Visiting the Pandas (in China)

While I was in China over Christmas, I went to visit a research facility that's working on preventing the extinction of the Giant Pandas of China. Here are some pictures from my great panda adventure:

I wonder how well it pays being the person who gets to play with baby pandas all day?

How many baby pandas can you find?

This is called a Red Panda, it looks like a mix between a fox and a raccoon.

Sweet sorrow

November 30th was the last day for one of my kindergarten students. He is moving back to Osaka (mainland Japan) to live with his Dad. He and his Mom were living here in Okinawa just so he could attend our school. It is the only Christian Japanese School there is. In a way it is good that the family will be reunited, but it is always hard to say goodbye. I only knew Kousho for 3 months, but I enjoyed him so much. He is such a bright boy with so much energy. He loves to laugh and have fun and make his friends laugh. He wasn't always the easiest student to manage, but he is such a loving boy and has a very infectious smile. I miss him so much and our class is not the same without him. There is a certain level of life and energy that is missing in our class now and no one can quite replace it. You always feel a special connection to your first class as a teacher, and losing one student, even after only a short time of teaching them, leaves it's mark. Kousho, 大好き! (I love you!)

Birthday Fun!

I had a lovely birthday! On Friday, my co-workers had a cake for me and had the kids make a sign and they all sang Happy Birthday to me! It was so sweet.

On Saturday I got to skype with some family and friends, so that was wonderful. And then Saturday night my roommates took me out to an Italian restaurant where we had an incredible meal! It was delicious! And then there was the card from my parents and all the emails and comments on facebook wishing me a happy birthday. So thank you for making my day special!

Pictures tell a story better, so here they are:

My kindergarteners wrote these birthday signs for me.

All the kindergarteners and pre-schoolers drew a picture on this banner for me. It was so sweet! They did a good job.

Me surprised by all the kids and teachers with a cake for me. (There were only six candles on the cake so I held up my hands saying I was six years old. That's how you show "six" with your fingers in counting in Japan, just in case you were wondering why I was pointing to my own hand. =)

Aren't they sweet!

It was such a nice surprise for me because I didn't expect them to do anything for my birthday.

My beautiful birthday cake. Of course it's chocolate! =)

My roommates took me out for a delicious dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant.

Me and Miwako

Me and Nana

Amazing steak dinner!

My sister sent me the newest Elephant and Piggie book for my birthday. (If you haven't read any of Mo Willems' books, you are really missing out.)

And It's signed by Mo himself! How cool is that!

A Psalm

Of God for his lost and precious child

How long, my child?

How long will you forget and neglect me?

When will you come to me and be with me once again?

Why do you let sin master you and the devil tempt you?

Why do you scorn my grace and refuse my strength?

How long will you continue to harm yourself, and continue this cycle of self-destruction?

Can't you hear me calling to you? You have forgotten how to hear me.

You have strayed like a senseless sheep, and yet you wonder why you're lost.

Stop your feeble efforts and allow me to comfort you and bring you to myself.

Surrender to me and I will be your master and your true lover; you will want for nothing else.

Unspeakable Blessings

As I sit down to write this blog, I am chowing down on a bag of beef jerky. Where, you might ask, did I find a bag of beef jerky? Well, I would respond, in my mail box! =)

Today I received a package from my close friends Jen and Jon Newsham! Everything about the package was a testimony of how much they love me, from the amount of money it cost to ship it, to the details they remembered from our skype conversations or my blog posts.

To the casual observer this package may seem like a random assortment of odds and ends, but to me it is a wonderful treasure. The items themselves don't have high intrinsic value, but each item represents how well my friends love me, and that is infinitely valuable.

Let me explain: My friends know that gifts are my love language. And I'm not just talking about receiving presents. I am talking about receiving something personal from someone, something that they thought about, something that represents them, or reminds them of me, something that demonstrates that they know me well or remembered details I mentioned at a previous time.

If you read the captions you will get some explanation of why each item is meaningful to me. Some are obvious, like M&Ms =), but others, like the powdered sugar, have more of a back story to them.

The title of this blog is "Unspeakable Blessings." I am not referring to the package, even thought it was a delight to receive. I am referring to my friends Jen and Jon. The Lord has blessed me so much through these two people. They love me better than I deserve, and are a constant embodiment of God's grace to me! I thank the Lord for them and for his grace in bringing them into my life.

