the end...well, sort of

I've decided to give myself the title of worst blogger ever. I thought that I did a pretty good job of updating my blog until I opened it up today and realized it has again been more than a month since I have written anything. Apologies.

Well, here we are at the end of it all. School ended last Friday. My classroom is still in a state of distress...disorganization...upheaval, but slowly it is getting packed up and ready for me to leave in just three days! I'm not sure how I made it to this point. It feels wonderful and sad and exciting and melancholy all at the same time. The goodbyes are so hard! If we could figure out a way that those don't have to happen, this would be a glorious time of celebrating the completion of this year! But on the field, friends do leave...and lots of them at one time. Please pray for me in the next couple of days as I have to say goodbye to some pretty special people in my life - a family that has been an immense support to me and my brother, a couple who have graciously invited me to have dinner with them every Thursday night, a wonderful woman who has been in my Bible study and her husband, and my one other CRWM teacher who was just here for a one-year internship. It sure is not fun!

Just so that this blog doesn't sink into a pit of despair and sadness with this entry, allow me to tell you about the binds I've gotten myself into this past week.

Tuesday night - It is absolutely pouring outside. Sorry folks, if you haven't been in the tropics when it pours, you haven't really seen it rain. I was working in my bedroom, sorting through boxes that never got sorted when we moved into this house last November (no, I never got around to it. It was busy!). I'm home by myself and the cats are crying incessantly and going between my room and the kitchen. I hate cats. So, I follow them into the kitchen to get them some food. Oops, no. Not getting food or anything else because there is a good inch of water on the floor and there is a waterfall shooting out of our ceiling, cascading over our cupboards and countertops and creating a pool on the kitchen floor followed by a river all the way to the front of the house to the front door. What did I do? Saved the microwave that was directly under the waterfall and tried to call my dad. Dads always save the day. Not this one. He never picked up his phone. I spent a bit of time panicking, thought I might get electrocuted, saved the Vonage phone and cable modem, and prayed for the rain to stop! It turns out that a hole in the roof combined with gutters that haven't been cleaned in a while and a massive tropical rain - not such a good idea.

Fastforward to Wednesday night - We've banished the cats from the house because of a little problem that they have. Pink and Green - not their real names, but we never use their real names, only their collar colors - have redeveloped the unfortunate habit of pooping in the house. Out they go. Lock all of the entrances so that they can't get in. Not such a good plan as it turns out. The two dogs trap the two cats on the screen window outside of Kim's bedroom and bark at them for a good half hour making it impossible for Kim to sleep. She eventually went out and grabbed the two cats, held them over her head so they wouldn't become delicacies for the dogs and rescued them.

Thursday night - The cats have been allowed back in the house because we both want some sleep. Nevermind the fact that the dogs have found a new stray cat to terrorize. Actually, I'm not sure who was terrorizing whom. I think that stray cat pulled a Garfield, was just out of reach, and made faces at the dogs. Barking for a good 45 minutes outside of my bedroom. No amount of yelling would shut them up. I went out there and was ready to smack them both because it is 10:45 and our neighbors are going to have us evicted if two dogs bark constantly outside of their windows. I come back in, am ready to hop in the shower, turn on the light to the bathroom, and there is a large frog staring right at me. Agh! What is this? Attack of the wildlife? My brilliant plan was to grab a dustpan and a broom catch the frog on the dustpan, hold him down with the broom, and take him outside to enjoy actual nature rather than my bathroom. Minor problems include him peeing all over my bathroom floor and not staying put in the dustpan. Plan B - I'm going to sweep him out of the house like a rockstar! I've got on my towel and I start swinging the broom around in circles like I am doing some great rock-out on a stage in front of thousands of people. Kim said she heard me but did she come and save me? No. Finally got the frog out of the house and headed back for a much needed shower. Go to dry myself off with my towel and suddenly I feel like my whole body is getting bitten. Yes, yes it is. By little tiny red ants! What is with this "revenge of the natural world" scenario? Did I ever do anything bad to them?

The joys of living here. It actually has been a fantastic year. When I get back in the US and have a bit of time, I'd like to sit down and do some reflection on the entire year. It has probably been one of the hardest years of my life but by the same token it has been so rewarding!

Help!

I'm in need of some help. I am so thoroughly bored by the websites that I check on a daily basis. I'm tired of the same dull news and e-mail and facebook. Do you have a fantastic website that you're addicted to that you wouldn't mind lending me so that I too may discover it's joys?

Eat the Book

I've been attending UCM (Union Church of Manila) for the past two months partially for the Sunday service but mostly to be able to dig into the Word during the Sunday School time each week. It has been an incredible experience and I have so valued the knowledge and expertise of the people who are teaching. Each month is a different module. So, last month, the first month I attended, was "Bible Interpretation for Regular People" taught by a seminary professor. Very interesting. This month, taught by another seminary professor is "Five Books and God's Chosen People: The Pentateuch." I am learning so much! Have you ever looked at the Creation story like this?

Day 1: light (day)/darkness (night) Day 4: sun/moon
Day 2: waters of heavens and earth Day 5: fish/birds
Day 3: dry ground(land)/waters (sea) Day 6: animals/humans
Day 7: rest/Sabbath

Look! Have you ever seen that the days match up? Day 4 fills the Day 1 creation. Day 5 fills the Day 2 creation. Day 6 fills the Day 3 creation.

