Crystal Ball Please
Sunday, February 8, 2009
On New Year’s Day I like to reflect on where I was the previous year. Many times, the reflection has amazed me. There have been those years when I was nowhere I had imagined I might be (that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?).
One fine example is New Year’s Day 2006. We spent that holiday season in Senegal. It was a beautiful occasion on the beach. I bought a drum and took lessons from some fellow in the sand. A skinny little Santa gave Zachary a tin bus and Z thought that was the best gift ever. He just knew that he had met Santa.
The year before that was in the Bronx; it was beyond freezing, my dad was dying, and I worked for Satan. Need I say more? Life changes quickly.
This week it changed too quickly.
Sunday night we got the call that school was closed Monday. This was due to the fact that the president decided at the last minute to declare a national holiday. This meant all schools and most businesses were closed. There we were, off from work, looking for something to entertain ourselves. That’s hard enough during regular weekend time, but a holiday? Everything was closed!
It was really odd to just have the day named as a holiday. I mean in the States, the holidays are all laid out. There is no question about when the next one will be. You can work around them and for them because you know they’re coming. Not so with one declared overnight. The banks were closed, the pharmacy was closed, restaurants were closed; this makes it difficult to get anything done.
The rest of the week went okay. The bummer is the loss of time. Next Sunday is the referendum vote so we have Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. We also have a half day Wednesday to accommodate a professional development day. Now we’re hearing rumors that the school will be shut down all day Wednesday as well. How can I have any consistency with my students if we take every other day off?
However, if the referendum goes unfavorably, then all hell could break loose, in which case we would have to be worried about more than just, “will Johnny understand his learning after having it broken up so much?” We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
We are supposed to go to the Orinoco River Delta for four days during the elections. I am really excited. I have heard that it is a beautiful place and I can hardly wait to see for myself. We will also be spending some time in Puerto Ordaz. It sounds like an interesting city with a few options for things to do. Of course, we could get stuck there for a while…
My mother will be happy to know that we went to church today. We got invited to the service by the Assistant in Zachary’s classroom. It was an anniversary celebration of the church. It was fun! The music was interesting and jazzy and everybody danced. Then I realized that I was expected to stand for the duration of the event…
We finally sat down. I leafed through the bulletin, practicing my Spanish reading the pages. There were stories and editorials and a welcome greeting from the pastor, but not one word about the order in which things were supposed to happen. The minister was really good, though. He spoke slowly and enunciated his words. This made it easy to understand what he had to say. I stayed right with him for the first thirty minutes. I bobbed in and out for the next thirty minutes, and I pretty much lost interest completely for the final thirty minutes. No wonder I haven’t been to church in twenty years.
THAT WAS THE LONGEST SERMON I HAVE EVER LISTENED TO IN MY LIFE (and I’ve listened to a lot of sermons)!!!!!!!!
I will tell you this; last Sunday, I never would have predicted that I would be sitting in church today. Yet there I was, getting meaning from the Spanish words being spewed forth before me. That part was fantastic! I am ecstatic that I actually caught the meaning of the sermon. I almost want to go again so I can practice more (don’t get your hopes up, Mom).
I’ll never get to sleep tonight for the anticipation of what may creep in tomorrow.
MJR
On New Year’s Day I like to reflect on where I was the previous year. Many times, the reflection has amazed me. There have been those years when I was nowhere I had imagined I might be (that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?).
One fine example is New Year’s Day 2006. We spent that holiday season in Senegal. It was a beautiful occasion on the beach. I bought a drum and took lessons from some fellow in the sand. A skinny little Santa gave Zachary a tin bus and Z thought that was the best gift ever. He just knew that he had met Santa.
The year before that was in the Bronx; it was beyond freezing, my dad was dying, and I worked for Satan. Need I say more? Life changes quickly.
This week it changed too quickly.
Sunday night we got the call that school was closed Monday. This was due to the fact that the president decided at the last minute to declare a national holiday. This meant all schools and most businesses were closed. There we were, off from work, looking for something to entertain ourselves. That’s hard enough during regular weekend time, but a holiday? Everything was closed!
It was really odd to just have the day named as a holiday. I mean in the States, the holidays are all laid out. There is no question about when the next one will be. You can work around them and for them because you know they’re coming. Not so with one declared overnight. The banks were closed, the pharmacy was closed, restaurants were closed; this makes it difficult to get anything done.
The rest of the week went okay. The bummer is the loss of time. Next Sunday is the referendum vote so we have Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. We also have a half day Wednesday to accommodate a professional development day. Now we’re hearing rumors that the school will be shut down all day Wednesday as well. How can I have any consistency with my students if we take every other day off?
However, if the referendum goes unfavorably, then all hell could break loose, in which case we would have to be worried about more than just, “will Johnny understand his learning after having it broken up so much?” We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
We are supposed to go to the Orinoco River Delta for four days during the elections. I am really excited. I have heard that it is a beautiful place and I can hardly wait to see for myself. We will also be spending some time in Puerto Ordaz. It sounds like an interesting city with a few options for things to do. Of course, we could get stuck there for a while…
My mother will be happy to know that we went to church today. We got invited to the service by the Assistant in Zachary’s classroom. It was an anniversary celebration of the church. It was fun! The music was interesting and jazzy and everybody danced. Then I realized that I was expected to stand for the duration of the event…
We finally sat down. I leafed through the bulletin, practicing my Spanish reading the pages. There were stories and editorials and a welcome greeting from the pastor, but not one word about the order in which things were supposed to happen. The minister was really good, though. He spoke slowly and enunciated his words. This made it easy to understand what he had to say. I stayed right with him for the first thirty minutes. I bobbed in and out for the next thirty minutes, and I pretty much lost interest completely for the final thirty minutes. No wonder I haven’t been to church in twenty years.
THAT WAS THE LONGEST SERMON I HAVE EVER LISTENED TO IN MY LIFE (and I’ve listened to a lot of sermons)!!!!!!!!
I will tell you this; last Sunday, I never would have predicted that I would be sitting in church today. Yet there I was, getting meaning from the Spanish words being spewed forth before me. That part was fantastic! I am ecstatic that I actually caught the meaning of the sermon. I almost want to go again so I can practice more (don’t get your hopes up, Mom).
I’ll never get to sleep tonight for the anticipation of what may creep in tomorrow.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 1:47 AM
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