peak

 

        Students getting reading for and performing at the talent show last week. 

Dia de la Madre dinner at LPDV

                        

                                               Hiking Volcán Barva : )

Days of 3: We Like to Party (ok, not really)

School has felt... crazy!...the last few weeks, as we have yet to really have a full week of school. (beginning to wonder if we will) It has been good, really, but the lack of routine does nothing for the classroom atmosphere being one of focus and work. I need to not let any of it sway me, least of all the changing whims of my 12-14 year-olds. 

Random thought just popped into my head--
At camp with Meg and Aubrie, I always said, "Praise the Lord I will never be a mom to 12-12-year-old girls," but it seems I keep on finding those tweens everywhere I go--high school leading Bible study for the younger girls, camp, coaching basketball in Wheaton, India with mine, Sarah, Em and Midori's students, Franklin Middle School refugee ESL, here again with class and soccer and I might even be their homeroom teacher!--often the things we feel we are not equipped for, not super thrilled about or just not really feelin' it, seem to be where we end up, at least for a time, reminding us we're jars of clay--kind of ordinary, pretty useful, actually and needing to be worked and re-worked. 
Ok, resume...

• We had Thursday off for the 25th of July (annexation of one of the 7 provinces), so the day prior was a welcome-back-to-school/cultural celebration day for which the students had to practice and such
• Next, we had Friday, August 2nd off for the Virgin de Los Angeles--Catholics (and others, I'm sure) from all over the world, mostly all over Costa Rica walk, some on their knees, from San Jose to Cartago as a pilgrimage to celebrate Mary's appearance to Costa Ricans and be blessed and celebrate (we went to the beach.)
• Then, we actually had a long week, but it was less academic-focused, ironically, because it was a sports and academic festival week. Again, lots of disappearing, less-than-focused students for good and less-than-good reasons--they practiced and decorated and still semi-did school. Soccer games speckled the week's schedule as teams visited and Thursday two schools came to compete against LPDV in an academic olympics in the morning followed by a talent show in the afternoon. (I got my fingerprints that day so, praise the Lord, I'm closer to my visa!) Friday morning we continued the talent show and the afternoon was all soccer. (didn't know I wasn't going to teach that day...shucks.) I really enjoyed playing soccer with the teachers against my seventh graders--what a hoot! Then, I trained the seventh graders after school and went with them to McDonald's for a bit (the cool hang-out place on Fridays). 
• Saturday was an all-day parent day. We helped with a 3k race they put on (mini-mini), I coached the seventh grade girls in futsol (do I know what I'm doing?  no no no, but i love it!) and they won : ), got to talk with some parents (I do like my parents), and got to experience the day. Parents of high-schoolers were selling different foods from granizados to chifrijo to vagones to pizza and soda to raise money for the class parties at the end of the year. The elementary schoolers were lovin' life down on the field with inflatables--including one that you could roll and run/fall inside which they used to roll over one another and some of their teachers! They re-did most of the talent show for the parents, and we helped clean up at the end of the tired-feeling day/week. Kate and I both fell asleep for two and a half hours when we got home--whoops!

(We were also pet/house-sitting for the Befuses while they went to a family reunion in the States the past week or two, but their pets were pretty pouty about their owners leaving them and would scatter whenever we came to feed them! So, we kept them fed, but they didn't receive a lot of love...)

(Sunday we got to go to church in the morning--yay! And we did some work at a hotel cafe in the afternoon-weird cultural observations. We found some food for dinner and I got to talk to my grandparents after Becky's wedding --congratulations!!!)

•  This week, we have today off because it's Costa Rican Mother's Day (Why a Thursday in August? No idea.)

• Yesterday was a bit crazy because this week's been a bit of hamster wheel/treadmill catch-up and get students ready for trimester exams in a couple of weeks. My seventh graders did great overall on their exam, though and we're almost done with their biographical speeches : )
• Also yesterday we had English chapel, which we really only had Monday and Tuesday to throw together and have kids practice and lead--they did really well! 8th and 10th graders essentially self-organized a band and the 11th graders did the talk themed around sheep and following the Shepherd. I ended up having to sing to lead the last song with David, the music teacher, but I really enjoyed it, actually, and for the most part, we let them run with it  (with guidance, of course).
• Renae also came yesterday mid-morning and was a little perdida--poor thing, so I came home for lunch with her and she was great and accompanied Kate and I to the Mother's Day dinner event last night in the gym. What a champ. So good to be with her! (Pray for her at the Oasis with Kids Alive in Guatemala.)
• We're going to go hiking with James and Savanna today, Lord willing and crank out some tests this afternoon : ) 

All that to say, that's what it's been on the side, but there's a lot of regular like tutoring and lesson-planning and grading and trying to truly meet students' needs and focus their energy and love and serve them during every day. I still get some exercise in and read if I can and have to make dinner and am trying to be good about making lunch before I head to bed and coffee in the morning for Kate and myself. Learning to wake up and go to sleep handing over anxieties and lifting up praise and thanks. Running around but trying to keep my head on straight.

