dinner with a friend, and I told her the story and told her that Ilga left the head there, and she said that the ants would take care of it. Ten minutes later...a bunch of ants were across the room with the cockroach's head! It was crazzzzzy.
Then I was trying to convince MB that if I rolled that little wheel in between the mouse, the internet would load faster. She looked at me like I had five heads, and WOKE UP Ajay to come and see my great new way of speeding up our connection. I SWEAR IT WORKS! No one will believe me! MB walked Ajay back to his room, saying along the way "it's just a bad dream, just a bad dream!" And then when she came over to the laptop and I was trying to prove to her my method...she took the "magic" unicorns (named Ein Einhorn and Ein Zweihorn, but there are Zwei Einhorns) that supposedly help with the technology in this house. MB took them, and used their paws to roll the mouse wheel. IT WAS SO FUNNY. I've been eating so many grapes, I think that the natural sugars are really getting to my head.
I miss you guys so much!
(still working on getting pictures posted...sorry!)
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5 comments:
I'm sorry, but did you say SHOPRITE? You mean as in Shoprite in Bedford Hills, New York. As in, you are in Namibia and can shop at SHOPRITE?
You are right on the cockroach bit. But do you know why?
A cockroach can live a long time, perhaps a month, without its head. The only reason we need our head for basic survival is:
(1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interfere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator.
(2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues.
(3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly.
All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general:
(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.
(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.
(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.
All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.
Scientific American article on cockroaches
did you say that the peanut butter is amazing there or something? what makes it so good? haha
Hey, I had my drill. Here are some pix.
Your dad and the flight crew, Beckky and Leigh, Flight Nurse Elana Hernandez Hay, Beckky and Leigh, You dad in the left seat, FlighNet and Goldens Bridge Engine.
More on Facebook.
KATRINA
KATRINA
KATRINA
IM JUST NOW READING THIS... im in virginia for synchro easterns and i had to catch up on all your blogs! im not nearly done yet gahhh but CAPILARY REFILL! haha i lovee wen u put my name in that its so cute and u havnt forgotten about me
haha
i loverrrr you times a zillion and miss u and cockroaches gahahah
xoxoxo<3
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