Picture- looking south from top of my apartment.

Set 2 separate alarms last night and tested the clock radio alarm twice. Neither one went off, I woke at 7:25 and had to rush to make it downstairs where the owners picked me up at 8:00. Seems the street I am on has a lot of hotels and apartments for expats especially those working in the oil industry for they were all waiting for a bus when I was out this morning. The weather is quite warm but I’m so happy to not be freezing cold all the time. We arrived at school and met with the teachers and director and determined what my focus should be. I feel much better about the whole job now that I know what is expected of me. First of all they want to set up learning centres and want ideas on activities. I’m very impressed with the level of planning and organization they have shown, very professional. Teachers are very friendly and I almost feel like I am at Bayview, except for the Portuguese spoken by a lot of the staff.

At lunch went with owners to a buffet type restaurant with a lot off food I didn’t recognize. Had palm hearts, greens, a salty type of beef, and two kinds if fried banana. As we drove to school we passed a lot of banana trees and the same type of beautiful trees I saw in Egypt. The country side is very hilly and the earth showing is very red clay type soil. The say when it Rains here the roads flood and many areas are under water but no landslides here.

After school took a walk on the beach intending to swim, I picked a spot with other swimmers, the big waves were rolling in so I stayed a few feet off shore. I was having fun rising and falling with the waves , then one big one came and swallowed me up. Glad I had left my glasses on the beach. Enough of that, walked the beach instead and went inside and tested out the sauna. Very nice, has a window looking out to the ocean. I set it for 80 C but I saw it could be set for 120C, that is the setting for poached.

So far so good, owners are very nice, teachers are so friendly and school very well run.