Days Off 2: in the in between times

I've actually been meaning to blog for ages and ages (that's probably dramatic, but at least a couple of weeks), thinking that I'll just find time, magically, and I will be calm and on top of things and have my thoughts together, and I don't know--I was waiting for perfection for the writer. Once again reminded that it doesn't exist how we think it does (but oh, it does exist!).

So, even though I have tests to write and lessons to plan and a day to get started, I'm just going to take a minute and let the world keep spinning while I sip my coffee, get my brain going and spill a bit. Because, honestly, those "busy" parts of life will always be there and we have to figure out how to manage it all as we give up control, let it go, lay it down, and pick up responsibility along with peace, dress ourselves with wisdom and humility and compassion and kindness instead of worry and fear and frustration. Tired is as tired does, but it doesn't have to be that way.

All who are thirsty
All who are weak
Come to the Fountain!

Stop, sit,
drink, eat
taste and see
Why are you chasing after the wind?
goodness and delight
really can be found
why are you chasing after the wind?

When you drink this water,
you won't be thirsty
The youthful glow you desire
is so much less than the splendor
from an everlasting, never-ending
joy-giving covenant offered

There is knowledge beyond your knowledge
Do you feel that sometimes?
Grasping, reaching, perhaps falling
Feeling at the whims of fate?
Can you understand that there's a plan
and you're a beautiful little puzzle piece

As such you can hope for the weary
and the broken
because you, too
tired, small, jagged and all that

So come and be
be led
be renewed
be taught
be challenged
be still
be

The harvest awaits, so you, too, must wait.
Why not do it purposefully?
Enjoy and disfrutar of the in-between times.
Listen to the voice of the Shepherd and keep walking.
Keep your hand on the plow.
Let what will be, be, and keep on keepin' on.
Shhh. Yum! Oooh. Wow! hmm. Yay! ahhh.

Days Off 1: walking and waiting, the usual.

To go with the previous few pictures I posted, a look back at one of our days off...

Full! sleep in-ish, laundry, breakfast and book it out, only to miss the bus and wait a bit. Escazu wander Guachipelen to find a bus up to the mysterious San Antonio and head towards Pico Blanco, which happened, but not exactly. We walked up from the center (after getting off the bus that had turned back, down the mountain) and headed toward dem hills. We just wound our way up, accompanied by random, stray dogs who happened to be hated by all the pet ones including Rottweilers on the other side of a chain-link fence. yikes!

It got prettier and harder to breathe, the further we went up—both welcome.

We passed houses as it got more country and followed signs toward a “mirador.” The lookout we chose ended up being scrambling up a dirt hill to trespass (but not intrude!) on someone’s field that had a beautiful view of the valley for miles and miles (kilometers, I suppose).

(It was similar to the point at the Gausness farm, but the view was more city this time.)

We walked up a little more and found what may have been the restaurant that Kate came to as a student here! On the way down, we still got some piropos, even up in the country, including a man who rode his bike next to us, braking down the hill, for a good half mile or so with poetic language and calling us "doll," which I'm sure was accurate for two red-faced, sweaty, dirty young women... We convinced him to move on.

Guess what I got that I’d been craving?? Fro-yo : ) Even though, I’d have to say, it’s still much better at the Yogurt Lab (hey Minneapolis, I miss you!), it was refreshing and just what I wanted.

We proceeded to wait for … a whole hour for the Multiplaza bus that we were unsure as to its existence until others joined us in line, and it did, eventually come. In the meantime, I got some free aloe drink from a kind Dos Pinos man—this encouraged me greatly and reminded me to pray and give thanks for small gifts. Perhaps it was because he smiled with his eyes and genuinely wanted to give me a gift not requiring anything in return, maybe it was because I asked for no rain when the clouds rolled in and it didn’t rain, maybe it was because I had eyed the juice in that truck and wished I could snag some somehow when he unknowingly, or maybe knowingly honored my silent request, maybe it was because he treated me like a person, with dignity, not an anomaly and not something to call after. I’m not sure, but I do know I was blessed and reminded to pray for others both near and far to me while waiting rather than grow anxious or frustrated.  

After stopping at the grocery store to complete our long-standing hunt for cardamom, we eventually made it home. Weary, we crashed for longer than planned, but needed naps. The evening consisted of a very ambitious smoothie marathon and a mediocre attempt at chai—the cardamom wanted to be the star and we were lacking sufficient amounts of tea, but I'd still call it a well-used day off. 

Days off

Haven't posted in a while, so while I work on polishing some thoughts, here's a little peak into some of the more out-of-the-ordinary days with some rather ordinary elements. : )

walking way, way up into Escazu to see a beautiful
view from a random farmer's field (thank you!) and
some ambitious smoothie-making (borrowed blender)
yum! set for weeks : )

we could see the church we're standing by from way up high and were amazed how far we'd come and found great satisfaction at reaching it again...until we had to wait there for an hour for the bus--we're used to it. 

hanging out with Kristin in Heredia had my first granizado--crazy sugar and lactose mix

 We love us some beach time and it is excellent for people watching, including this sweet, older couple. (It was actually a nice day, but I like the color contrasts from before the pitter-patter. And no, we did not fork over $10 for the chair rental)