April 20, 2006
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I am free! Ahh! No class this afternoon and tomorrow because of “dia de tiredentes” Which is “day of removing teeth.” Actually, it is celebrating some great revolutionary who just happened to be a dentist also. But it was funny when Ivana was trying to explain it to me. I was like “you have a day to celebrate taking out teeth? That is rather traumatizing.” But hey, anything to have a day off school, right?
“I’m standing on the brink of something large, maybe like the rising of the sun…” –David Chowder
I don’t know what all it is, but I am looking forward to what God has for me…I can feel it is something big and that He wants to take me deeper. It is scary and will cost me everything and sometimes I want to retreat, but I am stepping out of my comfort zone again…”round and around she goes, where she stops, no one knows…” pray for me. I want it all. I want to let loose and step off.
Livia, who is three and my youngest (and cutest) student can count to ten in English. All by herself. What is funny is that she does not know how to count above three in Portuguese…
Neto went home saying, “How are you? I am five” (he is five years old, so it is true, but he was meaning to say “fine.”). His father corrected him to which he responded with “I go to school and learn English every day, and I know more than you. And my teacher is American, and she knows everything.” Do I smile or grimace in horror? Gotta work on the pride thing, eh?
God has been so good. Each week I’ve had specific requests, such as Carol suddenly deciding she didn’t like English (THAT is a definite problem…because you cannot teach someone anything if they have no motivation, and I have yet discovered a surefire way to instill motivation into a kid…besides candy, and I refuse to resort to bribes.) but she came back to school over the weekend excited to learn again. And then there was Amanda, who is so much smaller than the rest of the students…but she is doing much better now and speaking English a bit louder (before she would barely whisper). Milena, who declared I was “chato” (a pain, bore, annoying…) to her father the first week now enjoys correcting me—in English! The other day I told them it was “aula de Biblia” and she said, “No teacher, BIBLE class!”
Yesterday was “dia de Indians” so we made “feather” hats, painted our faces, and danced around the room singing “one little, two little, three little Indians…” and yelped our war cries. My nine kids in the afternoon decided they all wanted their hats made the same minute so I was furiously cutting out feathers when I cut myself instead…the kids were dancing around chanting “sangue, sangue” (blood)…it was crazy fun. I love it.
It is raining right now…with the sunshine. You feel the heat and stand in the shadow while getting wet. My favorite. The cobblestone street is getting darker and now the numerous crevices are filled with little puddles that reflect the sunlight. People are running for cover. I love the sound on the tile roof.
