Intersection on an E-Ferry (a poem by Hamdi Erestreams)

Hamdi is a teacher I recently met on Facebook. He has taught EFL for 12 years in Tunisia and has recently begun to explore Facebook and Twitter as places to connect with other teachers around the world. Hamdi doesn’t have a computer at home, so he accesses the Internet at cybercafes and at school. In Hamdi’s Facebook profile, he says that he would like to get acquainted with teachers from all over the word to promote his teaching experience, exchange ideas about ways of teaching and more…

In one of our first conversations, we talked about how many EFL teachers feel “invisible” within our profession, and about how the Internet offers chances for invisible teachers to be seen and heard. Tonight he shared a poem he wrote about his initial experiences online and gave me permission to share it here.

The other two ladies mentioned in Hamdi’s poem are Carol Goodey and Shelly Terrell 🙂

Intersection on an e-ferry


My dear Carol, Barbara and Shelly
You are so gentle, so generous, so friendly…
One day I am sure you will win the trophy
You’ll gain a place in e-history
Nothing is better than being truthful and trusty!

I met them haphazardly on e-ferry
Joyful, gleeful and merry
They were heading for an e-tomorrow
Twittering as birds yearning for a day so sunny
Love, respect and support they agreed to carry
Their life is a long story
Made of pure sweat, toil and glory
Thank you Carol
Thank you Barbara
Thank you Shelly
I admired your kind spirit
Your supportive words
I promise I’ll never forget any

~~Hamdi Erestreams

Note: This poem by Hamdi Erestreams originally appeared as a guest post on Teaching Village and is licensed under a Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial, No Derivatives 3.0 License. If you wish to share it you must re-publish it “as is”, and retain any credits, acknowledgements, and hyperlinks within it.

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11 Responses

  1. Barbara says:

    Thank you for allowing me to share your poem, Hamdi. I’m glad to have met you! Good luck in your online adventures 🙂

    • Hamdi says:

      Hi Barbara,
      U really desrve the poem,Carol and shelly too.Your contribution in the field of teaching and learning is tremendous and striking.I am really impressed.Thank u for the introduction,Barbara.It is also simple.The e-ferry is the net which made the world a tiny village in which we come accross nice helpful,generous teachers like u.The intersection is our meeting hapahazardly on the facebook.Remember that writing poetry isn’t within the reach of everybody.It is very simple ,and simplicity is an art.Glad that it is published in your great blog.
      thanks a lot Barbara…
      Hamdi

  2. Hamdi,

    Thank you for the poem! It is simply beautiful. Thank you for sharing your experiences with me about your joy of teaching English in Tunisia. I admire the work you do and I admire the amount of passion and heart you put into your teaching!

    • Hamdi says:

      Hi dear shelly,
      I hope that liked the poem…simple ,sweet and true.To nice people we write nice things…U deserve it.It was a nice haphazard intersection on the e-ferry…an e-ferry that accommodates only ,truthful hardworking people like Barbara ,carol and Shelly..shelly reminds me of a great romantic poet,and his ode to the west wind.Anyway,i hope that my poem has brought along some nice feeling to u,shelly…
      have a good day shelly,on the e-ferry…gratis.
      hamdi

  3. Carol Goodey says:

    Thanks so much, Hamdi! I’m very honoured to be mentioned in your beautiful poem. It has been great to meet you online and I hope you continue to meet language teachers from around the world and to expand your network.

    • Hamdi says:

      Dear Carol,
      U really deserve the sweet words in my poem.They are true.U are also a very kind generous teacher .Lots of thanks to Barbara who published it.
      Enjoy being on the e-ferry,heading for a better future,for success…
      The best encounters are those that happen by mere chance…
      lots of Happiness to dear Carol.
      Hamdi

  4. Marisa Pavan says:

    Great poem, Hamdi! I have never met Shelly or Barbara in person but as far as I know by means of virtual interactions with these two educators, I agree with you.

    Internet is an amazing tool that gives us, wherever we are, the chance to meet people we wouldn’t meet otherwise. We can change the saying: Birds of a feather “surf” together.

    Regards from Argentina!
    Marisa Pavan

    • Hamdi says:

      Hi Marisa,
      I got the same feeling a u.I ve never met them in person,but i m sure they are nice people…a nice triangle Barbara,Carol,and shelly…and surely many others whom we don’t know and we hope to come accross…Barbara carol and shelly set the right example…I m really proud to be their friends…I really liked what u said “birds of feather surf together…..
      thank u for the comment Marisa…very nice of u…
      regards from…
      Hamdi

  5. Victor Hugo Rojas B. says:

    Hi Hamdi,
    Congrats for such a tender poem. I absolutely agree with you making mention of Barbara, Shelly and Carol. I think you truly pay homage to them in this poem. Also to Marisa Constantinides and other inspiring educators around the world. They are our best references for learning and improving our web 2.0 skills and we shouldn’t be reluctant to try new tools.
    Although we didn’t meet them in person yet, but virtually. It seems we know each other for ages, only the magical world of the Internet makes it true. We have a challenging commitment to share and deliver what we are learning to colleagues around us.
    Hope we meet all together some day.
    Best of lucks to you, Hamdi-

  1. May 20, 2010

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell, Barbara Sakamoto. Barbara Sakamoto said: Intersection on an e-ferry (a poem by @Hamdierestreams about @cgoodey, @ShellTerrell and me!) https://ow.ly/1NzcG #efl […]