Billy Madison...redux

So it occurred to me that the best way to learn Portuguese is probably to learn it in school, and it turns out there is a school in my little village, where they just happen to be teaching Portuguese to the kids. (Although everyone speaks Kriolu at home, in the streets, amongst friends etc., it is a spoken language only. The Cape Verdian government is debating an official alphabet for Kriolu, but it is likely years away from happening for various reasons. The semi-official language of the county is Portuguese...the news, all writtten documnents, radio and television, and the language of the classroom is strictly Portuguese, so kids have to learn it. This is one of the challenges facing the country as it tries to develop, as Kriolu was the language of the slaves, and Portuguese the language of the slaveholders...as such, there is a biased against Portuguese, and a resistance to use it if you donºt have to.) Anyway, I went down to the school in Cha to introduce myself, and while I was there I asked the teacher if I could start coming to class with the kids to help me learn Portuguese. She said of course, and has actually even arranged a schedule for me. I can go to the 4th and 5th grade classes from 8 to 9, and the 5th and 6th grade classes from 9 to 10 (they have to share rooms, so there are 2 grade levels in each classroom), thereby getting me 2 hours of Portuguese instruction, practice and homework every day. They are starting out with simple vocab and sentence strucuture etc., and its perfect for my learning level. Anyway, it´s just like that movie Billy Madison, with the grown up sitting in the back of the classroom at the tiny tables with the munchkins, and although I thought I´d never have to go to school for anything again, Iºm actually enjoying every day, and so are my classmates,..I think.