This is Jozef.

He is one of my favorite Gap-Year interns, here reading along to Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry-Picking" during class this morning. I'll try to give you an idea of his heartbreakingly-honest humor. Yesterday we read the poem "Fleas interest me so much" by Pablo Neruda - you should read it - and when it was clear that Neruda hadn't actually written a poem about loving fleas, we spent most of the class trying to solve the riddle. The learners suggested that artists, children, politicians, and prostitutes could all fit (they recognized the similarity between politicians and prostitutes), but when one of the girls had finally decided upon street people as the topic of the poem, what she said aloud was "poor people," to which Jozef jumped up, fists and eyes aimed at heaven, and cried "I AM A FLEA?!"

This program, which includes twelve interns, is by far our most glamorous. These are promising students (called learners here) who apply from all of the high schools in which we work, who have graduated but for some reason or another haven't been able to go to University yet. They spend a whole year with us on a fairly rigorous schedule of community service and four hours of class a day - most of which revolves around improving their English communication skills - so we get to know them all very closely. We also provide them with meals, transportation so that they can study "in-house," a computer lab, and financial support.

AND, these lucky learners have me for three of their four hours every day this week, teaching a discussion class, a poetry workshop, and a computer-skills lab. More blips to come...