American International School Abuja

Look, there is green!

This is the first thing I noticed as we flew into Abuja from Lagos. It was a welcome sight after the dust and mud of the former capital. The new capital Abuja, with its wide and relatively pothole free roads felt wide open as we road to the school it's welcome was only surpassed by that of our librarian hostess Rita who came bearing Thai food - a sure way to elevate your position in this poet's esteem.

Elementary assembly: before

That's the good news. The bad news is that our original flight had been cancelled and we were rushing late to the school to a flip flopped schedule. True to the high standards of the international school system - everyone rolled with it and made our visit a joy.

Elementary assembly: during

We did a couple assemblies and then some writing workshops with the students and a little professional development with the teachers after classes on out last day. I worked with the middle and upper school and Sara wrote with the carpet crowd. We couldn't have felt more welcome. We stayed with Rita, her principle husband Lyle and their two sons. This doesn't mean that Rita has a second husband somewhere; Lyle is the principle of the upper school. Rounding out this clan is Bubba the African Gray Parrot and Max - the forever fetching canine.

Sara and I tried a new thing this trip. We emailed a packet of sixty of our poems leveled. That means we sent 20 poems for elementary, 20 for middle and 20 for high school. Sometimes getting books to a place like Abuja, Nigeria isn't he easiest thing to do but e-mailing a cross section of work that can then be disseminated so the kids are familiar with us before we get there has made the visits so much more successful. We are going to carry this practice over to our stateside work as well.

Anyway, we had a terrific time with all the kids big and small at AISA (pronounced eye-sa) and hope we get to see everybody again sooner than later.

Go Crocs!

Librarian Rita modeling the down portion of the Up Down I received from the general – See earlier post.