Sunday, May 5th:
Cinco de Mayo!
Today was a great day with my kids. It is already warm by the time we start our classes on the third floor in 5th grade, so I definitely needed extra energy to keep myself awake and my kids interested. 5B was fairly uneventful. In 5A, the split is broken and the heat was suffocating. I promised them that if we made it through the lesson I would take them to the garden early. Two of the boys got in a scuffle after throwing mean words back and forth, which delayed us from leaving. When I took the class to the garden they were surprisingly well behaved, walking in a line and not causing a disturbance once we were outside. I took the two boys aside and we talked about how they should have behaved towards each other. One of the boys apologized and scampered off after a couple minutes. The other boy and his friend stayed and eventually they told me that it was hard for them in class because they don't speak Kurdish as well (they are ethnic Christians). It is easier to fight with the other students since they can't give an adequate response in Kurdish without being laughed at. The other boy also likes to pick fights - I told them I think it is because he is smaller and wants to prove that he is tough. They agreed and said they didn't like to fight him; I encouraged them to keep responding in love. As I left for my next class, they headed off to play football; one of the boys turned and smiled "thanks for the talk Miss." His look and that simple statement made my heart soar for the rest of the day.
Sixth grade cheated on their last homework assignment, so we talked about it in light of our verse for the day, "Speak the truth in love." Several of the students told me I was their only teacher who gave them opportunities to improve their grades and they were upset that the students who cheated had "repaid" me this way. "Miss you are loving to us, and cheating is not very loving to you." Each time I address this issue, I hope that the lesson is learned ... only to discover a couple weeks later that they've been cheating again. There isn't any shame in cheating unless you are caught, so until they have an inward conviction about it, I'm sure it will only continue.
After classes, I stayed a little later for a meeting about the spelling bee/talent competition that will take place in Erbil this weekend. I taxied home, picked up some groceries from the corner store, and then came home for a nap. I slept longer than I intended, but I know it was needed. When I woke up, I got a lot of schoolwork finished and then Skyped with the family at 5pm. Hannah went over to John and Mary's for dinner - corn crepe enchiladas - and brought me some leftovers. She talked with me while I ate (around 7:30pm) and then I worked on lesson planning just before bed.
Monday, May 6th:
A good, uneventful day at school. (Actually, one of the teachers fainted from the heat - possibly in 5A, where the split is broken - but he was taken to the hospital and doing alright the last I heard.) I am beginning to feel all the busy-ness of the last few weeks of school. It is hard to stay focused on what needs to be done in the present as there seems to be plenty of things regarding the past and the future that want my attention. After school I fought off the urge to take a nap (drank a Coke instead) and worked on all the schoolwork that needed to be done for the day. At 5, Andy and Lisa picked us up and we went to Turkish shwarma for our team dinner. We had team time in the Bishop's front yard - discussing our adoption as children of God and enjoying the nice weather. A quiet evening afterwards and I was able to get to bed early.