It has been so incredible to see the narrative story of God and His people. I am continually challenged to read the Word. And, let me let you in on a secret, I might be starting to like the Old Testament. It's been a while since I've read the OT without cringing at the violence, especially the violence against women. It has been so refreshing to read the Bible through a different lens!

You deserve a real entry...

You deserve a real blog entry to accompany the funny things that I see.

I've been back from Kuala Lumpur for 2 weeks now. It has been an absolute mad-house of trying to get caught back up and staying on top of life. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed my trip to KL. The city itself, the few parts of it that I saw, were absolutely beautiful. The food was so delicious! I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I did eat on more than one occasion in the food court of malls but, in my defense, the food there was to die for. The food courts are this amazing amalgamations of foods representing nearly every ethnic background in Malaysia. I ate Indian, Indonesian, Mediterranean, and Malay. Beautiful. I really cannot wait to go back!


The conferences that I attended were incredibly insightful and have already changed the way that I am teaching. I spent my first 2 days at an AP Literature and Language conference. Mary Ellen Ackerman is an incredible teacher. She was so right-on with so many things she said, techniques she uses, and suggestions for improving our teaching. I would love to attend a whole-week seminar. I feel like there's so many more things I can learn from her. However, those two days really solidified my thought that I am wildly unprepared to be teaching classes like AP Literature or Language. I need to do much more reading before I can guide students through that level of reading and work.

The three following days were the EARCOS conference. I couldn't believe how many teachers were there from all over Asia. I was in awe at meals when I would listen to the travel stories of these international school educators. They've been everywhere! Who knows what my future holds but it sure would be fun to have some my own vivid stories of Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, South America.

And overall I was proud of myself for traveling to a city, to a country that I'm totally unfamiliar with. I didn't know the language. I didn't know so many of the customs. I didn't know. And during the week that I was there, I found my way around on public transportation. I visited places on my own. I survived for the week.

Speaking of survival, don't get me started on how I survived the airline that I flew. Oh my goodness. In the future, if I ever fly that airline again, I will be paying for express boarding. Express boarding? Yes, the airline is a general admission airline. No assigned seats. They look at your ticket when you walk into the terminal. When you pay for express boarding get to go first. For the general public, the rat race starts when it's nearing time for departure. Suddenly a mob forms where there was no line a moment before. They call your flight and everyone rushes out the door, runs to the airplane, and claims their seat. Doesn't do a lot to show the kindness and charity of humanity.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to attend this week of professional development. I really feel as though I gained so much by listening to the variety of experts and teachers like myself. What an absolutely amazing opportunity!

Definitely what I need in my life...

So I leave things many places. One of my latest "leaves" - my travel soap container. I left it at my mom and dad's house. So off to the store to get a new one because I only shower at home probably half of the time. Let me clarify that. I do shower on a daily basis. I just shower other places as well - after swimming at Faith, weekends away, etc.

Bought a new soap container. Looks like a regular soap container, right?

Look closely. Read the label.

Yes, it does read, "This is goods for those who wish to enjoy simple and rational lives." If I knew that a soap container was all I needed to live a simple and rational life, I would've bought another one long ago!

I'm in Malaysia!

I'm spending a week in Malaysia to attend 6 days of conferences in AP Literature and Language and other fun school-related topics. I got to go out last night and do a little bit of the touristy thing and see the Petronas Towers. So cool! 88 stories of beauty. Tonight is a super-touristy night at Starbucks to check e-mail, download handouts for the conference, and update my blog and Facebook accounts. Check back later in the week - I'll try to have a few more pictures and fun up on here.

It Happens...

This week has been one for the books. As a side note, I'm cancelling Thursday next week. Thursdays are the problem, I've decided. Last week Thursday night, my phone registered a number of missed calls as I came home from dinner with friends. I called the numbers back and talked to my brother's dormdad. Tim was doubled over in pain and they thought that he might have appendicitis. Kim and I hopped into the car, drove up to get him from the dorm, and brought him in to the hospital. The end of the story is that we still have no idea what was wrong with him that night. Tim and I made it back to my house at 4 a.m. after numerous tests and inconclusive results. Not really what I had planned for my Thursday night. However, we are very thankful that a week later, he seems to be doing absolutely fine.

This week Thursday, Kim joined me for dinner at our friends' home. We headed home around 7 p.m. As I was still getting stuff out of the car, Kim came straight back out of the house and said, "We've been robbed."

In hindsight, we knew that something was amiss on Wednesday night when we came home to different lights on and off than we usually leave on and off. We did a full search around the house and nothing else seemed out of order. Now, we figure that they must've cased out the house. We have no idea why they didn't just grab the stuff then but, for whatever reason, they did come back on Thursday night.

They ended up taking Kim's laptop (but not the powercord), a 110v DVD player, a backpack from each of us (necessary to hide a laptop and DVD player in), some jewelry from Kim (high sentimental value but worth just about nothing monetarily), and our sense of safety in our own home. This is the second time that Kim has been robbed in the last three years. We both are definitely frustrated and saddened by this.

Probably the most immense sadness comes from the fact that a small child was used in this break-in. Extreme poverty pushes them to do just about anything for a few meager pesos for food. Our hearts hurt as we see kids having to resort to such measures.

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for wisdom to know how to deal with our landlord in matters like these. Pray for peace as we come home each night. Pray for this country and the poverty that influences every aspect of life here.