My life story

**HoreTore** · 08-07-2012, 20:14

Many things do happen in our lives that shape us into what we end up being, but for some reason or the other, we end up forgetting all about them. Some though, stick in our minds throughout our lifetime and they become defining moments.

One such moment happened to me and no matter what I go through, I still remember it as the moment I had to take a decision that would determine my fate. My mom was very ill and things were, she had to face the maker. Mom being the only living relation I had apart from the father who abandoned us when she became expectant.

Mum ordered me to go and look for him and, if I don't find him, find a way to live there and leave her in the condition she was in. It is always painful to remember that I left her, but I had to fight to live and be a man of substance as she always wished.

I would like to learn more about Europe and technological advance.

Patrick, age 14

Because Frags wondered how my "holiday" was/is....

**Lemur** · 08-07-2012, 20:24

<------ confused

**Fragony** · 08-07-2012, 20:29

I don't really understand Horetore, if I get this right you took care of a dying kid?

**Papewaio** · 08-07-2012, 20:35

Not sure how to read this.

HT is Patrick, older, wiser and rembering the anniversary of his mum.

HT is the father.

HT is helping out a kid who has/had a terminally sick mum.

**HoreTore** · 08-07-2012, 20:38

It's written by someone with around 3 years of english, so one has to put some effort into making sense of it.

I'm teaching english in Tanzania now. This was the text I got from one of my students after asking them to write about a day in their life, or an important event in their life(just to check their english level).

As I understand it, his mother went ill some time ago. She then told him to find his father, who left her when she was pregnant, as there were noone else who could take care of him. Apparently, he did not find him, and now lives alone with no friends in a place far from where he grew up. His mother appears to be dead, and he was not around when she died. She probably died alone. I believe he lives in a kind of orphanage run by the foundation I'm working for, I will try to find that out tomorrow.

The lyrical intro and the hope for the future in the last sentence(where they were told to state what they wanted to learn about in the next 3 weeks) really makes this text get me.

**Centurion1** · 08-07-2012, 20:46

I like the name Patrick.

**Hooahguy** · 08-07-2012, 21:29

Originally Posted by Centurion1

I like the name Patrick.

Of course.

**Fragony** · 08-07-2012, 20:46

That wasn't written by someone who has 3 years of English, someone is bullshitting you

**HoreTore** · 08-07-2012, 21:00

Originally Posted by Fragony

That wasn't written by someone who has 3 years of English, someone is bullshitting you

Swahili and English has the same structure, so it's easier for them than for us. Also, I've touched it upalittle, to make the most confusing parts (a lot) clearer.

And yeah, he has had 3 years of (proper) english. They start having education in english in the grade Form I, he's in Form III. They're supposed to know english when they start Form I, but the english education in primary school is crap, to say the least. I know, I've also had students from the last year in primary school(the grade before Form I), and they can't even write sentences. An example of the same assignment written by one of those students:

Name is Sakina. Name of school Hodmwahako. School Tanga.
Name Sakina Class six. School teacher. English.

Quite typical of that grade.... About the same as the first six months of english in Norway, I'd say.

**rory_20_uk** · 08-07-2012, 20:59

Thank you for sharing the world is often a bad place. I had no idea!

Best in future to follow Backroom rules and post a point of view on these things. Or not at all...

**Furunculus** · 08-07-2012, 21:34

Originally Posted by HoreTore

I'm teaching english in Tanzania now.

congrats, a very worthwhile job!

exactly what my dad did in malawi, and, in consequence, how i came to spend six years of my childhood there.

**HoreTore** · 08-07-2012, 21:42

Originally Posted by Furunculus

congrats, a very worthwhile job!

exactly what my dad did in malawi, and, in consequence, how i came to spend six years of my childhood there.

It's just for a month right now. Kinda like an introduction, to see if I can cope.

As I'm simply loving it, I'd say it's very, very likely that I will work here for a full year in 2013. And after that, who knows...

Who employed your father, by the way? A charity, a government school or a private school?