Day 74: Final Friday!

Today was the last Friday we'll be spending at Abbie's School and in Culebra. Since I didn't post last night (I was beyond tired) I'll catch you up briefly on both days' events!


It was really a treat to have the students who didn't go on the trip together to teach both yesterday and today. We all were amazed at how quickly the day flew! Yesterday, although it was a full day (8:00 to 2:30), it seemed short. And Friday release time for the kids is 1:00. Normally we all go to the beach, but that wasn't the case today. We stayed at school and had a "regular" day. I announced it was break time and the kids just stayed in their seats working on their schoolwork until I prodded them several times! Then at lunch time the same thing happened!!! I finally walked over and took a pencil out of the final student's hand and said with my fake glare face that she'd better, "Poof, be gone!" Actually, it's very satisfying as a teacher to have students want to continue rather than let out a cheer when it's time for a break.


Last night, we thought Hannah had volleyball practice but when we arrived at the gym at 4:00 there were unfamiliar faces, no volleyball players, and a huge satellite dish sitting on the sidewalk just outside the building. We were then told that there was to be a big basketball event that involved professional teams coming over to play tonight (Friday). It was supposed to be a televised game, too! We were encouraged to go and a couple of Hannah's friends asked her to go, so we had our dinner and got all cleaned up with our "going out" clothes on and made the trip back into town for the 7:00 game. Although I'm not particularly fond of basketball, it was an outing and seemed important to Hannah. Arriving at the gym at about ten minutes to seven, it was a pretty vacant place. There were no cars, except for a lone Jeep parked next to the building. We passed by slowly, peering through the windows to see what kind of activity, if any, was taking place. There were about six people inside, but there was no sign of any basketball game whatsoever. Our conversation then turned to alternative activities, questions about whether we had the wrong time or place, and what our options were. 


Eventually, Hannah declared that she was tired anyway and thought I was, too, so we should just go home. Although I didn't voice it to her, I was happy with her decision. So home we came, and both of us went to our rooms to read: Hannah with The White Giraffe, and me with Pride and Prejudice. I went in to pray with her before she fell asleep and it ended up being a peaceful, quiet evening. A wonderful way to end a very busy week.


Thank you, God, for the unexpected quiet of this evening. Thank you for Hannah's new-found desire to enjoy the pleasure of reading.