My First Day

So my first day went well. My students were mostly engaged, which is a real win when the topic of the first half was mostly dates and dead people. Hopefully my own enjoyment of the topic rubbed off on them. They've also been really, really patient when I fail to understand their accent (which is a problem that they don't seem to have with me).

The second part of the class today was social/ religious/ philosophical backgrounds of the Greco-Roman world. That ended up generating more conversation than I expected. As I discussed the development of Gnosticism, I found that many if the students were much more comfortable with Gnostic philosophy than I had expected. It certainly left me thinking about what a recurring problem in the church we have had with the "physical is bad and spiritual is good" mentality.

The afternoon was largely taken up with a fantastic tour of the grounds with ACC's president and my fellow visiting lecturers. It took about six times longer than it needed to, as we asked him question after question about Swazi culture, the history of ACC, education in a southern African context -- you name it. Tomorrow we will be going to what they keep calling the cultural village. I think it's a one stop shop for Swazi art and dance traditional way of life, but I'll let you know.

A few random thoughts:

1) I'm tired. It's a good tired, but it's hard to resist the urge to go to bed, especially since the sun has been down since about 5:45/6:00. The middle of winter and a lack of daylight savings time make for very early nights.

2) I learned today that spring is their rainy season, not winter. It is very, very dry here -- everything is a little gritty, the grass crunches under your feet, and I never quite seem not to be thirsty. It also makes the heat of the day much easier to tolerate: it got up to nearly 30 Celsius today (unseasonably warm), but it was infinitely more pleasant than an Ontario 30 C.

3) I saw my first lizard last night, on the (inside) wall of a classroom. He was so small and so still, I wasn't sure at first that he wasn't a sticker of some sort. I almost got a picture of him, but he darted away at the last moment. He was adorable.