While discussing imagery and poetry with my 5th and 6th grade literature circle today, I asked my students how many senses we have. It went like this:
Brent: "SEVEN!"
(the rest of the students laughed and giggled but I cut them off and asked...)
Me: "Really?!? Seven? OK...could you go ahead and name all seven?"
Brent: (with a sheepish look that said, "Oh shoot...I know I just messed up but now I'm not really sure how many senses there are!" He then pointed to his eyes and said...) "Eyes."
Me: "Eyes are a sense...really?!? Your eyeballs are a sense? Hmmm...maybe you mean 'vision'...vision is a sense?"
Brent: "Well...yeah...vision. That's what I mean."
Me: "Go one...you've got 6 more!"
Brent: (pointing to his nose) "Your nose...ummm...I mean sense of smell..." (then pointing to his mouth) "....and talking...."
We lost it. That was the most insanely funny comment I think I've ever heard in a classroom before. And of all the kids I know (other than Cameron!), I'd have to say that maybe talking really is one of Brent's senses! It's like breathing for him!
I teased him the rest of the day, and we tried to come up with a few more senses so we could have an even 10!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Where the Rubber Meets the Road and Keeps Angels Busy
The camera has been safely stored in a bag somewhere around here so we haven't been good about snapping shots of interesting happenings or sights. We could have taken some doozies here on the roads lately.
Had we had our camera in the car on Monday, Beth would have taken some great shots of an old Ford Ranger (pickup) that we passed coming down the mountain from camp. I am not really sure what the driver was hauling, but whatever it was, it came in large, lumpy plastic bags. The contents of the bags was not what was so appealing for taking a picture. It was the unbelievable height of all those bags. I've seen lots of similar scenes before here in Mexico, but this one was by far the winner. I'd have to guess that the pile of bags was 20 to 25 feet high.
How was this possible? Well...it wasn't...but nonetheless it was happening. The sides of the pickup bed had a really tall, skimpy metal frame so as to hold the bags in something of an upright position. The main problems were that the bags were loaded at least 6 feet above the height of the side "scaffolding," the entire left side of the truck itself was sagging under the weight, and the bed of the truck was so rusty, it appeared the whole left side of the truck would just drop off at any moment. It was literally shaking! Actually, the entire truck was leaning to the left at a precarious angle. The truck and cargo looked like it was customized by Italian engineers from Pisa.
I was very concerned because the road there is so narrow, should it all come tumbling down into the opposite lane, it would have blocked the road and we'd have been stuck there for a very long time. We could have turned around and gone another way but driving two hours around when we were about 2 minutes from the bottom of the mountain would have been rather painful! Praise God I found a brief opportunity to hold my breath and pass him at the fastest rate possible and we made it. I glanced in my mirror a few times to see if the whole enchilada had come tumbling down. There were too many curves to watch it happen.
To set up another road story, last week I began helping Tim O'Brien teach 4 ESL classes and I teach a 5th one by myself. It's a great experience. I love teaching adults, especially using elementary teaching techniques! There are two sets of classes on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then my solo class on Saturday afternoons. The Tuesday and Wednesday classes begin "precisely" at 7:30 pm (Mexican time...which means 7:35 or 7:40 or...) and end at precisely 10:15 pm (American time since we can control when we stop teaching).
It's only about 5 1/2 miles over to the community center, and this is the first time that I've routinely driven over there and back so late. It is just turning dark at 7 pm these days and I've discovered some interesting facts about driving across our town at 7 and 11 pm.
At exactly 7 pm or at least at dusk, all stop signs disappear. Red lights appear to be green to other drivers. Entering intersections without looking is always the right of the driver approaching from your left and right. It's simply amazing. I had never noticed this before, but I guess I've never routinely been out and about in the evenings in the thick of town too much. We live on the edge of our city, and when we come back from most of our routine driving to camp, or Querétaro, or a local store, we don't really have to tangle with the traffic much.
Since making this trek across town in the evenings (only 4 times now), I've seen red lights blatantly run at least twice each time in the car (i.e.at least 4 times each round-trip!), stop signs really do become rather invisible, and I've had to swerve to avoid being T-boned...EVERY trip! It's crazy!
I don't think I've ever seen such bad driving here on such a routine basis. Of course, if one drives enough in Mexico, nothing really should be surprising on the roadways. I don't even blink anymore when I see such things in the middle of a road here: bricks, concrete blocks, mufflers, misc. car parts, large unidentified objects, people, dogs, cows, horses, goats, sheep, boxes, crates, holes the size Delaware, abandoned cars, tires, and probably lots more stuff that I can't remember off-hand. Unfortunately, those things are nothing compared to the other drivers! I still get a little frustrated, and I have a tendency to mutter while driving, but I try to remain calm and pretend I still have my sanctification, especially if the kids are in the car.
