sunday afternoon

a bit of wisdom from the emerald isle

Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me; Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

- From St. Patrick's Breastplate

tatiana

two years ago, i went to the river for the very first time. it was a sunday afternoon in october, and my friend who was supposed to go with me had had to leave the country suddenly because her visa had expired (by leave, i mean cross the border to peru and come immiediately back). so i waited for over an hour alone on the corner of the street in a neighborhood i had never been to before, not exactly sure who i was supposed to be meeting. this was before i really understood the flexibility of bolivian time. the lady who runs the ministry finally arrived and she showed me the path up the hill to the "church". i spent that first sunday sitting in the little building watching her try to teach sunday school to a roomful of rambunctious children. about half way through i picked up a little 2 year old girl who had been crying and rocked her to sleep. i was slightly overwhelmed by all the children and the chaos, but holding that sleeping child gave me a sense of purpose.

last year tatiana had lice and they shaved her head :(

this past sunday, two and half years later, that same little girl, tatiana, now four, came running out to meet me and my roommates as we started to climb the mountain to get to the church. the nice, easy path is no longer there, and every sunday i look my fear of heights in the face as i climb the path that is slowly wearing away. this sunday had a little added excitement as the mean dogs started fighting with the nice, protective dogs and they all came running down the path towards us! and although every week i want to say that i can't do it, i can't go up the steep side of the mountain, the fact that tatiana is there holding my hand gives me the courage to keep going. because she is relying on me, she doesn't know that i am terrified of heights, she only knows that i am bigger, stronger and able to help her tiny legs get up the mountain.

once up the mountain, and safe from the dogs, we all piled into the tiny brick building. this particular sunday, sarah was helping some of the older girls with their math homework (teaching bolivian math in spanish!), jenny was practicing english and reading with a couple of other girls, another girl was laying on the floor reading a book of bible stories, and the boys were playing with a little foosball table (go figure). and i was sitting in the back, once again holding tatiana, practicing different flash cards. we had been practicing number flash cards for a couple of months now and it was on this day that i realized, i have taught tatiana how to count! when we first started, she would yell out random numbers, and even when i would point to each object and count up to the last one, she almost never knew what number came next. however, this past sunday she was the one pointing to the objects and counting in the correct order! sometimes, when the numbers got bigger, she would still need my help, but she would put her finger on top of my finger as i counted and she could always say what came next. and i can't really put my finger on why, but for some reason, teaching this little girl to count has meant more to me than the many things i teach to my second graders every day.

new obsession

this past week was a work week for us teachers to get ready for accreditation. a few of us took advantage of getting to sleep in a little to have our own little alfred hitchcock film festival. it was amazing. that man was a genius! after each movie, however, we felt the need to lighten the mood a little and therefore turned to b-boys, otherwise known as breakdancers. there is this incredible documentary about 4 b-boy crews from around the world called Planet B-Boy. we would watch a little bit each night, awestruck by the feats these guys can perform. here is the first place team from korea, and perhaps the most incredible routine ever:



if you like this, check out the other crews on youtube! Igicheki from Japan is amazing too! and Phase-T from France has the cutest little kid on the crew, who is also incredible! there is now a little part of me that wishes that i could do this!

a lesson from the little ones

yesterday, tragedy struck the second and third grades. about a week ago, we discovered a bird's nest built in the tree right outside our two classrooms. there were two tiny blue eggs in the nest. our kids were beyond excited and the next few days were spent lifting child after child up to peer into the tree and catch a glimpse of this tiny miracle. we cautioned our students not to touch the tree or the nest, or else the mother bird might not come back to care for the babies. they were very careful, keeping guard to make sure nothing happened to the eggs. we eagerly discussed what would happen when the baby birds hatched. then the drama began. first, a middle school student picked up one of the eggs. the second and third graders came running to find us, scared that now the babies would have no mother. we talked to the middle schoolers, and tried to assure our students that we would just have to be more careful and we should pray that the mother bird would still come back. then joy of all joys, thursday morning the eggs hatched and two tiny, baby birds were in the nest! the middle schoolers, just as excited about this miracle of life, yet not as careful, kept pulling on the tree to see the nest. then, a well-meaning teacher, took the nest out of the tree to keep it safe, not realizing that by doing so she had just killed the baby birds. our students were distraught and spent all of recess digging worms to mash up and feed the baby birds. i didn't have the heart to tell them that that wouldn't work and the babies needed a mother. the nest was put back in the tree, yet it had fallen apart in all the movement and therefore was not as sturdy or well attached as it had been. and then, that evening, the skies opened up and the worst storm of this rainy season ensued. the next morning, the nest was empty. the students tried to believe that the mother had taken the baby birds away, until 2 precious third grade girls found one of the dead babies on the ground under a nearby bush. they gently wrapped it in a tissue and placed it an box and went to the mountain to bury it. i spent the next 15 minutes trying to console several crying 8 year olds. as if this was not enough, they also discovered that day that the family of slugs they had been watching had been taken to be used as fish bait, and only the mother remained and that she was sick.

