Notes from Paradise

Notes from Paradise

I start my days working out in the pool (after I feed my menagerie and get the latest news from Bloomberg)surrounded by palms trees swaying in a light breeze and the calls of brightly colored birds, followed by hot Belizean coffee from the café to help me warm up from the cool water, and a short nap in the sun (on the days the sun shines).  The women who work at the resort help me with my Spanish a little bit at a time. Usually, the only other person around is the pool guy, cleaning. Some mornings, there are children. Adult tourists have finished breakfast and left on their various tours. It’s a great way to start a day.

Classes started at the University of Maryland Global Campus on January 14. I had 31 enrolled for the first session, but I am down to about 28 now. My second class begins on February 25, and there are 26 enrolled in that class. All of the classes use materials available to the public, and one of those links started requiring a login. When I reported this to the course chair, she suggested I select a new article for the course. This was followed by an email to two other instructors telling them that “professor George Ann Gregory” had selected a new reading. It was kind of tickled me to see myself referred to as “professor” even after all these years.

Native Daughter Publishing almost has its first book ready for publication—Mr. Finnegan and the Bears: Once When We Were Homeless. I am just waiting on my Photoshop guy to get a few illustrations back to me. In the meantime, I am putting all the little Choctaw stories into one big picture book. I am still trying to get a book done in Garifuna. My autobiographical piece about the sixties is back from readers with some notes. I will probably get back to this during my next break.

Clifara still comes by occasionally for help with math. We spent an intensive two weeks working on division after she started back to school in January. One math lesson was on fractions, and we baked cookies for that one. Kalon helped me clear weeds so that I could plant jicama, and he was happy to get a pair of Adidas basketball shoes. I am working a bit with Mary Ann, their mom, on math materials for her classromm. Outside of small problems like figuring out how to get the cover off the refrigerator light so that I can exchange bulb and getting the screws on the lawn mower loose enough to adjust the blades, life seems to be going OK.

I would love to hear what you are doing.

Love,

George Ann