Spring Break--Day 2

 The second day of Spring Break was not as busy as day 1. The big event of the day was my Ewe lesson with Peter.

I have started attending classes with Karen on Tuesdays in Lomé, but since she is leaving tomorrow for her team meeting in Spain, she canceled class for herself. Since it had been nearly three weeks since my last lesson, I checked to see if Peter was willing to come to Vogan to meet with me. Indeed he was.

We met at Hammer's house. I went there for lunch and just stayed to visit until Peter showed up about 2:00, thirty minutes later than we had planned. He was late because the taxi he rode in from Lomé was a big one, so it took a while to fill it up with passengers. 

We drove out to the church property and met in the shade under the trees, not the big mango tree pictured below, but the smaller trees behind it. The wonderful breezes helped make the lesson a pleasant one.

We began by my asking Peter for help with some everyday expressions. First, greetings. They are rather complicated here. I know how to respond to what people say to me, but I don't know how to inquire after their well-being. So we worked on that. I haven't mastered it--it's complicated! Then I asked how to say the question words, because I thought that would be helpful.

After that we began at the beginning of the book--on the title page, which we read many times so that I could begin learning pronunciation. We counted up to 60 and worked on the material we had covered during the last lesson I had with Karen. After a two-hour session, I was ready to stop.

And we had more work to do. Karen's gardener's assistant had left his cellphone charger at Karen's house last week. She wanted Peter to return it for her. So we drove to Karen's house so that she could explain the situation. She called the gardener and let Peter talk to him so that they would be on the alert for each other. Peter even took the gardener's phone number so he could call when he got close. (The gardener has his shop right on the side of the main road from Vogan to Lomé. It is easy to find, because it is located between a police checkpoint and the tollbooth.)

After that was all settled, I took Peter to find a car to take him back to Lomé. Somewhere along the side of the road on the way out of town, there is a "station" where cars gather to be hired to take people to the city. Peter thought that we might find something sooner than that, and indeed we did. I don't know how he knew, but he had me stop by a car parked on the side of the street. He talked to the driver and then got out to head back home. 

Back at my house, I relaxed. It was cool enough that I didn't need the fan, so I didn't notice when the power went off. It wasn't off long. 

The temperature continued to drop and there were wonderful breezes. I finally realized I had better check the windows in the house. Sure enough, the rain began to fall. As it has done in the past, it started as a hard rain and then settled into a nice steady fall. 

I don't remember how long it fell, but it stopped before bedtime. That meant, of course, that the temperature climbed again. I am very grateful that the electricity stayed on so that I was able to keep cool in the night.