My father-in-law, Ken Hanna, was a notorious driver among those who ever rode with him. He was a great Christian man and missionary, but I've never prayed so hard than when I was a passenger in his vehicles. I have a number of poignant memories of riding with him. I can honestly say that once when he was driving, I briefly experienced the thrill of riding down a highway on only two wheels. (I'm not kidding!) I used to say, he lived like an angel but drove like a devil! Other missionaries have told me that they were certain Dad had a few guardian angels around his cars. He drove a lot here in Mexico so I am sure he needed them. Frankly, I think he needed them no matter in what country he drove! His driving didn't get much better in Chicago as I recall.
So, once again...just a reminder: when we ask for prayer for safety while traveling, we really mean it! Sometimes I arrive home and wonder how I didn't end up all smashed up. Guardian angels? Maybe so. After all, with Dad no longer here to drive, those angels are probably terribly bored and could use something interesting to do. I'll take them!
Had we had our camera in the car on Monday, Beth would have taken some great shots of an old Ford Ranger (pickup) that we passed coming down the mountain from camp. I am not really sure what the driver was hauling, but whatever it was, it came in large, lumpy plastic bags. The contents of the bags was not what was so appealing for taking a picture. It was the unbelievable height of all those bags. I've seen lots of similar scenes before here in Mexico, but this one was by far the winner. I'd have to guess that the pile of bags was 20 to 25 feet high.
How was this possible? Well...it wasn't...but nonetheless it was happening. The sides of the pickup bed had a really tall, skimpy metal frame so as to hold the bags in something of an upright position. The main problems were that the bags were loaded at least 6 feet above the height of the side "scaffolding," the entire left side of the truck itself was sagging under the weight, and the bed of the truck was so rusty, it appeared the whole left side of the truck would just drop off at any moment. It was literally shaking! Actually, the entire truck was leaning to the left at a precarious angle. The truck and cargo looked like it was customized by Italian engineers from Pisa.
I was very concerned because the road there is so narrow, should it all come tumbling down into the opposite lane, it would have blocked the road and we'd have been stuck there for a very long time. We could have turned around and gone another way but driving two hours around when we were about 2 minutes from the bottom of the mountain would have been rather painful! Praise God I found a brief opportunity to hold my breath and pass him at the fastest rate possible and we made it. I glanced in my mirror a few times to see if the whole enchilada had come tumbling down. There were too many curves to watch it happen.
To set up another road story, last week I began helping Tim O'Brien teach 4 ESL classes and I teach a 5th one by myself. It's a great experience. I love teaching adults, especially using elementary teaching techniques! There are two sets of classes on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and then my solo class on Saturday afternoons. The Tuesday and Wednesday classes begin "precisely" at 7:30 pm (Mexican time...which means 7:35 or 7:40 or...) and end at precisely 10:15 pm (American time since we can control when we stop teaching).
It's only about 5 1/2 miles over to the community center, and this is the first time that I've routinely driven over there and back so late. It is just turning dark at 7 pm these days and I've discovered some interesting facts about driving across our town at 7 and 11 pm.
At exactly 7 pm or at least at dusk, all stop signs disappear. Red lights appear to be green to other drivers. Entering intersections without looking is always the right of the driver approaching from your left and right. It's simply amazing. I had never noticed this before, but I guess I've never routinely been out and about in the evenings in the thick of town too much. We live on the edge of our city, and when we come back from most of our routine driving to camp, or Querétaro, or a local store, we don't really have to tangle with the traffic much.
Since making this trek across town in the evenings (only 4 times now), I've seen red lights blatantly run at least twice each time in the car (i.e.at least 4 times each round-trip!), stop signs really do become rather invisible, and I've had to swerve to avoid being T-boned...EVERY trip! It's crazy!
I don't think I've ever seen such bad driving here on such a routine basis. Of course, if one drives enough in Mexico, nothing really should be surprising on the roadways. I don't even blink anymore when I see such things in the middle of a road here: bricks, concrete blocks, mufflers, misc. car parts, large unidentified objects, people, dogs, cows, horses, goats, sheep, boxes, crates, holes the size Delaware, abandoned cars, tires, and probably lots more stuff that I can't remember off-hand. Unfortunately, those things are nothing compared to the other drivers! I still get a little frustrated, and I have a tendency to mutter while driving, but I try to remain calm and pretend I still have my sanctification, especially if the kids are in the car.
