Today I had two early classes by myself. The first was a class I had been in a couple of times before, so today was a day of literature. I once again used Conley’s “Witch of Goingsnake.” I am getting good mileage and dialogues from this work, not because of the complexity and length, more accurately because of its simplicity and brevity. Readers must work their imaginations a little bit in this story, challenge their linear system of beliefs. That is what I have been working to my advantage with this story, and once again the discussions this story produced were excellent. I am able to challenge shallow belief systems. By shallow I do not mean superficial, more like ones that have been given little true thought. Students (and here I am including American students as well) often accept things as true or real without thinking about what makes them true or real. For example, “It’s in the textbook so it must be true.” Or my favorite, “I found it on Wikipedia so it has to be real.” That is the shallowness I mean. With this story I can take students to the deep end of the thought pool quickly.
The second class of the day was a younger group of students, and this was only the second time I had been with them. They got to see the artifacts I brought. Many of these also stimulate good discussions, especially the stickball equipment. Someday soon we are going to play. Several students have already noted they wish to try, so Pia and I are planning, trying to find a place and time to make that happen. Stay tuned.
My day was finished at lunch, so I did a few things around the office, answered emails mostly and did a small bit of planning on some forthcoming events before heading to the flat and then on to the city centre. I had a few small errands to run and then I was going to visit a sail factory. Yep, a sail factory. Pia’s husband, Soren, is co-owner of a sail factory. He invited me this afternoon to stop by for a tour. So I took him up on it. Now the place is small, not what one might expect for a sail factory, but it is certainly an impressive operation. They make not only sails, but tarpaulins, covers, and even an extremely impressive emergency evacuation system for ocean liners. There are only a few employees and the building is much smaller than Seminary Hall, but it is an impressive operation. I was given a tour of the building top to bottom – literally. Most of the manufacturing actually takes place on the second floor. Large, and I mean very large, sewing machines are on the floor and the operator is recessed into the floor, thus turning the entire floor into a sewing table.
Soren also showed me some historical photos and drawings of what Esbjerg harbor looked like many years ago. For a point of comparison, to my fellow Riverhawks, take a look at campus now, Seminary Hall now, and then pay close attention to the historic photos of campus that are scatter around NSU. Even though I am not a Dane and am not from Esbjerg looking at these photos invoked in me a sense of nostalgia, and understanding (to a point) of the way things used to be here. Things have changed, certainly a great deal since Denmark joined the European Union. I do not have a full, barely even a partial, understanding of what that means, but I know enough to know that life here changed for many people when that happened. The Esbjerg fishing fleet went from around 600-plus fishing vessels to only a couple of dozen practically overnight, and it affected a great many lives – including this factory. But they have adjusted, diversified, and found ways to adapt and carry on. In spirit that qualifies them as Cherokee I think. In all I was at the factory a bit over an hour.
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