Yes, I am awesome, Andrew told me to say it's so

Hot – not humid yet but the middle of the day is getting’ raunchy. Brain hurts from other people mistaking it for a smart one. I’ve been moved out of the classroom and am now documenting various policies and procedures for the school encompassing everything from how students are withdrawn to graduating criteria and many other super fun things that initially sounded exciting and flattering to be asked to do but has turned out to be a game of politics and reassurance, telling the westerners that they are not threatened, telling the Sudanese that I ma not their savior and, when they can’t be circumvented, having tea with the Emeratis whilst trying to convince them (wrongly) that more accountability won’t affect their ability to show up late, make other people do their work and wander the hallways with a sense of superiority and work well done. Thank God the Manager is one of those rare very hard working, level headed, interested and knowledgeable guys who will protect me if I fail in any of the above mentioned tasks/obfuscations/ploys. It’s fun and interesting but man, have I had some wacky conversations in the last coupe of weeks. I have also (and I only include this because Andrew claims I should toot my horn more) been asked to review a paper for publication written by tutor at Leicester. Now I know he is in part including me because it’s a good teaching and motivating technique and he may very well delete any comments I make without reading them. But, I am gullible and a sucker and thus have allowed myself to feel pretty good about it. It’s on some of the topics that I have been researching and interesting. Of course, along with the affirmation comes a feeling of immense pressure not to say anything stupid which is always made infinitely more likely when you’re worrying about it.

Finally, the reforging of my body on the anvil of Yoga is proceeding apace. I am lees successful in waking up everyday at five than I would like to be but on the days that I do I am establishing a fairly consistent and progressing well. A little every day is better than a lot once a week and I am trying to stay on top of giving myself a bit of work regularly. I can now work through the salutations and the standing poses of the Ashtanga Primary Series without killing myself and it feels great. The seated poses are much harder and will probably take a couple of years to do with any semblance of grace and accuracy. The weekend I was on was fantastic and I was sore for days but I did all kinds of things I didn’t think I could do. The headstands were not fun at first, ‘cause if you don’t get it right you feel like you’re going to break your neck, which you won’t do (don’t worry) it just feels like it until you fall into the right balance.

I can’t remember how much I have told you guys about ashtanga yoga so I don’t want to go too far into it here but I am loving it and you can find out about online if you want to. Ashtanga.net is the site of one of the main western teachers and there are some good links on it.

Anyway, I’m just about ready to see some more entires on this blog!!! It';s the me and mom show at the moment. (hello mommy) Where are the pictures of my ill niece, all covered in baby sickness goo! Let’s go! Where's my chemical formulae and pictures of Kabul backstreets, ok wee, actually, don't take any of those. but..

Anyway, that’s me for now. Gotta go to work.