Today is officially August and it’s time
I write a new page on my blog. We have
all been very busy and I almost can’t believe that we have been back from Turkey for a
whole month.
We seem to have learnt so much in Turkey, about
the food and the people. I
wish it was mandatory for everyone in the world to travel to another country at
least once in their lives. It has made a perceptible difference to our lives
and made us all grow in ways we least expected.
The children are still on holiday and
will be for another whole month. We
are all boiling hot here; the temperature seems to be mostly in the late
forties. Even going to the
shop is a chore because one has to actually step outside. Thank goodness for
electricity and aircons.
I am teaching the boys how to cook.
Matthew makes lunch for us. He can fix a salad, fry and scramble eggs, make 2
minute noodles, sandwiches, pancakes to name but a few. Nicholas often ends up making
pudding even though he does not eat sweet things most of the time. They both love
to get hold of my hand mixer, sometimes with some disastrous and very messy
results. Martin always
seems to be downloading the latest movies for us. We also go swimming at the hotel,
although the water is lukewarm.
After our great time in Turkey, Martin
is working again. He has
just completed the summer school session for some high school students. It is the holy month of Ramadan now,
and things are slowing down a whole lot. Because the local population is
fasting from sun-up to sun-down, and because of the intense heat I think, the
shop-keeping hours have been reduced. People
drive slow, walk slow, react slow. It’s
quite frustrating when you want to get somewhere quickly. Luckily this hot
weather won’t carry on for too much longer.
We experienced a day of 59 degrees a week or so back and it is still
pretty warm.
I am trudging forward with my
studies. This semester I
took 5 modules. I study
most weekdays from about eight till one o’clock. It’s tiring and it’s hard work. I have a long way to go still
but, I am determined to get my degree. I love it. I love learning and I love
reading so it is perfect for me. Martin
managed to find my setwork book in movie form - Disgrace by JM Coetzee. WOW,
what a South African statement. It really blew me away. I had read the book
before, so it gave me insight into what the characters were thinking. JM Coetzee won a Nobel Literature
prize for it. Now I have to
formulate an answer for quite a difficult question. I’m trying not to
procrastinate…
