Integrating Already


 

We have friends here; in fact, we hosted a dinner party last night. I cheffed up some lankawa cuisine from recipes in a couple of cook books I have acquired. These friends are VSO, or from our yoga/Tamil class. Four mornings a week (6:30 am), six of us ex-pats cycle over to Gerd's house (guy who works for UN) for Yoga classes. Bill and I love it, although our Yogi has us performing some unusual yoga postures: green worm, dog and the crocodile, for example. He also practices queer breathing exercises: panting like a dog, sucking through our teeth and "drinking" our saliva, the "nectar of our bodies."


 

Our yogi doubles as our Tamil master. I think he is a better yoga instructor than Tamil teacher, but in fairness, he focuses on useful conversation, so we are sticking it out. We, being 3 other people, and not including Bill. He jammed again on the language training. However, he is working (shh), I mean meeting people for coffee, starting next week. He was approached to teach English by one of the women in our yoga class, he said yes, and the word was out! He has a slew of students lining up to learn English. He is excited! He is offering, free of charge, two beginner English lessons a week and two intermediate English classes per week. Technically, he cannot work and cannot volunteer, so he is really just having coffee with a group of his new friends.


 

Intergration into the community is happening much more quickly here.


 

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