Walls

Some days I leave school thinking "why on earth did I ever want to be a teacher?" Today will not be one of them. Right now I am reminded why I did and why I now know that being a teacher is not my calling.
People have walls...mental walls, physical walls, emotional walls...walls that take a long time to tear down whether that be from the inside or outside. I remember adoring some of my teachers; not only were they good at what they did but they made me feel "safe" enough to make mistakes and "safe" enough to ask for help when I needed it. Some of my students felt comfortable with me very quickly and I knew that they knew I would always be there to help or just listen. Today I sat and talked with a student for 35 minutes about real life. He "let me in" just a little. I know he needs to verbalize what he's thinking and I know he wants to...but he's scared...scared of adults who appear like their out to get him, scared of failing in school, scared friends who run their mouths, scared of losing the control he has worked so hard to gain, and scared of himself. I can't say I blame him...nor can I say I have any answers...just ears.
It's days like this when I realize it is time for the "trees to stand still". It is time for me to find a home so that I am not constantly walking in and out of kids lives. I have spent this entire school year trying to tear walls down and now 6 weeks before I am leaving there is a glimmer of hope. And seems like that has happened everywhere I have lived.
Anyway...that's what I am thinking.

Adventures with Aaron

Having Aaron around for a couple weeks was suberb! Especially the part about him catching the mouse:) We did get to take a nice little trip outside the city to Coban and Semuc Champey...which means nothing to you if you don't know Guate...in a nutshell we hiked, swam, jumped off 30ft cliffs, "explored" a cave, ate good food, bought cheap avocados, found an amazing orchid nursery, celebrated Aaron's birthday twice and even sang to him British style.

Mouse-capades

This was our "pet" mouse. I named him/her Betty. It lived in our cupboards on and off for almost three weeks. I think it was Latino because its favorite thing to nibble on was avacados. We tried everything we could think of to kill it but it was too smart. Then Aaron came to the rescue. He moved something in the cupboards and Betty fell face first in between cans of soup. I wanted Aaron to kill it but he felt bad so he caught it in a butter container, we walked a good distance down my street and let it go. We haven't seen it since.

Semana Santa(Holy Week)

One of the processions on Good Friday night in downtown of the capital city. The floats are carried through the city for between 4 and 7 hours!!! Some floats only need 4-6 but all the ones we saw this night had at least 140 men!!!

Women's Conference

This is from a women's conference at Union Church last month. Sherry and I led worship for the evening session. The speaker shared about pottery and how we need to allow God to mold us into who he wants us to be.
It made me think about one of the wisest things I heard at Camp Gideon..."you can't pour anything out of an empty pitcher". Strikingly obvious, right? Way back in 1999, when Rusty first said that it just put my faith into perspective...if I don't "fill-up" on God, how prey tell am I going to pour Him out on those around me?

Servant Day

Servant Day is a big part of CAG life. Every year the elementary classes do a service project on school property, the middle school classes go somewhere local for a school day, and the high school classes go outside the city for 3 days. The sixth graders went to the church of one of the students to paint. I was very impressed with the actual work they did and their attitude the whole day. They worked hard and I don't remember hearing one person complain all day long!

the computer will fix it

Sometimes I am frustrated at my students inability to use a computer...and then there's today. Apparently there is no need to learn anything about writing a sentence correctly because no one would read anything that was handwritten anyway. Huh, you say? So did I. Then the tune changed a little bit. Who knew that the computer would be able to fix every single mistake I make when I am writing? In fact, I believe what they tried to tell me today is that writers don't actually write anything. They type a few words into the computer and then the computer writes the book. Man, I wish I would have known that my computer would write a book for me! I could be famous by now!!
Oh the joys.