The teaching is becoming ever more demanding as we approach the final exam on the 15th. The students are coping very well, and we have frequent progress tests which are all showing positive progress. They also help me to identify the areas to focus on. The students' writing and listening skills in particular are very pleasing.
I shall be very sorry to leave, and frequently wonder whether I'm doing the right thing. I have been made to feel a valued member of not only the school community, but also the community as a whole. I couldn't have hoped for a more special country to teach in.
One of my students is very keen for me to become a Muslim - she doesn't want me to spend eternity burning in Hell. She has given me several CDs on Islam, and books, to help me see the errors of my ways. I was nearly in tears when she was explaining how much better off I would be as a person, now and in the afterlife, if I converted. Islam is not a proselytising faith - she is just trying to help me.
I'm in the process of selling my car, and am enjoying an embarrassment of interest. I put posters in the rear windows, in Arabic of course, giving a student's phone number to ring, and he has been inundated with calls. It's a choice now between selling to one of my neighbours, or one of his friends, so I suppose it'll have to be Kalashnikovs at dawn to determine the lucky winner. Having the car, and being able to drive the vast distances which I've managed whilst here, have given me such great opportunities to explore, on and off the beaten track.
There's been a bit of a leak through my bedroom ceiling (via the light fitting - a little worrying) over the past ten days or so, and sorting it out has not been straightforward. The water appears to be coming from the sixth floor; I live on the first.
Initially I spoke to the Egyptian concierge - it turns out he lives in a hut on the roof, just like in the Yakoubian Building, not under the stairs as I had thought - but he isn't really terribly influential, so nothing happened for a while. Eventually I called my estate agent friend who spoke to some of the other occupants, and a meeting was convened in my flat to discuss what was to be done. Ownership of the block seems to be a little grey - it's technically owned by the state - yes, it's a council flat - but people have sold their rights to live here to other people, so now nobody takes overall responsibility.
Nothing was firmly resolved at the meeting - many suggestions, but no acceptances of actions - and so now the owner of my flat has decided to sell - this'll be the second time I've been made homeless from the same place in six months! He says that the people who live here aren't very good people because they won't help each other, so he wants to find somewhere else. I've always found everyone here perfectly delightful, but then I expect I receive special treatment.
A number of people have suggested I open up my own language school here in Benghazi. With a native English speaker as principal, students would be queuing round the block, I'm told. Well, it's a thought, but I won't rush into it just yet, tempting though the money would certainly be.
