Summer, and Students, and longing for home.

We are helping with a Summer Learning Initiative at University and the students are really enjoyable. I haven't had students ASK for homework in quite some time. We are learning about a younger group of Turkish students, and we see a lot of enthusiasm. Aundreta is working on a writing project of her own, and I am working on some ideas too. I get to read more, and that is satisfying. In reference to the chess photo, (see ring - Osmanlı symbol as well as visual chess reminder) -- I was getting ready for class and one of my Cameroonian students, Parfait (an appropriate name for a wonderful young man) came in and mentioned his desire to learn chess. My board was sitting out on the desk and I showed him a vital part of it - pawn coordination. I took the major and minor pieces off of the board, handicapped myself a pawn, and invited him to try to promote a pawn. What he thought was going to be an easy challenge turned out to be quite difficult. He was completely engaged. The ideas of: breaking the board into quarters, looking at kingside and queenside advantages, and looking not just at squares occupied, but squares attacked, were never shown to him before. He was very eager to try and retry. For my part I love to see how ideas can coalesce so quickly in attentive people. That kind of thing energizes me too.

As he is aiming to be a surgeon in the future, I am encouraged by his constant focus on improvement. I told him once, "I want to be like you when I grow up" -- he smiled, but having him around me continues to remind me of the success-potential of human beings, how many fall short from inattention, and how good of an example that he is to others.