Hello from Rio!

Hello from Rio de Janiero!

Life is speeding by like bullets in the Matrix.  Hard to tell if it's fast or slow;
time gets so distorted here.  Only 8 days ago was Rei's 10500th day party in
Namibia, but it seems like a month has passed.

Most of my free time has been spent studying Japanese, and to some extent my
teaching has suffered as a result.  My Fantastic Rabbits class are super chatty and
creative and making their own schedules and plans and even made a game board and
played it.  Fighting Goats, however, have been far quieter, and I'm not really sure
how to help them speak up.  They seem able to talk individually, but not as a
group.

 peaking of people who wouldn't speak: my Intermediate and Advanced Open lesson was
a huge flop, although I thought I had a solid idea. Matt suggested that I needed to
give it some more context, and give more examples to the students.  My Super
Beginner and Beginner Opens have been great, with lots of audience participation
and fun.  Perhaps I can adapt those ideas to the higher level class.  The
Intermediate and Advanced lessons in general have not catered to those people who
came at first.  We started with about 100 students, and today had about 18.  The SB
and B classes have gone from 100 to about 70.

This voyage I have taken a lot more time to sleep and take care of myself.  In the
past few days I've been tired, but we're about to have several days off: a day in
Rio de Janeiro, then three holidays onboard, then two days in Buenos Aires.

We're going to be in Rio de Janeiro tomorrow and will see a band called AfroReggae.
Their story (in the movie Favela Rising) of drug-violence and warlords transforming
to music for positive growth is amazing.  I love the music, and found it beyond
amazing that they were playing all this amazing stuff on containers we would throw
away.  Metal cans for the ratatat and plastic bottles for the boom boom boom.

----------------

We are in Rio NOW, and I have just spent a super fun day with Kellie, taking a taxi
with Petra and Isabel up the hill to see the statue of Christ, and then to Ipanema
beach, where the waves were rather larger than any I've experienced as an adult.

The statue was smaller up close than it looks from a distance, or from promotional
photos, but still is pretty big.

I got thrashed around in the waves a couple of times, but was only afraid of
drowning one time.  A particularly big wave tossed me around and I lost my strength
and breath trying to fight it.  Don't fight water.  It will win.  Just go with the
flow.....

We're going to the concert soon, and I'm sure I won't have time to write after
that, so I'll send this now.

I hope everyone is well!

ps: no new pictures now; I can't actually get *my* computer online, but am using
the ones in this cafe.

   Love Love Love
    - Rob!