In twenty days I’ll be catching a plane from Atlanta, Georgia to Mauritius (via Paris)—total travel time 22 hours and 30 minutes. To be perfectly honest I have no idea what to expect. Since early February every time I open my laptop I’m confronted by an incomprehensibly beautiful aerial image of this island paradise. A snowy white band of sand separates an azure sea from a grassy green, hilly landscape. This image has reminded me every couple hours what awaits us this June, and it made concentrating to study for exams a challenge, to say the least.
I’ve asked Lexy all I can think to ask. I’ve read through the blog and researched Eli Africa and Mauritius in every way I know, but I realize this can be no more than a shadow of our experience this summer. I look forward to making new friends and culture shock, to Mauritian cuisine and upset stomachs, to adventure and homesickness. I’m ready to embrace Mauritius. But most importantly, I’m thrilled to begin working with our students at the centers in Pamplemousses—to teach them all I can and to have them teach me.
In preparation for my course on applied theater, I’m going to spend the next couple weeks refining my curriculum and developing more exercises. (While I want to be prepared, I realize I’ll need to be as flexible as possible to respond to the needs and interests of my students, so I’m ready to scrap my whole curriculum and start over if it seems necessary in the first couple weeks.) To prep I’ll also be sitting in on the class from my high school that largely inspired the class I’ll be teaching.
I’m trying to rest plenty so I’ll have a ton of energy for the months ahead, but the wait is almost agony. I couldn’t be more excited about working with ELI Africa this summer. I’ll save my words for June when I have something more worthwhile and concrete to say.
Until then,
Bryan