SEW

This week is our Spiritual Emphasis Week in High School. We have a guest speaker and we mess around with the schedule so that we have a chapel every day. I'm not totally sure what I think about this week. I understand why we do it and we do often see God move in that week in the lives of students. I think education is more than academics but I am irritated when academics becomes bottom of the priority list. I guess you can't have everything.
Anyway, with all these things revolving through my brain it was both humbling and inspirational as Monday morning dawned with a huge, clearly visible, rainbow over the campus. It seemed to me like a reminder of God. He is over everything and this may be the one week closest to His heart. And I want to be a woman after God's own heart.

Citizenship

I overheard an argument between 2 boys at the water fountain on the playground:
1st Boy:You are Korean
2nd Boy:I am not. I am American.
1st Boy: No, you are Korean because your dad is Korean.
2nd Boy: No. My mum is American. My sister was born in America. I was born in America. I am American.
1st Boy: Well, that doesn't make you American.
(At this point, I nearly laughed out loud. What does make you American, then?)
1st Boy: Don't you want to be Korean?
2nd Boy: No.
1st boy goes off in offended huff.

Safety Rules

Joshua and Rose were both excited to tell me about the safety rules they have been learning this week as part of their "social studies" curriculum.
It reinforced, for me, the power of what the teacher says over what the parent says!  Even as they were telling me that they should wear seat belts in the car, they were buckling up in the back. How many times have Steve and I told them to sit still? Belts - in our car - are a punishment for misbehaving on the back seat.  They know that in England they will have to do this but it's just not a legal requirement in this country and so many cars come ill-equipped in the back. But today they were eagerly putting their belts on!
The other safety rule that brought a smile to my lips was the one they learnt about guns.  Do we ever talk about gun safety in England?  I explained to them that it was a product of their Americanised education that they were talked to about guns at school, and that guns are not widely seen in the UK like they are here or in the States.  It led to an interesting discussion about cartoon violence, though and this was brought up again later when we watched a Pink Panther cartoon together.
Rose got a little bit of the wrong end of the stick with computer safety (another safety rule I was never taught as there was no such thing as the internet when I was at school!).  She told me you should never give away your name or address to "bad" people on the internet. I said, "you should never give your details to anyone on the internet".  She insisted it was just bad people.  I said "How do know if people are bad or not?"  No answer!

Transitioning

I expect I will be writing a lot on this subject over the next few months.
It is so interesting to see my children working through the transition of leaving and returning to the UK.  I am seeing things I have previously read about TCKs being acted out in front of me!
Rose surprised us (although, really, I don't know why we were surprised as it is perfectly in character) when we discovered she had already organised a classmate to look after her guinea pig next year.  We discovered this when the classmate's mother came to say they were happy to have Floss next year!  Classic case of making sure your important things are taken care of when you leave.
Naomi announced to me that she wants to have her birthday here next year. I said, "You can't, we'll be in England."
Naomi yelled, "No.  I want to invite Caroline to my party!"
"Sorry.  We will not be here."
Actually, the ironic thing is, Naomi's friend is "returning" to Germany at the end of the school year and will not be coming back to the Philippines. Her parents have been here 20 years.  They came out as singles with their mission, got married, had their family of 4 children here.  It is the end of an era for them and a major upheaval for their family who have never spent more than 6 months in Germany.
Rose also decided, as part of our preparing to be in England that we could only speak English English (as opposed to American English) in our house now.  As you know, this has been a losing battle for me and Steve and I looked at each other and laughed.  I told her it would probably be impossible as there are some words they only know the American terminology for and Steve told her their American accents would undermine their attempts to speak English.
It showed me, though, that she is beginning to think through some of the bigger issues facing us.

Rose's Chapel

Grade 1 did their chapel on Noah today.  It was so good and so good to see Rose completely comfortable in that class.  She has matured so much this quarter, and I feel she is settling into who she is rather than trying desperately to keep up.
Click on this picture to see the album:

Grade 1 Chapel:Noah Jan 2011

Lost and Found

Around 2 p.m. I realised my wedding ring was not on my finger.  I was considerably perturbed that I had no idea when it had come off and no recollection of the last time I had definitely seen it.  It didn't seem loose enough to fall off and the only thing I could think was that it had come off when I was washing my hands - in which case it could have been in any one of three bathrooms around campus or one of the sinks at home. And, if it came off at school there was guarantee I would get it back.
Later on, at home, I remembered having this bizarre dream last night where I took my ring off.  I decided it was worth checking the bed.  Sure enough, it was under the blankets!
I was so thrilled.  My finger felt naked without it and it made me appreciate the significance it holds for me and what it represents.
Rejoice with me! My ring was lost and now is found.

hot water bottle

I'm not sure if you will believe this.  I'm not sure I quite believe it myself!
Last night I had to use a heat bag to warm up my feet so I could sleep, I was so cold. It was 23 degrees.  How on earth am I going to cope in English temps?!
The weather has been delightful lately with a cool wind. It has made me smile,though, to hear my non-British friends describe the weather as gorgeous.  In our weather-influenced vocabulary that is the word we use to describe hot summer days!

