Limes and Blackouts

We have a lime tree in front of our house. Kids are always coming to school with limes (and eating them in class- argh!) and I was curious because I'd never seen anything that looked like a lime tree. So I asked Amanda, who we rent from, if there were any lime trees on our property- not really expecting a "yes" since I've walked around a bit and I've only seen papaya, coconut, and breadfruit. But she said yes, and told me it was right in front of the front door! I was skeptical, but I checked it out, and sure enough this huge bush directly ahead of our door turns out to have tiny limes hidden within its small light-green leaves and tiny spiky thorns. Very cool.

Also on the subject of limes, I've instituted a new policy in my classroom (well, classroomS): students can buy a pen or pencil from me, and the price is one coconut, two limes, three bananas, or some equivalent. It's a great system, because they need a writing implement (I'm not sure what makes them think they can show up to class without one) and I need fresh fruit. I can't climb trees or hack the husks off coconuts, and the limes in our tree aren't ripe, so it's a great deal. And they always give me more than I ask for: two coconuts for a pen, five limes for a pencil. I tell them that's unnecessary, but I know the fruit doesn't cost anything (they just pick it from their family's trees) and they like to give me things. It's lots of fun.

In other day-to-day school news, one day we had a blackout from 9-5. At first I was annoyed when they canceled the second half of the day and my 9C students (lowest-level 9th grade) started leaving my classroom five minutes before lunch was supposed to start. Apparently the bus was leaving right then and they HAD to go. I tried to get the ones who don't take the bus home to stay, but of course everyone escaped. One of my favorite students, who is always friendly and helpful, told me "I can stay Ms. Sharah!" which was so sweet of her. But after a little while I was pretty glad school was canceled: with no electricity, there's no air conditioning in the main-building classrooms, which have no windows. It's less of an issue in the outer-building classrooms I use, which have ceiling fans and standing fans and lots of windows and vents, but those fans do make a difference, and it soon started to get very hot. It was miserable at home: sitting in a hot house with no AC or fans, in the middle of the day when it makes no sense to open windows because it's even hotter outside. I tried for a while to take a nap and just felt worse, so finally Eric and Allison and I went for a swim which is really the only logical thing to do on a day like that. It was really nice, too, because I never go out in the middle of the day on a weekday. Everyone is outside their houses, kids playing in the streets, mothers sweeping up, guys mowing their lawns. And the power came back on soon, just in time for us to make dinner and use our computers to lesson-plan and enter grades.