09. June 2013 · Comments Off on The Nuns’ Method · Categories: L.. 13 to 15 years

The nuns have determined that the sin of pride is my greatest temptation.  They tell me that they are pushing me up a grade so that I would have to work harder and perhaps learn some humility.

I have a new teacher.  She is also the headmistress.   Her name is Mother Paulinus.   She is British.   I think she suffers from this warm, humid climate more than anyone.

In spite of the layers of her long white habit and headpiece that covers all but her face you can see that she is too thin.   Her pale cheeks have hollows and her eyes are like pools of blue water in a desert.   But she is tall and has a quick step and carries herself with authority.   She never mentions the heat.

She sees me puzzling over a form that asks for my race.   Anglo-Saxon, she says.   I know that my nationality is British, but my mother was Portuguese.  Besides, we are Eurasians.   Never mind all that, she says, you go with the paternal grandfather.

That was simple.  Now I have an identity.  I also have a guide.

They give us a choice.  We can take a course of studies that leads to graduation in the American system or one that leads to matriculation in the British system.   We choose America.

 

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