Howard's Blog: Baby sitting, coconut, and art!

What an interesting day this has been. It started out with the next door neighbors asking if we could babysit their dog for two and a half hours. His name is Rafael and he is very cute. He is quiet...doesn't say much. Everything was going great until Rafa decided to pee on the floor and our new curtains. I stayed calm...Mike cleaned up the mess. I guess the poor fella was nervous. Mike took him for a walk and that seemed to remedy the problem.

Our friend John is famous for cracking open fresh coconuts. John said he would show me how if I would buy a coconut. So I went to the local market and bought one for $1.75. I'm told they are $4.00 in the States. John came over and the lesson began. I was surprised at how easy it was. Since I've never cracked open a coconut I had no idea how to begin. John had already asked if we had a hammer and a screwdriver. We did, so all the necessary tools were on hand. The coconut has three "eyes" at the top. You take the screwdriver and punch out two of the three "eyes." One hole is where the water drains out, the other is an air hole so the water flows faster. Save the coconut water in a glass. This is to be enjoyed later. Next, you take the hammer and hit the coconut like you are angry. Well, maybe not that hard but you do give it a good whack. After a few hits the coconut will crack. Then you simply open it up, insert the screwdriver under the meat, and pry it off. A thin layer of brown skin will remain on the back of the coconut pieces. This is ok. Good luck if you want to remove the thin brown skin. Here is the result:

It appears that several of my English students are artistically inclined. I shared a picture with you on an earlier blog that a student drew of me. Well, today that same student drew another picture of me, take note of the "young teacher" remark. Not sure what the 400,000 squared years is all about (that sounds old). Another student made me a white rubber band bracelet, and she drew a picture of her brother, as he was playing on his cell phone (I gave them some free time near the end of class today. They have worked hard this week). Notice the attention to detail...she framed and signed her work of art.