No two days are ever the same; consequently, I cannot say that this is an average day. Here is my Today:
Today I woke up around 5:20am. I need to stop sleeping in to much. I left the house a little after 6:30am and arrived at Maranatha Adventist Bilingual School approximately nine minutes later. After staff worship, I head straight to my first class--Prepa A. To my surprise, the students are already sitting at their desks (some days they aren't even in the class room when class is supposed to be starting). My initial delight was premature. I don't know what happened, but within three minutes some boys were out of their chairs and talking took over the room like a disease. I heard myself desperately declare, "Class was supposed to start three minutes ago!". As the words were coming out of my mouth (most likely only understood and heard by myself anyway), I realized how silly I sounded. Three minutes ago? What is three minutes? First period class starting even five minutes late is normal and nothing to fuss about. Nevertheless, I wanted to start class--boulderdash! And I wanted them to settle down. So I put my strict face on and quieted the room down by repeating the memory verse a couple times (works wonders!). Lucia celebrated her 6th birthday, so I let her choose a friend to come help lead out in singing up front. Alejandra and she did a great job, and they led out in prayer (with help from me) too. As the girls went back to their seats, I told the class very sternly that I had brought a special surprise for them; however, they would only be allowed to play with it if they listened to my story. I retold them the story of the widow who owed money to a man. She asked Elisha for help, and he told her to borrow all the jars she could find. When she had gathered all the jars, Elisha told her to fill them with oil. The little bit of oil she had miraculously fills the many jars. She is able to sell the oil, thus saving her sons from being taken by the man. Picture this story with one person (Me!) trying to act out all the parts: standing on one side, then switching voices and standing on the other, pretending to cry, running to the cubbies and knocking on them like they're doors, pretending to carry jars, pouring oil, selling oil, etc--plus, throw a funny mix of Spanish words in there--now you have an idea. My students all listened quietly, and they were rewarded when I pulled out my surprise. Homemade playdough. I know understand why my mom always stuck with her recipe. I figured baby oil would be expensive, I didn't have time to call home, and I wanted something easy. I wouldn't recommend the recipe I used, but the kids sure liked it. They were supposed to make jars like the woman in the story used. A lot of creations were constructed, let's just not talk about how many of them were actually jars. lol. Afterward when I sent them to wash their salty doughy hands, they came back shouting, "No hay agua! No hay agua!" (There's no water!). Great. Hm..Hand sanitizer it is.
Going straight to my next class, I walk into the room to the usual shouts of "Meez Emel-lee!" Or "Meez Hem-elee!" and often overwhelming hugs. How can hugs be overwhelming? A dozen pushing kindergarten children, without much regard for each other, all trying to get to you at once, is overwhelming. When that class is over, I walk next door to pre-k. The day continues. I assist Miss Joline, fill out the homework sheet, make copies for tomorrow, eat lunch, try (in vain) to find Miss Norma to stamp my lesson plans, assist Miss Joline again, teach my second prepa class, have a short break, look for Miss Norma again, and teach my afternoon pre-k class. One of my boys in my afternoon prepa class made a pizza with his playdough. He has an extremely loud voice that often catches my attention in a negative way. But today? I just smiled and talked to Josie (the assistant) about how he would make such a cute little pizza baker someday. I wish I could share more details like that, but it's late :) lol.
Right after school, I stop by Jumbo to pick something up and then run to the post office. Although Steven's letter still hasn't come, my disappointment was very much soothed by the fact that I had my second package from UNION COLLEGE! Hooray! Best college ever. This time, I wasn't so patient. I was walking down the street, struggling with the sticky Scotch-sealed, bubble-cushioned envelope. Not even a block down from the Hondutel (where the post office is located), I was reading the first note. My own handwriting popped out to greet me. I got over my confusion when I remembered that we all wrote verses and notes of encouragement in our student missions class. I went from note to note, absolutely delighted. I even ate one of my little Quaker mini chocolate chip granola bars on my way home. Ah. Notes and little food items from home really make my day!
I couldn't bask in my happy joy of love from home for too long (although I did take my happiness with me), because I left to go to tutoring shortly after getting home. Thankfully the boys didn't have a lot to do today, and we were done in a half an hour. We tutor for the Hernandez family. They have three boys. Bayron in 7th grade, Ricardo in 4th, and Guillermo in prepa. I mostly work with Guillermo, and Cia works with Bayron. Whoever finishes first works with Ricardo. Mr. & Mrs. Hernandez are really the sweetest people you could ever hope to work for.
When I got home, I started this blog. Then I stuck my nose in the kitchen and ended up making tomato soup--from scratch, without following a recipe. PTL (Praise the Lord), it turned out well! We sat down to supper, then there was clean up, a little extra cooking to add to what we had leftover for lunch, and before I knew it, it was worship time. I think I mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again anyhow. We started having worship every night as a group, and last week we invited Ashley and Emily to start joining us. Our worships have been such a blessing; furthermore, I do not know how we all managed without them. We pray, sing a lot, have a short devotional thought and talk, and pray again. I have never felt this way about worship before on a regular basis. We have to limit ourselves on week days! The time just flies by. Tonight we spent an hour, and it felt so short. I praise God that I am surrounded by these girls.
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