NON-LABOR DAY!

Why the day is called labor, I will never know, as it is the one day we don't do just that.  We save our labor, putting it to rest for a day, as we tend to do something more relaxing to prep us for the remainder of the year.  Funny though how just one day a year can do that for us!  

To celebrate a day away from our jobs, since we have all been at it for one strong week here, we celebrated labor day by having a community pot luck brunch.  While something I never really been a part of, or heard of for that matter, it was a great success and such a fun way to spend the day off.  Each house, couple, or person, just depending on who lived together, brought a dish that would go for breakfast, either a casserole, omelets, eggs, fruit, coffee, avocados or oatmeal.  Amazingly enough, for not much planning and just invitation by spread of mouth, there was only one repeat of casserole, and a large spread of various other things to fill each person there, and leave some for those who were with us in spirit.  As people gathered in the Miami style, which others may know as the latino style, people were eating in shifts.  It really worked perfectly as we only had one small table to eat at.  After everyone had their fair share of eating and talking, we all hit the pool together, which was right by the Miami river, which is a traffic way for all the barges, yachts and fishing boats that come in off the ocean.  It was quite fun to watch all the different types of people that would sail by.

Then, come 2:45 it was off to the first day of football tryouts, as I was welcomed at 3 o'clock (starting time) by the other coach and one player.  Wow!  What a disappointment, but I guess I cant ask for much having the first practice on a holiday.  People slowly started coming, with the last ones showing up about 4:30, thirty minutes after the official end of practice, however, we just kept running them for a while to make everyone feel like they came to practice for a good reason.  Overall it was a good day of getting the boys accustomed to the rules of practice and what we will be expecting for them in the coming season.  I could see the spark in some boys today, as they came ready to work.  Others, came thinking it would be a time in the park to throw a football with friends.  Some soon found out it was hard to run spring and do bear crawls while wearing flip-flops.  I'm guessing they will bring shoes, and a water bottle tomorrow.  They are not allowed to go in the school for anything, and we don't supply water.  Therefore, they forget it, they don't get it.  Being knew though, I didn't know this and I didn't bring a water bottle.  With nine boys, coaches have to run drills to fill in for people.  Once again I found the Miami sun to be an enemy in these times of the afternoon.  Samir, the assistant coach, and I soon broke into the kitchen at school and found some milk they had on hand.  I am glad I am the coach!

After practice, it is tradition to stick around and play a game of basketball.  An obvious sign we don't run these boys enough.  I never even had enough energy to come home and sleep, let alone, play a full out game of basketball in the same sun that just kicked my butt for two hours.  Hey, different cultures call for different measures.  I am learning.  It is the sense of community being built between the boys, compared to going home and playing video games.  I will stay with them as long as they want to stay and have good, clean and safe fun.  This is not a problem for me.  The problem for me is getting beat in basketball by these boys.  This is why I will make sure I run them the adequate amount to get them tired enough to not play hard.  

Its going to be an exciting season with lots of stories, as I am learning to be a part of this culture, and learning the rules to a very new game.  I am pumped to get into the games and see what these boys can do.

Their motto of choice, "If you want to go somewhere you've never been, you have to do things you've never done!"  These boys are getting ready to do some things they have never done!  

GIRLS NIGHT!

Girls night!  That is exactly what I am sitting through as I write.  Living with three women in the house, they automatically take the majority on everything.  That is OK though.  This is supposed to be an experience about learning new culture, right?

Working full time, I learn quickly to appreciate the weekend much more than I ever have before.  I never really understood why everyone LOVED the weekend so much, and never wanted to go do things, however, sit and enjoy the time off they had.  Well, now, I understand.  Didn't take me all that long to give a little more respect to the teachers in my life.  Maybe even the ones I lived with in the past, who I always complained were lame during the weekend.  So, without saying anymore, it should be assumed that my weekend was full of events!

