Oh family. What a complicated structure sometimes. Cape Verdean families are something of a marvel. The sanctity of marriage is almost non-existent. This trimester, instead of a final exam for my eighth graders, I decided to have my students do a family project that would incorporate a family tree and a composition about one side of their family. It's very interesting to see their family trees. Some students have 45 cousins, while others are fairly compact only because the father has had to move to Portugal or the United States to find work. But I find the family unit here fascinating. I will keep you updated as to the progress of these projects when the time comes nearer for them to hand in.

Along those lines, I received the photos I ordered off of Snapfish from the family cruise. My students were pretty insistent on seeing photos of my family. So you will all be happy to know that I showed them all your smiling faces and they loved every minute of it. They said I had a very beautiful family, and especially like the photo of Heather, Kim, Azmina, and Natasha. I have very beautiful girls in my family, they said. Some of the girls also developed a small crush on Aaron and Shaheen, and they were delighted to hear that my family would be visiting this summer and could I please ask the rest of them to come too? I said of course, I will do my best. So everyone, just know that you were all invited by the students of my 8A class to come out this summer to visit me :) But they really did enjoy the photos and so did I.