My father-in-law, Ken Hanna, was a notorious driver among those who ever rode with him. He was a great Christian man and missionary, but I've never prayed so hard than when I was a passenger in his vehicles. I have a number of poignant memories of riding with him. I can honestly say that once when he was driving, I briefly experienced the thrill of riding down a highway on only two wheels. (I'm not kidding!) I used to say, he lived like an angel but drove like a devil! Other missionaries have told me that they were certain Dad had a few guardian angels around his cars. He drove a lot here in Mexico so I am sure he needed them. Frankly, I think he needed them no matter in what country he drove! His driving didn't get much better in Chicago as I recall.
So, once again...just a reminder: when we ask for prayer for safety while traveling, we really mean it! Sometimes I arrive home and wonder how I didn't end up all smashed up. Guardian angels? Maybe so. After all, with Dad no longer here to drive, those angels are probably terribly bored and could use something interesting to do. I'll take them!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
¡Olé!
I knew I shouldn't have worn red!This guy is actually so friendly it's scary. He keeps trying to nudge you like a dog or cat because he loves being petted! Yikes!
(Oh and that's not some strange tumor on his rump...Brock was riding his little motor scooter back there with little Annie on for a ride.)
(Oh and that's not some strange tumor on his rump...Brock was riding his little motor scooter back there with little Annie on for a ride.)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Scooting and Shooting
This little bike can really scoot...that little motor is 110cc's! Brock looks perfectly too big on this mini-whatchamacallit. I'm not sure having Dale Earnardt's name on it is all that encouraging given what happened to him. Nonetheless, the four-wheeler, minimoto, plus the riding horses are making our teammates' home and property a popular attraction for the kids! And thanks to Brock and Heather for bringing back Cameron's BB gun for us. I was too nervous to bring it across the border because some folks felt it might be illegal. Brock felt otherwise and had no trouble getting it here. We had fun shooting up a pop can yesterday too! As Brock's dad told me a month or so ago (paraphrased), "every boy should grow up having a BB gun." Cameron was a happy boy yesterday which was really great to watch.
Thanks also to Brock and Heather for bringing back our air conditioner compressor for the Highlander. We are grateful that these two months without A/C in the truck took place in the coolest time of year! God is good! I have an appointment tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to get it installed and ready too cool. It just started warming up here the past couple days. We should see 80 degrees within a week or so! Come visit all you snowbirds! It's about to get real nice down here. Can't wait. The floor is still freezing!
Camp Koinonia Update
We usually drive up to the camp on Mondays for Beth's math tutoring session and the boys' piano keyboard lessons. Yesterday, we arrived and I snapped a few shots of the landscaping and steel girders. I know the girders look quite crooked, but I was assured that they use the bolts and nuts to adjust them to a plumb level so not to worry. All of this work including the steel trusses (can't see them but they're on the ground way back to the left) is being done with funds already contributed. However, they still need at least $100,000 to complete this project for the gym/multipurpose building. It will also have some rooms below the gym floor to be located on the left half where the bulldozer is pushing the dirt around. It is encouraging to see the progress but there's a lot more to left to do. We're praying for new contributors to this project. This will seat 300 campers/guests for multi-church gatherings, summer camps, evangelistic outreach opportunities, not to forget our homeschool spiritual emphasis and music camps as well. Pray with us for Camp Koinonia and for God's provision for this key infrastructure for ministry.
Friday, January 15, 2010
This Still Works?!?
One of our ministry partners, Linn Chapel, generously contributed financially so that we could purchase a variety of materials needed for ministry here. Our first purchase was a few sets of flannel-graph to use for telling Sunday school stories with Justin and even Dayton. This stuff was old technology when I was a kid but it still works and it never has to be rebooted!Last Sunday was Beth's first opportunity to try it out and it worked well. Justin is only 3 and his attention span isn't much longer than that in seconds but he did stick with it and he enjoyed putting the figures on the little board. Beth walked down to our local fabric shop and bought some larger background pieces which we'll drape over a white board or something.
Come to think of it, if your church has old flannel-graph sets that it doesn't use anymore, we'd be happy to receive them. We probably don't need a truck load of them but I'm sure we could use other sets to add to our small collection. We don't have any backgrounds that look like scenes and those would especially be nice to use.
Thanks!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Ants
Took a brief walk in the sun yesterday and came across thousands of ants eating the foliage off the trees and also eating the grass to cut "roads." The camera batteries died just as I was about to show them on the tree but this part came out enough to see them. When they get moving, they sure are amazing. Proverbs has something to say about ants but not uncles (not directly at least).
I feel itchy now...do you?