Waking up saturday, we decided to make our house look livable and more "homey" as JJ and I decided to clean from floor to ceiling.  We started out in the kitchen, organizing the pantries, shelves, cupboards and fridge.  We moped, cleaned, dusted and everything else you could think of that most people didn't think I knew what to do.  Dishes were washed, groceries were bought and put away and the floor was swept again.  We then moved into the living room, dining room and bedroom as everything received attention, even the toilets.  It was a blessing to have other room mates who cooked lunch for us, as we continued cleaning the whole day as the women played games on their computers, watching us slave away.  

Ok, who am I kidding.  Basically everything I just said, should be reversed.  The girls worked like crazy while JJ and I played Risk and Monopoly all day, taking a break to cook them lunch.  Had it been nice out, we would have spent the day in the yard making it look pleasing as well, however, Erika still had tears to shed on Miami as it continued to be another day with 100% humidity.  The evening was finished by going to church at the contemporary, young adult service that we attend as a family every Saturday night.  There always is a great arrangement of music, and a speaker that is quite well also.  However, after my long day of "work" I caught myself drifting off in the sermon.  The only thing I could tell you about it is in the middle, she talked about Rose Hill, Kansas.  I don't think I have ever woke up so quick during a sermon.  Apparently she had pastored there for a number of years before moving to Miami.  It was fun to talk with her a bit after the service about growing up in Kansas and reminiscing about its beauty that we miss while being in Miami.  

As for Sunday, it was a lot of the same.  Catching up on much needed rest during the morning.  However, the sun made an appearance giving me a chance to catch up on some much needed mowing.  I also decided to be a help and change my room mates tire, as she didn't realize that running over a screw is not the best thing.  I guess growing up in Texas, where everything is bigger, their BIG tires can withstand a puncturing nail.  Welp, here in the real world, tires and screws are enemies!  (Not trying to be mean, just returning the favor of talking about her in my blog as she told the whole state of Texas that I am lanky!)

So as I am stuck in "Girl's Night," while JJ just took the easy way out and went to bed, I sit an continue to appreciate this break that we have from work.  This is one of the times that I am glad to be a Christian, as I remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy! (and doing as little as possible...even if it is hang out with 4 girls and watch chick flicks!  What guy wouldn't want to be me right now?)

GIRLS NIGHT!

ERIKA IS HERE....KINDA..

As we sit in our cozy little home yesterday night and this morning, we watch as Tropical Storm Erika, well, what's left of her, pour down and blow.  Sorta reminds me of a mediocre thunderstorm back home, that doesn't go away.  It never seems to move on, just sit here on top of us.  In the meantime, I am supposed to be mowing.  We have a BBQ coming up at our house, and we still have a jungle as a lawn, as it is clear all day when everyone is working, but when we get home the storms roll in.  The constant mix of water and sunshine is not helping us make our house look very livable to the outside world.  However, inside, it has so much life including 5 humans, 1 rabbit, 1 hamster, too many ants to count and numerous cockroaches.  Such a sanctuary of life this old house supports!

As Friday wraps up the week, kids are obviously excited for the 

first weekend of the school year.  Being a teacher, I think I am going to start liking Mondays more than Fridays pretty soon, as Monday means the children are tired and not as energetic.  Listening to teachers in my life, this seems to be true throughout the country.  And if these teacher's no what they are talking about, I am not looking forward to the next full moon, as they say it seems to be twice as bad.  (The image is of my 'most likely' favorite preschooler at Yvonne Learning Center, Zachary.  This picture was the first time he has ever seen a picture of himself, or so he told me)

