And what of the void Tom Tutor’s absence creates in the Islesboro Central School mathematics program? Another Fulbright teacher, Mr. Ngubo Ndaba, will be arriving on Islesboro in January, just as the Tutors embark for South Africa, coming from an African summer to a Maine winter to teach Tutor’s classes.
Ndaba, who will be living in the Tutor’s house and using Sue’s truck for transportation, is married with three children — a ten-year-old girl, a three-year-old son and a son born on Sept 30 of this year. His family will be joining him in May, traveling with Sue as she returns to the States.
Ndaba teaches mathematics at Herschel Village school, along with training and monitoring new teachers. He speaks six languages, and Tom reports that, judging from a recent telephone conversation, he speaks excellent English. Tutor believes that Ndaba couldn’t ask for a better place in the U.S. to spend his Fulbright year than at Islesboro Central School, where he will relish the small classes and closer student-teacher relationship. Ndaba will also be a part of a small, strong and welcoming community, which hopes to help him adjust to life in the U.S. — specifically, on a small island in winter.
Word is that the village of Herschel plans to welcome the Tutors to their community by slaughtering an animal for a brai, the local term for barbecue. Perhaps Ndaba can, by the same token, expect to find a traditional baked bean supper awaiting his arrival on Islesboro.