Road to Rwanda----When we visit the US

  Elisabeth Godbold Arnold quotes  From Marilyn R. Gardner: "When my mom and dad first moved overseas, they would travel by ship. Instead of frenzied airport arrivals and departures, they would wave from the balcony of a ship. They would wave until those they loved faded out of sight, and all that was left were tears on their faces and a wide ocean that would be their landscape for the next six weeks. They left slowly, and they entered slowly. Those long days and nights at sea prepared them for their next steps on land. It was a good way to travel. For six weeks you were literally between worlds, without expectations from either. Sometimes I wish it were still that way. We move so quickly between countries that it is hard to breathe. Currency, language, food, and customs change in a short plane ride. The cultural lines get blurred, and we have high expectations of how quickly we will adjust to whatever culture we find ourselves. No wonder we find ourselves exhausted, collapsed...

Road to Rwanda----Changes in Teaching

 We were very surprised and saddened to be told two days ago, that this would be the last semester that we would be teaching online for the Asian Mainland University (trying to be obscure in my writing)that we have been contracted to for six years. For three of those years we lived there and then after covid we have taught for an additional three years: oral and then written Engish.  Although this means that we at times have been overwhelmingly busy with about 100 essays a week to grade, it also has filled a place in our lives that we are having trouble imagining letting go of.  Evidently this decision is being made on the government level, and the university has no choice but to comply.  I understand that it is MUCH better for the students to have inperson teachers, rather than the rather poor substitute of online teaching.  Still, written English involves more grading of and reflection on papers than actual interaction.  It means that the limited amount o...