"Am I Loose?"

That was the question that was asked to me on Monday as I was walking back to school from a quick lunch at home. Our little bamboo bridge is out for repairs so I walked the long way around, typically the scooter route. First of all, nobody really walks anywhere. It's all scooters. So there I was hoofing it up the hill, dodging scooters, across the cement bridge and this man pulled over concerned. I know the nice gentleman was asking if I was lost, but what I heard was, "Are you loose?" I pointed and said, "Saya guru Green School" (I am a teacher at GS). I had to chuckle at the 'loose' idea. No, currently I am not loose, nor even dating despite all the Eat Pray Love references that fly around. Maybe someday. Raaarrrh.

Another interesting thing about this week was my students teaching me how to download movies. I am a pirate now and apparently it isn't that illegal. I am still having trouble figuring it out, but all the kids are super keen on helping me. Teaching the teacher is way cool! I just took it for granted on how easy it was to find just the right movie for in the classroom. I am not a huge proponent of watching a lot of video in the classroom but when you have spent seven weeks studying a novel, it is fun watching how the book compares to the movie version. And despite the kids' best effort, I am technologically challenged; another teacher is downloading Lord of the Flies so we can watch it after break.

Which leads me to my excitement: Break! I have always wanted to work at a school that has an October break and finally we do! It is our mid-term and since we have been working since August 1, all is absolutely deserved.  Developing curriculum, grading and planning all happen outside the teaching work day, so most of us have put in weekend time as well. On that note, I can justify the huge expense to fly to West Flores and experience a dive trip for the week. I haven't been diving since the early 90s, and I am excited. I am going with another couple and we are joining a few others for the week on a dive boat, with stops on Komodo to visit the dragons. Should be fun! And as usual, I am concerned about leaving my baby kitties, but all is good. Folks from the village and my Pembantu will help feed/watch them. I can't just leave food out all day because who knows what will come in and munch it. (Got to love the open house living). The other day, I had the another Bamboo Village cat, puppy, neighboring village cat, as well as a little mouse investigate the food bowls. And I was home.

The kitties are growing like mad and still think it is quite fun to play all over me early in the morning. This can be between 3am-6am and since there are no doors in my place all I can do is gently throw them through the mosquito netting and off the bed. It doesn't work at all. I am the field where the soccer game is played; I am the hill that is hiked up and down; I am the surf with the waves rolling back and forth. You get the idea. No sleep and little kitty claws all over me at 4am makes for a slightly grumpy teacher. It quickly has become a double shot day.

The last bit of news is our 6.0 earthquake that we felt at school today. It was centered in Nusa Penida, which is about 12 miles SE from Bali. As I was teaching Grade 7,  all of a sudden the building moved like someone downstairs had grabbed a hold of each pole and was shaking it violently. We quickly gathered out on the field and had all classes line up to be accounted for. I explained to my group that the nature of bamboo as a building supply was to be flexible, pliable and incredibly strong. It tends to move easily, almost sway unlike a concrete building that would absorb the impact more. So all is well and now I know I am not crazy for waking up in the middle of the night a month ago, feeling my bamboo house shake. Apparently we had another one then too.

Still can't believe I live in the South Pacific.