{"id":1242,"date":"2023-11-30T09:39:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/?page_id=1242"},"modified":"2023-12-13T10:23:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T10:23:41","slug":"the-teacher","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/the-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"The Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000;font-size:32px\"><strong>The Teacher<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000;font-size:17px\">\u2013 A Short Story by Elaine Desmond<br><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"303\" height=\"327\" src=\"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sprigs_leaf2-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-352\" style=\"width:103px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sprigs_leaf2-4.png 303w, https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/sprigs_leaf2-4-278x300.png 278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-theme-palette-8-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns are-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:34%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/The-Teacher-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66%\">\n<p><strong>Excerpt from <em>The Teacher<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A young man named Chisulo was waiting for her at the airport in Lilongwe, Malawi\u2019s capital.&nbsp; He absent-mindedly displayed a frayed card which proclaimed her name in shaky hand-writing.&nbsp; His eyes passed over her vaguely as she approached, then more attentively as he realised she was heading for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018You\u2019re the teacher?\u2019 he asked, flashing a cheeky, gap-toothed grin.&nbsp; Had she imagined his disbelief, the barely disguised attempt to refrain from laughing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He led her proudly to the dusty, open-topped old jeep which would transport her to the tiny Malawian village of Mwandama, her home for the next year, informing her as he did so that his name meant \u2018strong as steel\u2019 in English.&nbsp; The translation proved unfortunately accurate.&nbsp; They alternated between being jogged up and down on spring-less car seats, to being flung repeatedly against the unpadded jeep doors as Chisulo navigated the pot-holed, uneven track that passed for a road once they had left Lilongwe.&nbsp; Sophie\u2019s body was jolted and bruised, but the steely Chisulo drove resolutely on, entirely oblivious to any discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even given her state of constant and uncomfortable motion, the beauty surrounding her asserted itself on her senses.&nbsp; Purple mountains stood quietly as elegant acacia trees poised like delicate ballerinas against a translucent blue sky.&nbsp; The earth was red and fiery, an inhospitable host to the brown, withered grasses.&nbsp; Chisulo informed her that the rains were late.&nbsp; Drought, the most feared word in Africa, was again being predicted.&nbsp; The air was so hot and dry that, when she inhaled, the insides of her nostrils burned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Teacher \u2013 A Short Story by Elaine Desmond Excerpt from The Teacher A young man named Chisulo was waiting for her at the airport in Lilongwe, Malawi\u2019s capital.&nbsp; He absent-mindedly displayed a frayed card which proclaimed her name in shaky hand-writing.&nbsp; His eyes passed over her vaguely as she approached, then more attentively as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1242","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1495,"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1242\/revisions\/1495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elainedesmondwriter.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}