OK...It's Not So Cold in Mexico
One of my best friends and supporters took this photo yesterday from inside his van of the exterior temperature gauge during their long drive up the Alaskan Highway to Fairbanks. This is a daytime temperature and it is accurate as you can imagine. From what I can tell, this wasn't too cold for this time of year!OK...it's not so cold here in Mexico after all!
The Olson family arrived safely after a 14 day drive, ferry trip and drive once again. Not many people can say they've driven the Alaskan Highway in January! They did this trip with 6 kids, 1 dog, 1 very stressed cat and a lifetime of memories from their starting point in Tennessee.
Mark reports back to duty tomorrow on a military base there, so they didn't have much choice about moving in January to one of the coldest inhabited regions of the Western Hemisphere. Praise God for giving them a great trip! Aside from getting snowed in upon their ferry arrival in Alaska (3+ feet of snow), they had no real problems...the kids didn't throw each other out of the van either (well...not that I know about!).
Monday, January 11, 2010
It's So Cold That...
...public elementary schools in San Juan are delayed 1/2 hour every day this week...and EVERY week through February 26th! Wow...that's cold! (The school director said that it's bad enough that the children have to endure the cold but they risk serious illnesses from it. So the best prevention is to cut 30 minutes off the morning schedule for 2 months.) Brilliant.
...there was snow in the volcanic pass between Mexico City and Puebla over the weekend. Beth saw images on the news of a zillion people heading up there from the cities in order to play in the snow. Many car loads of entire families went up and in the cases where grandma couldn't get out of the car because of the snow...the kids and parents hiked up from their parking spot and brought back large plastic bags filled with snow and made snowmen on the hoods of their cars so grandma could enjoy it while bundled up in the front seat. Wow!
...Beth also saw images from Oaxaca state which is hours south of here with thick ice on the ground and tree branches in that mountainous state.
...she also saw on the news that in the northern border state of Chihuahua which has been enduring the coldest temps on record in some towns there, the police went "door to door" in areas of cardboard shanties handing out blankets and hot coffee. I think that was the most surprising story!
...and in the most southern state of Chiapas, it's raining (rare for this time of year apparently). The director of public schools there closed them for the next two days stating that kids could get sick if they came to school in the rain. It's a different world here, isn't it?
Our house remains a chilly 50-60 degrees all day long these cold weeks which is pretty much a bit cooler than the outside temperatures. I'm sure it's much colder where most of you are located. We have a portable LP gas heater in the dining room which we have used more in the past week than we did in the 2 prior years combined! I was standing near it making coffee this morning and inadvertently melted a patch of fabric on my insulated sweats that I pulled out of storage last night. I haven't checked yet to see if they're melted to my skin. I don't think so but that would not be good if they are!
We head up to camp today for tutoring. It'll probably be in the 30s or 40s. We don't really have winter coats so we'll layer up the best we can! Co-op should resume on Thursday as planned.
Stay warm friends and no matter what...BE warm friends! We'll try to be warm friends too!
...there was snow in the volcanic pass between Mexico City and Puebla over the weekend. Beth saw images on the news of a zillion people heading up there from the cities in order to play in the snow. Many car loads of entire families went up and in the cases where grandma couldn't get out of the car because of the snow...the kids and parents hiked up from their parking spot and brought back large plastic bags filled with snow and made snowmen on the hoods of their cars so grandma could enjoy it while bundled up in the front seat. Wow!
...Beth also saw images from Oaxaca state which is hours south of here with thick ice on the ground and tree branches in that mountainous state.
...she also saw on the news that in the northern border state of Chihuahua which has been enduring the coldest temps on record in some towns there, the police went "door to door" in areas of cardboard shanties handing out blankets and hot coffee. I think that was the most surprising story!
...and in the most southern state of Chiapas, it's raining (rare for this time of year apparently). The director of public schools there closed them for the next two days stating that kids could get sick if they came to school in the rain. It's a different world here, isn't it?
Our house remains a chilly 50-60 degrees all day long these cold weeks which is pretty much a bit cooler than the outside temperatures. I'm sure it's much colder where most of you are located. We have a portable LP gas heater in the dining room which we have used more in the past week than we did in the 2 prior years combined! I was standing near it making coffee this morning and inadvertently melted a patch of fabric on my insulated sweats that I pulled out of storage last night. I haven't checked yet to see if they're melted to my skin. I don't think so but that would not be good if they are!
We head up to camp today for tutoring. It'll probably be in the 30s or 40s. We don't really have winter coats so we'll layer up the best we can! Co-op should resume on Thursday as planned.
Stay warm friends and no matter what...BE warm friends! We'll try to be warm friends too!
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
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