Classrooms

I was a visitor today. At two schools.
The first school was The Sukhumi Boarding School. It used to be a very prestigious competitive educational facility. Now it is an orphanage. The students there have no parents, they were lost in the war. There are some students who have one parent, but that parent is disabled in some way, ie unable to make a living and so the child lives at the school during the week and goes home on the weekend. The students that show promise and perform well have a free ride to a Russian University. The school is paid for by the government. Inga and I went there today, she said I was the first expat to go to the school. It was high up on a hill, overlooking the sea. A spectacular setting. The building was rebuilt after the war. Institutional, but quite nice. The campus was beautiful, it could have been in some lazy New England township or English village. Majestic trees, fresh spring grass, pastoral scenery, pastures with content cows, soft sunlight highlighting the basketball court and a couple of students sticking their heads out the window, greeting the visitors.

We went there to donate Plumpy Nut. Some of you may know what Plumpy Nut is and others may not. It is a therapeutic food supplement, basically peanut butter with vitamins, minerals and a bit of sugar. It is packaged in a plastic foil packet enough for a single healthy serving. Kids love it. It’s is distributed in countries with famine or after a disaster. It is portable, doesn’t “go bad”, and as lots of calories, and is a complete food substitute - ie one can live on nothing but Plumpy Nut and clean water . It has saved many lives.
We were sent a shipment that was three times larger than ordered. So, we thought we would take some to the orphanage as a donation. They were pleased. I expect the kids will be throwing temper tantrums next month when all the Plumpy Nut is consumed. With a little jelly, yum, what more could a kid want?
On the way back to the car there were a couple of boys at the scrappy, but functional basketball court, obviously skipping classes. We laughed, they look chagrined, but confident in their naughtiness.
School boys, always ready to bend the rules on a sunny day in May.

I visited another school this evening after my Russian lesson.

I estimate there were 15-20 students in each classroom. Three classrooms in all. Each had the same basic curriculum.
There were students that were “normal” students, that is, they conducted their exercises with rhythmic synchronicity. Perfect timing, perfectly graceful in their execution. There were students that were “showoffs” as there always are in every classroom. Stand-outs, eager for an audience, playful and naughty, you know, 12 year old boys. And of course there were those students I could not see, because they were, well hidden. Hidden in the sea.

The students were dolphins. The sea was the school. It too was a lovely setting. The campus was soft, almost silky, very few waves, only those made by the few dolphins jumping and playing while other students quietly “rolled” in and out of the water. They were at one moment black dots, that looked like a mirage, then they came closer, then they were very close, close enough to see their fins creases, and the individual movements

It was thrilling to witness, so close and for so long. I stood for an hour in amazement.
Of course, I tried to take pictures, but as soon as I saw them jumping, I was so excited that I clicked the camera a millisecond too late. After 8 or so attempts I gave up, and just said, “Genie, enjoy. You can’t capture this moment on a camera.”
I think the reason why I have not seen them before is that the dolphins are studying Russian. Most days they can’t take recess, too much work to do. Too many letters to learn, to many nouns and verbs to conjugate. So, I think the dolphins and I both enjoyed this evening. Done with your lesson, ENJOY SOME FREE TIME. The dolphins and I are determined to learn a little but make sure we play a lot.

We also took Plumpy Nut to the Psychiatric hospital.(I’ll make no nut jokes) I’ll tell you more about that another day. Two classrooms is enough, plus Russian lessons!!!!!!!!

Nighty night…..g