very cool the last few mornings here, low's in the 73-74 range and many people here are just not ready for that. they wear blankets and anything they can. have seen several women wearing their skirts with jeans under them. I guess they take them off later in the day. I joke with the Haitians about the wonderful weather we are having and all I get are stares like I'm crazy. Kesmy is getting support around school to blame me for the weather since I like it so much. I remind him I am still his teacher for a few months and he smiles.
Gary and I were talking last night/this morning about the high school class and where it may be next year. It is so difficult to plan because you just don't know what is going on in the families with their plans, many times because they DON'T plan. With what I know about the kids in the class now, it could go from 6 to 2 next year, or we could have them all back and those who come during the year. It makes it difficult to plan for books for the kids, as you have to plan what books you need for what levels so they each have their individual books to go thru. But as with pretty much everything here, it works out for better or worse.
One of the other mid year additions we had has had a bad attitude lately, upset because people aren't "nice" to him and won't let him slide on stuff. I guess I have changed as a teacher here since Christmas break. I am not as concerned about being their friend but I have learned that being a teacher to them is more important. Therefore the whip has been cracked a few times. It seems kids are getting paddles regularly. Guess what? it works. those who think that paddling kids is violent and unusual punishment can disagree with me but it works. They learn they have to have SELF discipline to avoid bad things in life. Whuda thunk? the middle age boys are the biggest problem and they get paddled by far the most. But if you are consistent in what you allow and they then learn the rules and what they can and can't do, they adjust and behave. No apologies offered for the paddling here, it is not hurtful to them except for their pride and a momentary stinging in their rear end. And they spend more time in their books learning rather than goofing off. I think that is the job of a teacher, so I am embracing the paddle!! :) (as needed only of course) Oh, back to our troubled student. I have been making him do the routine of school as ordered and he came back with a score of 100 on a science test. when I gave it back to him I told him this is why I am doing this and he didn't say anything but he smiled that "ok, I guess I get it" smile. Hopefully he will see he can be more than adequate, that he can excel IF he wants to put forth the effort. Any parents relate to this? I thought so.
things happen here almost every day. I know times are harder in the States now but here people don't have the wherewithal to deal with big stuff. One of the staff, a very good guy, took in a homeless young woman into his mothers home during the hurricanes while he was in Port last fall. He couldn't leave her on the streets in the weather so he took her to his mothers house. well, long story short, the mother (against her son's advice) trusted her with a large sum of money and she vanished with it. so now he is responsible to make it up and he is pretty much going to have to lose all his savings and borrow more to help them. Culturally it is his responsibility, even though he told his mother not to do it. one of those things that come up like hospital visits, outbreaks of different diseases and such. Many things like ringworm, scabies, etc., go around here regularly due to lack of good sanitation and such. Kids get sick and get weak then need special care to recover.
I have been reading and praying about discipleship much recently. It seems a clarity has come to me I never had before about true discipleship to Jesus. It has changed me and I see the work of the Holy Spirit in me as I grow in this. I am thinking of blogging about discipleship but I also realize I know far less than I think I do. Discipleship has taken on a new form for me, a commitment that did not exist before in me. Prior to this time, I guess I thought being a Christiam MADE me a disciple, and I don't think that now. I know there are those who will have howl's of protest and that is good, we all need to listen to other points of view. As I see the results of this recent work in my life, I must say, though, it would take a lot to move me off my new view of discipleship. It seems Jesus said often we must take up our cross and bear it to the end, giving up everything to follow Him. In Luke 14, as Jesus spoke of the cost of being a disciple He states in verse 27, "anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Later He speaks of the king who must count the cost of going to battle with a superior force and states they king will sue for peace when he finds he cannot win. Then Jesus says in verse 33 "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
so the battle begins. "no, that does not mean give up everything you have, it means just submit yourself to God, then He won't aske much of you anyway." I have heard this so much and it has always rang hollow to me. It seems to me Bonhoeffer and others were very correct in their view that true discipleship abounds in obedience, and those obedient abound in their discipleship. You really can't be succesful at one w/o the other. As I walk this path here in Haiti, it is not a heavy burden to me, which reinforces the statement Jesus made when He said "my yoke is light, my burden is easy". For others being here would be torture, but what others do would well be the same torture for me. But I have concluded that, just as David had to buy at personal cost the land for his sacrifice to God, I must purchase at personal cost the obedience I give to Him. As I do, fitfully and with many false steps, my life changes and I become something I have not been before. I think this is a good thing, and I have peace in it. I hope others can find their price of obedience and venture places they have never been before in their spirit and relationship with God. It appears to me to be well worth it. It appears to me to be the only real choice in life.
Djebenis tout moun
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