JOCA

It was a torrid, sunny day, really. It was almost lunchtime and the kids from primary school were returning home. One of them, very sad, came with the bag on his back and, in his hand instead of on his head, he carried a little hat.

– " Oh Joca!... With so much sun, why don't you put your hat on your head son? " – His mother says to him, from the backyard door.

– " Mom, the hat doesn't fit... " – exclaims Joca in a lament of resignation that only he and I understand.

This young boy, a few years later, became my big brother and bosom friend forever, JOCA, or Joquinha for the cutest girls. It was at the Liceu de Quelimane that we met for the first time and this spectacular friendship will last forever.

THE PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY NUN TEACHER

Joca and I were always living the good life. We played basketball at Benfica de Quelimane and in our free time, we went after the girls at high school.

We had a physics & chemistry teacher who was also a nun in a Catholic congregation in Quelimane. She was smaller standing up than we were sitting on the chairs in the classroom... She prepared the classes the best she knew and could, but her kindness was not enough to impose respect and discipline in a group of rulers where I was the head of class and all my thirty colleagues (boys and girls) were always in agreement for everything...

One day, the teacher decided to talk about the density of the elements. And so, he filled a glass with water and... very slowly she poured a small steel sphere into it... of course the sphere immediately went to the bottom of the glass... and she said with an air of great wisdom:

– " See? As steel is denser than water, the sphere goes to the bottom of the glass! ".

Naughty, as usual... I started to think about how to counter so much wisdom and block the class. I got up and argued:

– " To the bottom? No-Noo! The sphere is floating... " – Looking and waving affirmatively to my colleagues.

– " Is the sphere floating, right guys? " – What my colleagues all in unison confirmed.

Well... that was the end of that class. The teacher saying that the sphere was at the bottom and... thirty students saying that it wasn't and that it was floating.

Time passed and nothing... until the little nun, not knowing what else to do, got down on her knees and hands together, facing me and said:

– " Fortunato, please let me teach the class... " – Well... then I realized that the joke was going too far and I stopped, saying:

– " Right, the sphere is floating at the bottom of the glass! " – And then the little nun continued to be able to give her physics-chemistry class on density.

On another day... JOCA was inspired. And this time it was about electricity and magnetism. More precisely about magnetic fields, the magnetic force (Lorentz force) created by the circulation of electricity in a coil.

There is a rule called the right-hand rule that indicates the direction of the magnetic force as a function of the direction of the circulation of the electric current and, also, there is this same rule explained by the position of the human body and the position of the arms...

JOCA remembered to ask a question on the subject:

– " Oh teacher! I have a doubt, I was lying on the couch studying this and at the time I realized it, but now I'm confused. Can I explain what I did? " – The teacher looked at him, believed him and said: " Yes, show your doubt... ".

JOCA doesn't do anything else... he throws himself on the ground, turns over on his back and starts flailing and kicking, moving his arms at the same time as he was saying: "Like this? Like this? Like this?".

The teacher and the thirty students stood there for five minutes looking at him... to see if we understood what the big question was. Until then, JOCA couldn't resist anymore and burst out laughing.

– " Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi!... "

– " OUT! " – And there was JOCA to take a little tour outside of the class...

And finally... in a Physics test: about the atomic theory, atoms, electrons, and other bad words... a question came up that I simply didn't know the answer to... So, I started to ramble on. On that exam I wrote, wrote, ... but what I wrote was so rational that the poor little nun-teacher couldn't decide if I was right or wrong.

Do you know what happened? She never corrected my test or graded me on that test. She always told me that she still hadn't corrected my test and that she didn't know how to do it... and she never gave me the grade for that test.

Like this one, only one of my other friends in the class, Miguel Angelo Jardim, who went to a certain history test without having studied anything... so what did he remember...

He had the brilliant idea of not answering any questions and... he limited himself to describing the famous Battle of Aljubarrota as a narrator... he wrote non-stop throughout the test... a true warrior of the "Feather"...

Do you know what happened?

Our beautiful history teacher gave him 10, the minimum positive grade (grades ranged from zero to twenty at the time) and said:

– " Miguel, I give you the lowest score because your battle was fabulously well written... but next time, if you do another one just like it... YOU WILL HAVE ZEEERO!!! " – Ah, great Miguel Jardim.

Miguel and I also have super funny adventures... one day we decided to run away from home... him because his father wanted to get-the-clothes-to-his-fur (to hit him) and me because my mother wanted to get-the-fur-to-my-clothes (to hit me)...

We walked, walked, walked, ... through the huts, coconut trees, mango trees, grass, a lot of grass, ... until late in the afternoon, tired and hungry, we decided that the escape was over and decided to return home. ...

Hehehehe, good old days... times that won't come back.

And when our math teacher, eng. Ivo Alberto (a super teacher) gave me 21 values, the maximum being 20?!

I had twenty marks on the last math test and on the day of the correction he came up with a weird problem to challenge me and said: " If you can solve this problem, I'll give you one more value... " – I solved it and he complied, he gave it to me, a mark of 21 out of 20 values.

Hey My Friends, if any of you read this... send me pictures of those amazing times we spent together. Thank you for everything!

I write this in our memory, of those who have gone and those of us who are about to go... let's leave, these nonsense of ours, to the entire world.

All Intellectual Property Rights are property of:

Dr. Fortunato Da COSTA *
EMail: fitini@fitini.net

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(*) Dr. Fortunato Da COSTA, Post-graduated in European Studies by the European Studies Institute, Master in Public and Business Administration and Bachelor in Engineering, he is an International Expert Consultant in Business Architecture and information Systems, Business Manager, Teacher, Trainer, Conference Speaker, Writer, Director of the Fitini.NET ConsultinG, he can be contacted by e-mail: fitini@fitini.net. Visit: Fitini.NET ConsultinG