Thoughts from Friday, February 26th

Last day here. It was full. Golly, let's take a breather...

Alright. So, it was kind of tough to actually get out of bed this morning. I decided to go back to the school, it was sad to not get another chance to see Granny and a few other faces one last time.

I worked in the Grade 2 class for the morning. Those kiddies were hyper today. Issac yelled emphatically with a wet face from tears, "I hate you", simply for putting his name on the board after numerous warnings. Ha, poor kid. Two of the boys got into a brutal fight at recess which somewhat freaked me. The vocab of some of these kids often surprises me.

After consoling a girl who got hit in the head accidentally from a basketball, and trying to talk through the fight with the other two boys, I stood there momentarily thinking "This is insanity, how do these teachers do this every day?"

Debbie (the principal), poked her head into the class just before lunch to say she needed me to go teach/hang out with the Pre-K kids. Cute hooligans.

Zac and Karey were All Stars since they taught the Kindergartners all day without a lesson plan left for them. Mad props. We combined the Pre-K and Kindergarten class for P.E., which was somewhat chaotic but we managed to actually have them play a few games.

In the insanity of the day, those grade 7/8-ers were looking good to hang out with.

I hung out with the Grade 5 class for silent reading, and then we stayed for a while at the after school program. I played Checkers for the first time and was able to beat a 5 year old, anyone older than that was able to cream me. Little Isaiah gave me one heck of a good hug before we left, I shall miss all those cute faces.

We hit up Deep Dish pizza after a long drive to find the special spot, met a few other Canadians which is always nice. Sadly, not enough time to see the Michael Jordan statue, but we did go up the Hancock building. Gorgeous view of the city, and such an interesting history.

I am excited to sleep tonight. Can't believe we are already going back tomorrow. I look forward to my own bed, some clean clothes, and Canada...yet my heart has been changed by this place and I shall miss it.

I cannot believe these teachers survive in such an intense setting. With little pay, and literally working from 8am until 3 or 4pm, with the kids at recess and lunch, they are a hardcore troop of educators.

Today I was dissed by a 5 year old...

Back at the school today. Started with dusting the Grade 3 classroom. Mom, you would be proud of my cleaning skills.

It was fun being back in the school and having the kids be stoked to see us back, getting the "Hey Miss Jen!" in the hallways. I feel blessed that God has given my brain space to remember many new names, it makes me own heart happy when I can say a personal howdy to the kids.

I was able to work one-on-one with a few kiddies today, which is nice to get a bit more interactions. The kids have been so eager and welcoming to us all that it's swell to be there. It's hard though to see that such small classrooms are so chaotic compared to larger classrooms back home, and that the learning levels of some of the students are still not up to par. That is not uncommon however to have a few kids a little slower than the rest, but seeing how there is such a lack of support or extra time for the teachers to input into their students makes it harder to leave. After only two days in the school, my heart is definitely attached.

Got to play with some of the kids in their after school program today as well. It was stellar playing basketball with some of the little boys and girls, and duck-duck-goose. Holy smokes, cute kids. Paris, (yes, an odd name for a boy), makes me smile, and we were able to play some Lego together for a while. And Lauda, this darling chubby-cheeked chicka had on the cutest dress and was so focused on building a jumbo-lego house.

Lil' Jimmy, who I thought was wicked cute and sweet, turned out to be a little....mischevious fellow. I did not know that a 5 year old could have so much attitude bottled inside. He uses his cuteness as well...those cute little eyes look at you, and before you know it, that boy is whippin' out lingo I couldn't believe was part of his vocabulary, quite comical. As he accused me of trying to swipe his lego, or even sitting there plotting to steal it, I could not help but laugh. He also proceeded to whisper cruel words that will take me years to recover from.

Jimmy: She so pretty, hey man?
Nathan: Yeah, I know she pretty.

Little Jimmy looks up at me. (And yes, I was thinking this too for a split second, "Aw, how cute and sweet. He thinks I'm pretty. He's not so bad after all.")

Jimmy: Not you! Her! (pointing to Lindsay at the end of the table).
Insert the sound of my heart shattering.

Ah well, despite that, I faced my fears and hung out in the Grade 7/8 room doing a poetry lesson with them. Praise the Lord I was able to remember some of their names from a few earlier encounters, because by knowing their names, it blew a few of their socks off and they seemed to have a bit of respect for me. It's scary enough being in a large classroom with a bunch of kids, let alone a classroom that has TWO tarantula spiders for pets. What the heck!? I made it out alive.

Now, tomorrow is our last day, strange the week has flown by. I'm finding it hard to decide where I want to be for my final day. Hanging out with Granny and other friendly faces at the shelter, or being with the kiddies at the school...time shall tell.

Tonight holds organizing the basement, hot chocolate and an intense game of Killer Bunnies, woot woot.

Once I have more computer access, I'll post photos of all the special kids and people from the school and the shelter. And hey! We have our first day of sunshine and blue sky!! Happiness.

"You'll see 'im in church one mornin and ya heart be like 'bang!'"

Today was flippin' sweet.

We went back to the shelter, and I'm growing more and more fond of the place. Makes me sad that we will be leaving and who knows if I'll ever make it back out here.

This morning we were helping hand out extra food, basically a store to those who need the extra food. I met the most wonderful woman, Ira, fondly known as "Granny" by everyone else. I now have a Chicago granny. She even calls me Jennifer :) I was set beside her to hand out some veggies and fruit, and enjoyed some lovely conversation. She is an absolute gem!

