Well, tomorrow is a big day for the Fellows, as we’ll be officially opening the doors of the ELI Africa Education Center to the general public. We’ve spent the past several days working at the center—moving furniture, painting walls, and doing general busywork to prepare the center for the opening. It’s exciting to see everything coming together, and I’m confident that our group will have a successful day tomorrow in our efforts to appeal to students.
At the same time, though, it’s hard to not feel a little anxious about the opening of the center. I’ve spent the past several months planning and organizing my poetry curricula, but now that I’ll finally be putting it into action, I find myself scrutinizing every one of the ideas I’ve had over the past few months. I suppose that it’s only natural to react that way, I’m working to convince myself that I’ve planned well and that I’ll be able to manage any hiccups or challenges that may emerge. In any case, whatever concerns I may have are being mostly dampened by the excitement around the house for tomorrow.
In other news, it appears we have a new pet in the Fellows’ house. Austin opened up his closet the other day to find a rat waiting for him inside, which apparently scurried into a hole in the closet wall shortly thereafter. Austin has decided to name our new roommate “Gunner”, though I’m not exactly sure why we’ve decided to give the house rat a name. Either way, I’m hoping that our landlady’s visit to the house tomorrow means we won’t be sharing our quarters with “Gunner”—or any friends he may have—for much longer.