now many adults might find this entertaining and even a little silly, especially the part about the slugs. they are just slugs, some of the most useless and disgusting creatures ever. i personally, hate birds and hate creepy, crawly, slimy things and therefore, was personally not too distraught. but when you are the one looking at the quivering lips and red, watery eyes of children who have just experienced death in a very real way, there is nothing funny about it. there was real pain there, and just because we are adults whose lives are full of bigger, "more important" pains, we cannot discount the pain a child experiences over the death of a bird or a slug. we were children once, and if we take the time to remember our childhood, i am sure we can find a time when we experienced true pain over something that seems insignificant now. but that is how we learn to deal with pain. if we did not have those tiny moments of pain as children, we would not be as well equipped to handle the biggers trials that come down the road. as i reflected on yesterday's sad events, i was reminded of jesus telling his disciples that if they wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven they needed to become like the little children. and i was struck with the truth of this statement. because, although my kids had been devastated by death yesterday, they were able to enjoy a beautiful writing ceremony and valentine's day activities and they were still able to laugh and have fun. they didn't forget about the birds, but they were able to focus on the joys the day had to offer. that is what we are all called to do. life is hard. it is not fair and it is full of pain and suffering. but we are called to focus on the joys. children often live in the moment, one minute crying over a dead bird, the next smiling and clapping about putting their writing in the school library. this can be a lesson to us adults, who often dwell on the bad things in life. life is but a fleeting moment in the grand scheme of time, and if we let the suffering get us down, we miss out on all the other joy life has to offer.

life

Rain

Patty Griffin

It's hard to listen to a hard hard heart

Beating close to mine

Pounding up against the stone and steel

Walls that I won't climb

Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep

You think that you're gonna drown

Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep

With all this rain falling down

Strange how hard it rains now

Rows and rows of big dark clouds

When I'm holding on underneath this shroud

Rain

Its hard to know when to give up the fight

Two things you want will just never be right

Its never rained like it has to night before

Now I don't wanna beg you baby

For something maybe you could never give

I'm not looking for the rest of your life

I just want another chance to live

Strange how hard it rains now

Rows and rows of big dark clouds

When I'm still alive underneath this shroud

Rain Rain Rain

sketchy/shady/awesome

last night was perhaps one of the best nights i have ever spent in la paz and i just felt like it deserved a blog post. the evening was planned by a couple of dear friends and fellow teachers, who last week found the sketchiest amusement park/carnival thing close to their home. they decided it was worthy of a group outing and made a night of it with the theme sketchy/shady/awesome.

we began the evening meeting for dinner at a chinese restaurant called love city, chosen solely for the name. thankfully though, it was not as sketchy as it sounds and we all enjoyed a good meal. we then piled 9 people plus a baby into a land cruiser and drove a few blocks down to galaxy park. let me try to paint a picture for you. picture a 1980's amusement park squeezed into a square lot in the middle of the city. or you could picture the sketchiest fair or carnival you have been to and multiply by ten. to clarify though, it wasn't the people or dark corners that made this place shady, it was only the rides. they were quite old, made many squeaky noises, and went incredibly fast with barely any safety equipment. now i know why rides are so short in the states, your body is really not meant to be flying around in circles at top speeds for any extended period of time. we left the park definitely feeling like our insides had been all mixed up. i never scream on rides in the states, however, i can barely talk this morning from all the screaming last night. in the states, the rides might be scary, but i know they are safe. here there were no such guarantees. perhaps the two worst rides were the roller coaster, which was a single two person car with no seat belts that i swear every time was going around the corner seemed as if it was going to just fly straight off the tracks instead (i really have no idea what was keeping it on) and one called the kamikaze. the kamikaze was like a viking ship but instead of just swinging side to side, actually flipped upside down and went around in full circles. i have perhaps never been so scared on a ride in my life. they held you in the air upside down for several seconds and you had to use every muscle in your body to try to stay close to your seat. however, the ride is "really safe" now since they added the harnesses. apparently a few years ago the same ride only had a lap belt and your whole body was just flailing around inside the car. the entire night we just kept laughing at how incredibly crazy this place was, just stuck right in the middle of the city. but we had a blast and i would definitely go back!

the night concluded with curling up in the stadium seating at our friends' house watching slumdog millionaire, which i really loved. and although my body is feeling a little bruised and banged up (spinning at top speeds in metal cars with no cusioning will do that to you) and although i really have no voice from all the screaming, last night is a definitely a night i will repeat next year! just perhaps without the chinese food first!