Nightgown in Guatemala: The kids can play

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The kids can play

Pictures as promised from the parade. My students had about 5 songs that they played for the kilometer or so we had to march. They recently banned Tequila. I asked them if it was because of the theme of the song and they said, ¨nooooo...because we tried playing it at another festival and everyone messed up, so it´s banned.¨ Interesante. It was nice going out to the event with them, took me back to the Saturday ACI outings with the Jr/Sr Scholars (must I compare everything to Jr/Sr? yes, I can´t help it). The students were screaming to the bus driver to turn up the music and if the song sucked, they´d start booing. Some things are truly universal. Things that I am currently working on: translating icebreakers and bellringers into Spanish (do I really want to do this? It could be hell.); planning a session on study skills (because these kids do not study and I saw many cheating); trying to get to APROFAM to get ahold of those damn electronic babys (give me the baby); a recycling activity called Schools of the Future; and I have to plan out a 30 min activity for Monday...it is International Youth Day (although I think it is technically the 12th). That and much more. Ok, I just read something Perla posted about Bernie Mac dying and that makes me really sad...tear.

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You have to take risks, he said. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Every day, God gives us the sun--and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist--that today is the same day as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting the front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists--a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.

Joy is sometimes a blessing, but is often a conquest. Our magic moments helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments---but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when that person looks back--and at some point everyone looks back--she will hear her heart saying, "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life."

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept-Coelho