Well my Chinese five year old surprised me with two things today in his lesson. First off he announced he knew what the biggest dinosaur was - the Argentinosaurus. Not having heard of it and wondering if he had it right I googled it and lo and behold he was dead right. When I said I didn't know about it he promptly replied, "Well you're not a palaeontologist" - I had taught him that word. We then went on to look at outer space and stars. We were talking about telescopes and satellites when he came up with a great question - "How do satellites keep going round the earth? Why don't they run out of (as he put it) "oil"?" I am going to have to look that up now. Pretty impressive to come from a five year old I thought. I had a bit of time between finishing the lesson and my next student so I agreed to play with my pupil. He had us both running up and down the garden with Bado the dog bounding after us and with me being issued tickets which were blades of grass.
It has been a busy week. Went to the opening of Helen Lieros' exhibition at Gallery Delta. There were works on display from across the 50 years of her career, including sketches for her frescos in the Greek orthodox cathedral in Maputo. I used to go to classes with Helen in the year after I finished high school in the amphitheatre behind the gallery. It was special to be there and see samples of her life's work. The priest from the orthodox church here in Harare opened the exhibition and there was reciting of prayers in Greek and a tribute to all that Helen or Helene as he called her, had achieved. Went to two quizzes this week too. A musical quiz straight after the exhibition - I missed the memo that you were supposed to have dressed up for Halloween (would have looked a bit funny at the exhibition if I had) and then one at Amanzi on Wednesday. We came first and second accordingly.
Have been quite tired from the hectic cardio gym session on Monday. Today was a strength class with weights, lots of arms and lunges. The dachshunds come out and lick my face as I'm doing chest presses and the like. They are becoming very affectionate and come charging down the passage when I get home. They know when it is biscuit time in the evening and start hinting. After biscuits and lights out they trot off to their giant bean bag and I tuck them in for the night.
Had an interesting conversation with the aunt of the person I am house sitting for. It started off on care for the elderly but then touched on reincarnation. The aunt was in the middle of telling me how some young men in Korea have been found to have memories of wars they couldn't have lived through when she suddenly said to me, "You know there is spinach in the garden?" I sat there trying to figure out what that had to do with reincarnation and young men in Korea and then realised we weren't still talking about that.
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