The other woman beside me proceeded to keep everyone in order, and yelled more than a few times "Keep your gates shut and move the line on ya'll". Ha, and then I would hear sweet Granny say "Hey there sweetums, what can I get ya today?". I couldn't help but smile.

Again, looking into the eyes of so many different faces touched my heart. I saw the bluest blue eyes on this elderly man, yet they were filled with such a lack of hope. While others grinned their big lack-of-teeth smiles, and were so grateful and sweet. Never in my life have I been happy to hear 'Why thank ya baby" so often.

This funny older man who seems to be a common resident at the shelter continually calls us over. He is stellar. A bit of a kook I might say, however, he makes me laugh. He told a few of us gals who we will marry, mine sounds like he will be a pretty decent guy. Lindsay is gonna get a stellar ripped godly fellow named John, which I think was nice for her to hear. I was quite blessed by him though as he poured out some godly truth, and blessed us and told us to stay focused on our schooling because God has great plans for each of us. Here, a man with so little, lavishly proclaimed God's love and truth on us, and I felt overwhelming blessed.

I actually got a little choked up today. Looking at all those faces I had to hold back some tears. Knowing I'd be going back to a warm place to say, and soon to fly home to my comfy life while these others would walk out into the snowy cold weather, made me so grateful yet undeserving.

Got to cut probably 6 cows worth of meat in the kitchen too, yikes. And I am pro at washing dishes now (Rika, you'd be so proud of me).

Our crew headed into the city to skate outdoors. It was frigidly cold at first but we eventually warmed up. Skating was sweet. I actually felt quite decent compared to the shocking amount of lame skaters out there. It was fun wandering around downtown with the light snowfall. This crew is stellar and our laughs are always continuous.

Aight, ya'll, I'm gonna sign out. Peter and I are trying to work on our gangsta lingo, there is some cool talk out here.

Tomorrow I'm back to the school. I'm stoked to see some of those kiddies again.
Jen J, signing out.

"Ahh nice, service with a smile."

Today we switched things up a bit and Lindsay, Kevin, Peter and I went to the homeless shelter downtown. We felt somewhat odd walking through the inner city with our brown sandwich lunch bags.

We immediately went to work cleaning and cutting potatoes, washing lettuce, and clearing out a back room.

Maybe not the greatest jobs, but people are so gracious and thankful. "God bless ya" is continually muttered or cheerfully expressed numerous times a day.

Handing out lunch was enjoyable, but a new experience.

My eyes met those of tired mothers, cute little youngins, sad elderly men, rough fellahs, as well as those that still hold a cheerful shine. One gentlemen saw my smile and chuckled, and cheered "Yeah- she's got teeth! She's got teeth! Service with a smile."

Peter and I sat and had lunch with a nice guy who used to work at the shelter but was now attending a Truman college down the road. We got talking about money, and how much schooling cost. He mentioned how others pay a hefty amount for some other schools in the area. I cringed inside thinking how much I pay to be at Trinity. While I have absolutely valued that experience, sometimes it is hard for me to really justify all the money I have put into that place. I sure hope my heart remains willing to serve where the Lord directs me, rather than desiring a comfortable shallow life for my future.

Now we are settled back in at our residence for the week. I'm about to go make a cup of tea, and maybe nap or read a book. We are planning to go skating tonight...

Many laughs have happened since our crew been here, God is good in unifying us and bonding together. Amen.

Chicago...windy city, and the snowy city.

Monday.

So we were supposed to get 10 inches of snow during the night...but God is good, and we only got about two. However, Chicago definitely knows how to handle their snow and the roads were cleared before we even looked out the window this morning.

Four of us piled into a car this morning at 7:45am. Debbie, the wife in the home we are staying at, is the principal of the inner city Christian school we took off to for the day.

We made it through the slush and entered the school. A smiley face met us at the bottom of the stairs as a few minutes passed, introducing himself, Corell, a student teacher. He laughed with a twinkle in his eye as he said this will most likely be like nothing we could expect. He said, "You'll probably get to teach a few lessons too!". Ha.

We organized our schedules for the day, willing to jump in wherever we could. I took off to the Grade 2 class, to be met by 12 or so kiddies, only one of which was a girl. Corell, ended up teaching them a class right after I got there. He entered the room, "YO!", and the kids responded with an equally energetic "YO!". After this going back and for three times, he hollers "Sit down in your seat and take a load off your feet!". Um...the only thing running through my mind at that moment? Pssh, that's flippin' cool - if only I could do that.

I left the class to chat with the teacher and get a bit of an introduction. Here, I was handed materials to teach the next lessons from 9:20 until 11:30am. Ha. Sweet.

So, I've already taught a Social Studies lesson on American history, mainly which I had the students teach me to review their material. They found it fun to know that we also celebrate Christmas, Easter and Halloween in Canada, but have a few different historical holidays. I also covered some language arts stuff, and now I am fondly referred to (at least I hope it's fond), as "Miss Jen".

Took them down to recess and smoked two kids in the head with a ball by accident...opps. They were tough though, no tears. Tears only come when I have to put their names on the board for not staying in their seats or constantly talking during the lesson.

I then went off to a Grade 5 class where I was handed the poetry lesson, and had the class all to myself. God is good and completely removed any stresses or worries and the lessons have all gone pretty good so far.

I helped out in the computer room a bit today as well. However, the Grade 7/8 kids are a little out of my league. Pretty sure two girls were mocking me and calling me "Crispy Cream". Being a white gal from Canada just doesn't make me that cool. Dang it. At least the young kids think I'm somewhat neat.

I can't wait to back :)