Friday 6/26/2009 6:40pm

Michael Jackson, RIP. There is not a lot of mourning around here. Everyone is aware of his death, but no one really cares. I am deeply saddened. The news called him a genius and I think they are exactly right.

I taught 2 art classes today and a gym class. Gym takes place in a field of big rocks and mud puddles.



The “jungle gym” is an enormous stack of junk plywood with nails sticking out everywhere. A tire is the favorite toy, although a mini soccer ball is also kicked around, and they play a sort of basketball by trying to shoot it through some circular metal that isn’t at all perpendicular to the wall.



I attended the primary school debate, a weekly occurrence on Fridays (there is also a debate among the high school students). The topic was: “Science vs. Social Studies” (which is better to learn?) (the topic for high school was: should catholic priests be allowed to marry?). Some intriguing arguments included: Science teaches us about our bodies, and how to avoid diseases. Yes, but if you don’t learn social studies, you’ll never know any capitals. Somehow, social studies won the debate. When a student is called on, he/she must say “Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, and thank you, house at large” before beginning the argument. Then someone would raise their hand for clarification point, objection point, or addition point.

There were also Ministers of Agriculture, Education, Finance and Health who came in to answer questions. They were good questions, such as “Honorable Minister of Finance, you raised the price of food in the last year, but decreased the price of alcohol, how are we expected to eat?” But the answers were pretty much all: “I’m working on it.”