Adult Learning

“Janice Harper?” My head jerked up, just over the rim of the desk, and I froze with one hand holding the book of short stories I was stuffing into my satchel and the other flat on the table for balance, my butt half on and half off the seat, my back horizontal to the floor. I looked over my left shoulder. She was seven rows forward, scanning the barracks-style classroom like a drill sergeant.

Sisters

   

  My sister and I spent the past week doing what sisters who haven’t seen one another for more than a year do… we shopped. We shopped for six days. We shopped for six hours a day for six days. On the seventh day we rested and talked about our shopping.  As women everywhere will understand, this constitutes a good visit. Shopping with a close female friend or relative is not  about commerce. It is not about the exchange of money for goods. If goods are found; if the goods found are great goods; if the great goods make us look younger, slimmer, richer, rounder, prettier, smarter, classier, funkier, friendlier; if the great goods that make us look younger, slimmer, richer, rounder, prettier, more intelligent, classier, funkier, friendlier are on sale, shopping is elevated from the pedestrian to the sublime. It is a symphony of endorphins, celebration and goodwill that sets the stage for the real business of shopping… the exchange of information.

Kenya then; Kenya now

  Eighty -four days ago I flew home from what many call the trip of a lifetime, a safari in Kenya. Kenya then was soft colours  Great Rift Valley; proud, industrious, content people At Kazuri Beads; animals once dreamed of Zebras Crossing; smiling faces Joseph at Amboseli; amazing sunsets Night Sky; did I mention the animals? Elephants; wacky, wonderful travel companions Swara Mates; unforgettable sights One of the Acacias; and a man called Agoi from Vintage Africa – driver, guide, teacher, friend.    

How do you break up with a group of friends?

  I have five good women friends — one I’ve known for 25 years; one I’ve known for eight years; the rest fall in between. We’re a disparate group ranging in age from 30-something to 60-something. Three are married and three used to be married. One of us is without children; the rest of us have 12 between us; three have grandchildren. The common link is work — once upon a time we all worked together and enjoyed it.