Silent week

I’m fairly used to being mute for a day or two. It is a humbling experience; suddenly you can only hurl your opinions into the world at the speed at which you can write, and get others to read what you’re written. If your phone rings you have to either just let it ring, or get someone else to answer it for you. You need help a lot. Pointing and smiling isn’t always enough. So losing my voice some twice a year might save me from taking my normal vociferousness for granted. But this time, it’s going a bit far. Normally I only lose my voice completely for a day or two. When I write this it’s already been a week. An entire week of muteness! It’s not funny anymore. And a few days from now I’m going on fieldwork with some 35 students. I might have to invest in cue cards…

 For those who wonder why I have a picture of almonds in a post about tonsils: in Dutch, the same word is used for both...