Brown Bread Boys Ride Again!

View every day at the after school program

Sunrise on the beach at Chintsa (sintsa)

Picture Update!

I am without a digital camera at the moment, but now have some new photos via Sarah a co-worker and friend.

This is a photo of the after school program. The boys have named it the "Brown Bread School" because we feed them peanut butter sandwiches on brown bread.

The Highlight of My Day

The highlights of my days here are at daybreak. The rest is downhill from there : ) On my bicycle commute to work I pick up a cup of coffee from a local shop. I peddle while sipping a hot brew as the sun rises in front of me..... Then I have to use both hands to brake when I come to a stop and spill precious drops all over the handle bars. The sticky fingers are worth the exhilaration of a hot cup of coffee and the brilliance of a warming sun in chilly Autumn weather.

Where are your glasses?

I have learned of the frustration my parents went through when trying to get me to where my glasses. One of my students is nearly deaf. He is very good at reading lips and is very clever, but nonetheless; he cannot hear. I took him in to get his hearing checked. The audiologist looked at his file and said “Where is his hearing aide?” Come to find out, for the whole year I have been here, he has had a hearing aide, just never worn it. The battery was dead. I understand why he doesn't want to wear it in school because there is no question he will be harrasssed. We will work with it in during our small group sessions.

Peeing on the Playground

As I was sitting and planning a prayer activity at one of the schools I work at, I heard one of our students I hadn't seen in a while. He had been taken in by the police one evening because his mother thought he had stolen her cell-phone. Come to find out, the police had put a plastic bag over his head untill he crapped his pants and then made him walk home in them. Now how would that fly in the States?...... Why is it okay here? Then as I sat there, I watched as another student peed in the middle of the school lawn.

Pudd'n Head Wilson

I picked up a copy of Mark Twain's: "Puddn' Head Wilson" the other day and have been refreshed by the sarcastic and ironic humor that this late 19th century author wrote. Here are a few quotes. To think an author of the 1890s could be so entertaining....

"When I reflect upon the number of disagreeable people who I know have gone to a better world, I am moved to lead a different life."

"Adam was but human- this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent."

"The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money."

"All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"- a strange complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live."

"When angry, count four; when very angry, swear."

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."

"Behold the fool saith, "Put not al thine eggs in the one basket" - which is but a manner of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention"; but the wise man saith, "Put all your eggs in the one basket - WATCH THAT BASKET."

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."

"It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races."

"It is often the case that the man who can't tell a lie thinks he is the best judge of one."