A Slight Change of Plans part 6 of 8

No alarms were needed. All of us either woke up with the rising sun or from the rustling of the people around us. We made an early breakfast of whatever granola bars and Pringles we had left in our backpacks. Nobody was in any great hurry to pack up and leave. I thought about asking Eric what the plan was, but didn’t want to appear too anxious or ungrateful. My guess –which was later confirmed as correct- was that we were waiting for the tide to come in so that our boat could make its departure.

A few of the kids circled up and someone produced a deck of cards. Hudson pulled out his sketch pad and started drawing manga-style cartoon characters.

Through the front door, I saw local school children in their burgundy and white school uniforms walking to school. At the rate they were walking, I thought, they are going to be very tardy. They were all rubbernecking to sneak a peek of the surreptitious visitors who had arrived last night. I grabbed my camera. Of course. As I stood in the doorway, I alternated between snapping pictures and offering up the friendliest “Salamat Pagi!” I could conjure this early in the morning after a sleepless night.

A few of my students wandered over and together we filled up the doorway. There we stood, two groups of strangers staring at each other not quite sure what to make of each other. I just kept waving and smiling and saying “Good morning.” It must have broken through their timidity, because eventually their curious stares changed into suppressed giggles and jostling. Eventually, I managed to get back a few waves and “hello”s. I even heard one girl boldly try out one of her English phrases “Good morning.” Every time a few students continued down the path to school, a few more would wander up, so that for the better part of half hour we had a group of a dozen or so kids outside our front door. It was a photographer’s dream.

When the school children eventually all disappeared, several of the villagers started to come to the community well which it turns out was just across the street. Most of them carried a long stick across their shoulder with a five-gallon bucket hanging off of each end. Some of the women were decked out in full Muslim garb including headdress, but many of them were in long pants, t-shirts, and flip-flops.