Why I Got Not To

"I purely hate fighting," Josh said.  "Don't thee, Labe?"

"Not so much," Labe answered.

"I hate it," Josh said.  "That's why I got to."

"And I got not to," Labe said, "because I like it."

-From The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West

Laban and Josh are two Quaker brothers living during the Civil War, and they both choose whether or not to fight based on beliefs that have little to do with the war itself.  Hopefully, our teaching is just as filled with what we're doing as the soldiers' work was while our motives are just as eternal as that of Josh and Labe.

Updates:

• The first quarter of the school year ends next week, which means Amy and I will have been teaching for 10 weeks.  A lot of good opportunities have been realized.
• We're meeting with parents soon for parent-teacher conferences.  We hope that will be an evangelical opportunity as much as an educational opportunity.
• We're heading to Brownsberg, a mountain in the interior, next weekend, to do some hiking, sight-seeing, and other kinds of grown-up playing in the jungle.

Good news. Not "Steve Yzerman's going to coach the Red Wings" good, but good.

"My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." -Cary Grant

Amy and I follow a similar pattern. Here's what we've been occupying ourselves with lately:

• We bought tickets to return home for Christmas. We'll be visiting Alabama and Michigan (and whatever's in between), as well as attending the Passion Conference in Atlanta. If you want to see us (more like "since you want to see us"), just let us know via facebook, email, or even by leaving a comment here on the blog.
• I finished part two of the story I've been working on for a couple of years now. Get excited, literary critics.
• Last week was particularly stressful for both of us. Students have just been a little too...student-y? Anyway, it's caused some serious exhaustion. Fortunately, today is Saturday, and we're loving it.
• Report cards are coming up soon. This'll be a good opportunity for us to knock students into caring about what we're talking about, which should be great, if we're gospel-minded about the whole thing.
• We went to get some Surinamese food for lunch today, not because we had to, but because we've been cooking at home so much that we actually were really wanting some. And it was really good. Come on down and try some.

That's all for now. Go red wings!

Glorious Sabbath

"The increate perpetual thirst, that draws
Toward the realm of God's own form, bore us
Swift almost as the Heaven ye behold." -Dante

What a pleasure to take a break from work and enjoy the weekend. "The Sabbath was made for man," after all. A blessing, for sure. I used Dante's quote on entering Heaven for hyperbole.

• Friday night we spent helping out the youth group, which was pleasant. I even found some kids who had appreciation for the old Nintendo 64 version of Mario Kart, and we discoursed quite awhile. Amy was highlighted in a trivia game for having visited 24 different countries (not including stops at airports), which the students found most impressive.
• Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed the birthday party of one of Amy's students, Aditi. A large, bouncy slip and slide was set up, and they had a big machine that showered suds on us that we could slip (and slide) that much better. We were the only adults joining in the fun.
• Saturday night, we attended the "Surifair 2009" at the Torarica Hotel. The Surifair was a big bazaar filled with booths from different tourism companies, and we got to see some native musicians and dancers as well. The Torarica is the ultimate in posh resorts for Suriname, so we enjoyed our time there.
• Sunday morning, I was playing acoustic guitar in church, and all the power went out, leaving the drummer and me as the only instrumentalists that could be heard. This would have been fine, except that we hadn't had a chance to practice the song beforehand, and it was hard for me to follow anyway, since the words were all in Dutch. Nonetheless, I performed a nice little solo.
• Sunday afternoon was spent, largely, at the PTA luncheon, where we enjoyed the food from some PTA members, the company, mostly, of other teachers, and the odd, vague question (i.e. "So, school is good?" or "So, how do you find Suriname?) from parents. I've still not gotten up the nerve to tell the parents that I find Suriname by looking at map of South America and saying "Aha!"

Believe it or not, the weekend was a refreshing respite. But don't worry, for as I told the many parents, "School is good."