Life after the end of term

Semester finished on Friday. Hundreds of essays have been marked, and the poorer students have found reality an unbelievable experience.

The last day of semester is celebrated by teachers and students in a new coalition. Olwen prepared breakfast for 25, at coffee time 13 arrived with a TV for the football, and we were invited out for lunch although this meant 20 in our flat who then ordered a chicken and rice carry-out.

End of semester also means that a persistent visitor to the flat isn't under such pressure to leave. He's an 11 year old boy, Jairo, one of the twin sons of a seminary cleaner. Frankly I regard him as a real pest, but my more Christian wife makes a great fuss of him.

One of the annoying things I find is that he goes to the toilet every 5 minutes. I'm now convinced he's addicted to the liquid soap dispenser. Other new things he's experienced have been jigsaws, dominos and selling trinkets at an inflated price to a nice foreign lady.

Today, Tuesday we set off for a week on the Caribbean island of San Andrés. This is somewhere near Nicaragua, wherever that is.

News of the hurricane season starting in the Caribbean is noted daily by Olwen and ignored by David.

"Hi it's me, Jairo, again"

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