Beautiful sunset

It is flying

I find myself over half way done with the month of June and i honestly have no idea where it went. Everything here has been wonderful but it has been moving at a breakneck speed. It is starting to get cold here and the rains have finally come in. It is weird to say but i am extremely grateful for rain. It has brought down the pollution a bit, which has really been a problem. The world is so much more fresh after a nice rain. Everything appears to be brighter and more colorful. Couple with the coming rain of the approaching winter is the cold, a cold which in a non-heated house can be slightly unpleasant. Yet, this gives one the perfect excuse to spend the afternoon curled in bed reading a good book. Something that i did last weekend. School has been hectic these days due to the looming end of the semester and the finals that come with that. I will spend this week busy grading papers for i have to have my final grades turned in by Friday.
Otherwise the next couple of weeks are going to be fairly busy, we have the end of the semester in the beginning of July so i have all of that work to deal with. I also with be confirmed on July 3rd, so several more things to do with that also. Then of course 4th of July, a holiday that i will also in part celebrate my confirmation. Then starting the 11th i am on vacation until the end of July, this time i will spend with Ced for we are off to Peru for a little bit of a vacation. So needless to say i have an exciting and eventful couple of weeks ahead of me. I will try to get my pictures updated and what not in the future but until then i hope you are all well.

Hola que tal?

It is already June and winter is coming. Yet, even though i have been thoroughly warned i have not yet truly experienced the effects. For example, it was sunny and 77, yes it was cold at night, but t-shirt weather during the day is absolutely pleasant. We had our first day of rain last week in about 8 months. It is shocking to admit this, but i truly do miss the rain. It makes everything so much more fresh and clean. Last week at our school Nuestra Senora de Andacollo or NSA, we celebrated Brother Andres week. It was a very busy and event filled time. There was a game show style slide presentation for the kids. It was pretty well accepted, considering that our demographic was a bunch of testing teenagers. Overall i was very happy with the result, i believe that we were able to either enable, coerce or trick the kids into learning more about Brother Andres and also the Holy Cross Congregation. My favorite part of the week would have to be on Friday when we did games and contests for the Kindergarten classes. It was a lot of fun to see them all dressed up and excited about life and the possibility to show there knowledge. I have posted some pictures of the game show crowd and also the Kindergarten kids. (Yes in that picture i am the pole for the volleyball net, and yes they are throwing balls, and yes i was repeatedly hit.)

Yet, i would like to revisit my previous statement. When in our lives do we go from open thirsty for knowledge children to apathetic adults. Going from the wanting or willingness to share everything to having guarded souls.

I have two concrete example that i encounter on a daily basis.

Every day i am greeted by some of the younger kids (k-3), most of the time the come running at a break next speed. I give them the necessary 3 or 4 seconds that are needed to catch their breath and then they will emphatically tell me about some new toy, or a new trick they learned, or some tid-bit of knowledge they now posses. Sometimes they will run up simply make a bold statement, such as "i have a new baby brother" or "i am this tall (hand gesture included)" and then run away. Not wanting or needing feedback. They are sure in that knowledge and that belief. It is actually inspiring, i wish i had the faith and the confidence that i used to have as a child. The days when a kiss could make pain go away or when you knew that your dad was the strongest dad ever.

Then i also encounter the opposite end of the spectrum.
Daily, in either class or in morning prayer. I will ask a student's opinion and they will simply close down. I hear the phrase "yo no se" way to much for my own liking. How do so many children not know. I doubt the collective idiocy of my students so that leaves the hypothesis that they are all hiding, or shy, or scared. They all lead to the same result, an environment in which ideas are not shared and beliefs are not questioned. This is the exact opposite effect that you want to create as a teacher. But looking on my own life, how many times have i simply said "I don't know" because i wanted to avoid the hurt or effort that comes with asking the question. Worse yet, i was avoiding finding out the answer because it was something that i didn't want to hear.

That is what amazes me about kids, they will run and simply tell me that i am tall or that my hair looks funny or i that i have a scar on my mouth. They will make these simple observations and manage to do it without passing judgement. The can say that i am tall or my hair is poofy and there is nothing malicious in it. This is something that i think we have a great difficulty in our society, being able to identify what are our strengths and weaknesses. Not dwelling on them but simply stating that they have an existence and try to improve both. To be able to look at someone else and see the difference, see that they are different but not make them different. The first is recognition and acceptance and the second is egotistical xenophobia.

We are all children of God and we are all called to do great things. We simply have to see through the eyes of a child. To see but not pass judgement. Not only is it not my place to be judging, but frankly i don't have the time or the energy.