Memorial

This evening I attended the memorial of a man in our mission who had suffered from a degenerative mental disease.  I taught his youngest son in my first year at FA and they have been vocal American supporters of the IGCSE programme.
It was an uplifting celebration and it made me ponder on the way I would like my life to be celebrated and how I would like to strive to live well - with God's grace.  Even if no-one ever recognises me for any major achievements or rewards, even if - as our speaker encouraged us at our conference - I never see fruit of any of my labours, I will trust in God and walk with the faith of those listed in Heb 11.

Sharing a Room

Rose has been bugging us to move her into Josh's room.  We asked for a good reason why that was necessary.  She didn't really come up with anything convincing but, having had enough (never a good motivation) I told her she could for one night, but if they were silly or badly-behaved it would be her last night!
Well sure enough, they did not go to sleep but were noisy and silly and moving around for a lot longer than they should have been.  Eventually I had to put Josh in our room so they would go to sleep.
Needless to say, Steve moved the bed back into Naomi's room the next morning!  He told me that Rose had later said to him that she thought she should e given a second chance as God gives people second chances.
Good theology, but no.

First Day

Whew!
Ended up slightly late this morning and said to Josh, "I'll drop you off at the playground on the way past". Josh: "No, mummy. I have to check with my teachers if I can go down to the playground. I can't just go!"  Debs: "Josh, it's five past seven.  Trust me, you can go."
Josh: "No, I have to check with the teachers first."
As I pull up to the playground he sees other Kindergarteners: "Oh, OK. I'll go to the playground."

I go to my office after dropping off Naomi at her friend's house.  It strikes me as I'm printing off something that it's rather quiet around the high school office so I ask one of the secretaries, "Has the bell gone already?"
"Yes!"
Oh great!  I dash to my room and am met by cheers and clapping.  I'm not completely sure it wasn't ironic, but I also wonder if they were worried I wouldn't arrive because it's normally my day off or whether they were worried I had abandoned them to a different teacher!  I told them they could greet me like that every day and I would be happy : )

By tonight Rose was pretty tired and everything was wrong before she went to bed.  Then her pillows weren't right and she didn't want the fan on because she has a cold but she didn't want it off because she would be too hot!  So, Naomi decided her pillows weren't right either and Josh wanted to sleep in our room.

Could be a long evening!

Back to School

Tomorrow is the day our children return to school.  Steve has been Monday and Tuesday for In-service and I floated in for the bits I wanted to be there for (the perks of part-time teaching!).
This morning was our subject team meeting and Rose and Josh were supposed to be doing a football clinic but when we arrived at school Rose decided she couldn't play because she had a cold (drama queen doesn't begin to cover my eldest, and yes, I see the reflection) and Josh was put off by the fact that she didn't want to go and he couldn't see any of his friends.  So we were up at school 2 hours earlier than we needed to be and I accomplished nothing on my list before the subject meeting!
While I was in my meeting I put Toy Story 3 up on the big screen in my classroom for the kids to watch and they did really well until about 10 minutes before the meeting finished.  Then I suffered through major meltdowns from the two girls, banished them to their rooms to eat lunch in solitude and afterwards, enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with them making things.
How tired will we be after the first full day of school?!

Conference

We arrived back from our field-wide conference feeling spiritually refreshed, if not physically refreshed.  Our speaker - Charles Price - was amazing and I am looking forward to getting the CDs to listen again, especially as I missed one session as Naomi needed some mummy-time.  Our kids loved their programme and hanging out with all the other children but we are all completely out of routine now!  They are tired from staying up late and travelling - can't wait for that 14 hour flight!!

Light and sound show

I will miss welcoming in New Year's Eve Manila style next year.  It started with a fondue party at our friends' house which is right by the school gate. Jason used to work in a fondue restaurant and makes amazing cheese fondue and chocolate fondue.  Our kids were flagging by about 10 - no surprises there - I think most of the adults were too!
About 11 we headed up to the seating area above the Faith football field to pick a place to watch the fireworks.  They had already been going a while by then but it starts to get better around then.  It was a little overcast, so we weren't sure how good a view we were going to get but it began to clear a little as the barrage increased.  It is so amazing to see (and hear) fireworks across the breadth of the sky.  There are two houses close to Faith who often have great displays and they did not disappoint last night.  It reaches a crescendo around 12 and then it can be difficult to know where to look!
I love it.  I guess lots of us do as it was packed on top of the hill again last night.