Now for a walk-thru of the package in pictures:

(I have to give my parents credit for sending me my first package, even though I requested it.) But this was not something that I personally requested, it was just a package from two people who love me so well.

Here's the open box! It's so fun to open packages from people who love you!

The caption inside: "When you're cute, it doesn't matter what costume you wear!" I love pirates!

I love writing and journalling and Jen knows my style.

Jen loves Halloween and I enjoy it because I love her and it's so fun to be festive!

Jen loves Disney, especially the villains. (Is that why we're such good friends?;) It just makes me happy to have something she loves because I love her!

For anyone who has lived overseas you can imagine how hard it is to get American candy or how expensive it is even if you can find it. Yeah for dark chocolate M&Ms!!

When I first got here I was having a hard time finding tortillas at the store and was resolving to make my own. Now I don't have to for a while! And I love tacos!

I wrote in an earlier post that one of the foods I missed growing up in Haiti, was beef jerky and I still love it! I also told Jen that I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies, but they didn't turn out very well.

I told Jen over skype that I was trying to find powdered sugar at the store here. I finally found it. It was a tiny bag, a little bigger than a Taco Bell sauce packet, and it cost over $3! Jen sent me a 2 pound bag. =)

Tonight I'm having tacos!!

Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell

My sister bought me this book on our last trip to Powell's before I came to Okinawa. It took me a while to get around to, but once I started, it was quickly devoured. =) It was a fun and thought-provoking book for me.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"So much of teaching is sharing.... You can't test what sort of teacher someone will be, because testing what someone knows isn't the same as what someone is able to share."

On the efforts of a curriculum expert from the board of education: "Only, I wonder if he can see that the efforts to try to regulate teaching could limit learning as much as ensure it."

"Children rise to meet our expectations, good or bad."

"I look around and see that even grown-ups are really children, making mistakes and needing love."

To a misbehaving student: "You think you're not telling me about your problems, but you're showing me, everyday, and in every way. The problems aren't going to leave until you start talking about them."

"But certain people just think it's their job to freak out. As long as they're freaking out, they feel busy, like they must be doing work. Getting upset is force, but no motion. Unless we are moving the children forward, we aren't doing work."

She is a bold, vivacious teacher and it was fun to read her own story.

Maintaining the tension between Flexibility and Volition

My personality type likes structure. I work well when I know what's coming and I know how to plan for it. But I have this weird quirk to my personality: I grew up in Haiti.

Often Americans who go to Haiti get very frustrated because Haiti is the essence of borderline chaos and constant change, which causes unexpected situations. But I grew up in that culture, so it doesn't bother me. I have the ability to override my natural tendency and desire for structure and be completely comfortable with the unexpected. I have a fairly well developed ability to "fly by the seat of my pants."

So when I came to Okinawa I switched into my "flexibility" mode. If I hadn't, my transition would have been much harder. I became almost completely non-volitional. I submitted to everybody else's plans for me. I didn't make plans. Which in some ways was necessary since I was basically entirely dependent on other people to function here. It's like being a child again and having to be dependent on other people to take care of you.

So I would go to church with one of my roommates and find out after church that I was going with my other roommate to visit some place or other. I would go to work and find out halfway through the morning that we had a special class or chapel to attend. I would go home and eat whenever my roommates ate and eat what they ate. There are often sudden changes in plans and people often forget to inform me since I'm there when they discuss the change in plans. They forget that I can't understand anything. So I just wait until they are finished and someone tells me to go with them to some place or other or to do something or other.

I thank God for his blessings in preparing to function in these type of circumstances and to remain flexible. But I realize, just as kids grow up and become independent, I have to reclaim some of my own volition. I have to make my own choices. I have to take care of myself. I have to create boundaries within which I can function.

So this is the tension that I am struggling to understand and maintain: How to plan for the future while graciously accepting sudden changes; how to take the time to create structure but holding onto it with a flexible grasp.

It's like I can function in two different modes: rigid structure and Haiti-grown flexibility. But I can't function in both of those modes simultaneously. It's the tension I feel in teaching: remembering to love the kids above all, even at the expense of my lesson plans while also taking the time to plan and create initial structure so that good learning can occur. By God's grace I will find some measure of balance in this area.