Today was weird. I was supposed to go out with the military students to do military training. But when I got to school it was all scouts, no military. The scouts raised the flag and sang the national anthem twice. Then they had announcements or meeting or who knows.  After that a bunch of the teachers got together with drums, microphones, and cymbals and sang Scout songs. They gave me a set of symbols. While the teachers were singing the scouts went through a tunnel and then got their face painted with mud. Then the Scouts headed out to go trekking. Just as I was about to go back to the house to get my computer so I could work on lesson plans, a couple of the military students came by to pick me up. They took me out on a motorbike.  For about an hour we went down trails that a mountain bike shouldn’t even be on.  The student driving me was a good driver.  At some point we came across a bunch of other military students all with black painted faces. They dropped me off with them and we hiked for a little while. Then we came to a lake where most of the other military students were.  I’m guessing the ones with the black faces were the new military students and the ones on the motorbikes were older.  I watched as some of the military students took a metal tin and some hay and used it to cook a chicken. They had coconuts and opened one up for me to eat . Just about the time the chicken was done, a car shows up with some of the teachers and the rest of the food.   After lunch, they asked if I wanted to go back by car, motorbike or walk. I said it didn’t matter. Somehow between that and trying to find my helmet, I ended up on a motorbike with one of the students. We drove to a small coffee shop and got coffee and then I got in the car and they dropped me back off at school. Now I’m sitting here not sure what to do.  I have no idea where my helmet is.

(c) all rights reserved Kimberly Fiore