Captain, being held by you isn't quite enough to get me excited

Here is another post from Drew starting me. Did i write this? No. Is Drew in love with me? Maybe! The following italic text is all Drew Dear Full Metal Jacket enthusiasts, I have had many different visitors come to my classroom over the past year and a half.Most of the visitors are clients of my friend, Mrs. Mandy, who runs the horse safari in Chibuene. But some of the visitors are fellow Peacecorps volunteers or people who visit me. So far my two most memorable visitors have been Jackson my brother in law who played bluegrass guitar (the students freaked out) and Amy a naval pilot who told the students about how her planes have gigantic magnets in the back which can detect Soviet submarines (I freaked out, how cool is that job!!). Those two guests may have to take a backseat to my fellow volunteer James who visited my classroom yesterday… For those of you who read this missive week in and week out, first of all G-d bless you, but second of all you may remember me mentioning James a few times. Most notably as the awesome bro who let me use his drawstring bag as a substitute shoe when my flip flop popped at his site Mabalane. This was an awesome gesture because we were about 7k from anything approaching a road or surface that was not scalding hot sand. That was James’s site, now he would visit mine, and not just my site but my classroom. All my guests bring their own flavor or experiences to my class. Since my students will be English teachers next year it is a great resource to live so close to an area that has so many English speaking visitors. I have had Canadians, New Zealanders (I believe they are known as Kiwis) Americans, Brits, Scotch, Irish, Australians and even French people who speak English to my students, they visit and speak about their life in their home country. This is great for many reasons, 1. my students are exposed to lots of different accents, b. when the students ask questions about the guests home country they are expanding their worldview, threeve.) it is a really nice experience for the visitor who gets to meet future teachers of Mozambique, and finally it is not boring!! I am sure that some people would love to watch me stand in front of a room and talk all day, I haven’t met these persons yet but they seem awesome, but with visitors my students are exposed to an ever changing cast of English teachers. The volunteers who work at other IFP’s (teacher training colleges) are jealous I have such a cool resource. So what did James bring to the table? His guitar of course. James and I sang three songs with the students, in much the same way that we have music appreciation class. After each song the students would point out the English words they knew and also try and figure out the meaning. James and I sang Bob Marley’s “Three little birds” and “No Woman, No Cry” as well as the old go to standard “In the Jungle.” James led one and a half of the discussions and I picked up the others. James was a hit, how could he become more popular with the students. Well, when James began to answer questions about his life the students were very impressed when they learned that James had joined the Marines when he was 18 and that he is a former soldier. James shared the following items with my students. The military is: • Interesting: you get to go live in lots of different places (the students were intrigued) • Difficult sometimes: you go out into the desert and the jungle for days or weeks and you don’t get to bring deodorant (students laugh) and there are no women (students laughed a lot, long and hard too). • Helpful to go to college: after you get out of the military they will help you pay for college, like when James attended Oregon State University (the students were intrigued by a free university education) James was a hit, and was just about to finish when I raised my hand and asked James if he could, “…explain what a Drill Sargent is?” James smiled and said he could if I wanted to, but that he would need about 4 volunteers. The volunteers assembled in the front of the classroom and Alberto was designated as their unit leader. James warned them that when you go to boot camp the drill sargent is hard on you and that you can never do anything right. The students nodded although I am not sure if they knew what they were getting into. James left the room with his baseball cap off, but when he returned it was back on and the brim was pushed way down over his eyes! Drill Sargent James immediately noticed that Aly’s belt was out of order and made sure Aly knew too. “What is that! Is that a belt, that is ugly, how did you do that?” Berto, who was standing next to Aly thought this was humorous but DS James immediately invaded his personal space and asked him, “Am I a comedian, do I amuse you? Is that what I am here to do? Do you want me to destroy you? I will destroy you? Get on the ground? Pushups!! Fast, FAST, FASTER!! Up, up, up jumping jacks!!” (I stayed out of the way throughout most of the proceedings but did assist Berto in demonstrating what James wanted when he told him to get on the ground ((pushups)) and what a jumping jack looked like). DS James then demanded to know why Alberto was letting his unit get out of control, pretty soon DS James had all 4 members of his unit on the ground, and according to him were not doing pushups nearly fast enough. One of my other students, Godfrey, got up to take a picture with his cellphone but I quickly asked him to sit down. We don’t need pictures of PCV’s forcing students to do pushups, at least not out of context. James had the unit stand back up and decided he didn’t like how Bosse was looking at him, he invaded Bosse’s personal space and assured him, “You’ll never make it my United States Marine Corps!! Do you want me to destroy you? I will destroy you!!” Then James the PCV returned and he hugged and thanked all 4 volunteers. Throughout the entire proceeding the entire rest of the class had been laughing uproariously and finally the 4 vols got to join in. James and I finished the class with a few more songs, he and I sang Weezer’s say it ain’t so together followed by a solo James performance of TI’s “What you like.” The students loved both renditions. Before James left he asked the whole class how many of them wanted to join the US military and almost every hand went up, later he told me based on that question he didn’t explain boot camp well enough. On the way out of the door the students asked James to teach them how to salute. James informed them about the very specific way that a Marine salutes and took time to correct a few students who had technical difficulties. I whispered to James as we left the room, “Dude their gonna salute me from now on.” James responded, “Just make sure they do it right, blade of the hand out, crisp up, fast down with no palm showing…” Thanks James. Thanks for visiting and until next week, or until you come visit my classroom, I’ll see you in another life brother. Drew Garland