Being the first week of school, my 3 boys that I am tutoring thought their homework and grades didn't matter, just because it was a sort of review for them, as I try to figure out where they are at educationally.  As I asked them to get their homework out for writing yesterday, no one moved.  "You guys get it all done?" I ask as they all shake their heads and smile.  Of course they didn't do their homework.  Who does anymore?  "Alright, well, since you didn't do the writing, we have to do it now so that we have something to work with during class.  So, after I mark these zeros down in the book, I will tell you what you are to write," I inform them as I get my computer out to record the zeros.  "But, Mista Isaac, I got tired last night and fell asleep!"  "Thats fine," I say as I think of a good idea for them.  "You can do the writing assignment right now.  Take out a pencil and paper and write a page on how children should be punished for not completing homework."  Trying to sound smart they say things such as the following:  Clean the whole school, write lines, give us more homework, run us extra at football, and smaller things such as don't eat lunch.  I talk it over with the principal and return to the class.  Since they feel this is the appropriate punishment (they obviously do since they wrote it) I made sure it all happened.  I "OKed" it with the other teachers and the boys stayed after school, sweeping and mopping the whole school, then cleaning the white boards.  If this didn't upset them enough, I had them get out a fresh piece of paper, open to "Charlotte's Web."  "Since I obviously can not teach you guys how to write properly, I know a guy that might be able to.  E.B. White is pretty good at it, and since you don't want to read and write a summary about it like assigned, you can just learn from Mr. E.B. and write the story word for word," I tell them as I get some very hard stares.  They write for 30 straight minutes without saying a word, knowing that I really meant business. 

The rest of the school day consisted of them not finishing their reading assignment, getting zeros on the test I wrote over the story, having another story read to them as I made them stand so they wouldn't fall asleep during the story again, more F's on the test, incomplete math homework, and followed up with "incomplete homework" slips sent home to all the parents to be signed and returned.  Smiles were not present as the boys left the classroom.  I pull one aside that could do the work if he tried, but just is too lazy.  He is the type of kid that everyone likes, and he uses this to try and get away with not doing his homework.  "Put a smile on your face man," I say as he walks past.  "I can't Mista Isaac.  My dad is going to beat me when I get home unless to take this note away from me.  Have you ever had a butt whoopin' Mista Isaac?"  I inform his of the size of my dad and growing up with brothers who crack his other brothers in the head with golf clubs, or pitchforks through hands, and many lashings with belts from my past.  "Dang Mista Shue.  You come from a scary place!" he says as a smile seems to creep out.  I just let him keep thinking that as he walked on to start cleaning the school.

I feel bad doing this to the boys, but I have to stand firm and let them know that I am not always there just to be a friend to them, but to make sure they learn as well as learn some discipline.  

The evening was filled with a much needed nap, followed by a trip to a local Irish Pub to listen to a traditional Irish band.  It was some good music to listen to, as the band was literally 2-inches from our table.  At one point I leaned over without thinking and hit the guitar neck with my head as it was being played.  Only a smile followed in my direction though as he was drunk enough to not care.  As we left the pub, police lights filled the entryway with the road being completely blocked off.  This is not a scene you want to see in the city on a weekend night, especially when there is a police officer with a tripod and camera snapping CSI shots or debris in the road.  Debris consisting of a shoe in the middle of the road and something we couldn't identify walking by, but looked important.  While walking to the car, we hear word that someone was leaving the restaurant (most likely intoxicated) when they were struck by an oncoming car.  That must have been the car sitting in the middle of the road with the camera now pointed at it.  Sure enough, as we walk by, the hood looks like a taco shell, as something obviously was struck quite hard with the windshield being totally smashed with a big hole right in front of the driver.  We have tried to look up what happened, but it didn't seem like a big enough story to cover in Miami.  Not when the Coast Guard is finding $100 million in cocaine trying to be snuck in, or when two human feet are found severed near a local river.  You just never know what is going to happen next in Miami!  I love the excitement of the city life!

MAGGIE

Day two of my life in Miami, I came into the house to find a Cuban woman sitting at our kitchen table, jabbering away in Spanish.  I go to my room and JJ says, "She is our neighbor.  She just needed to use the phone for a bit, but dude, she is yelling at her husband right now!"  JJ is fluent in Spanish, however Maggie does not know this.  I was unsure if we were supposed to do this or not, that is, let the neighbors in to use our things.  JJ said the other room mates were not fond of the idea, but he thinks we should.  I agreed.  I mean, what is wrong with letting the neighbor use the phone?

Now, only two short weeks later, I feel like I have known Maggie my whole life.  It is now a daily occurrence for her to make an appearance, asking either for water, ice cream, the phone, a place to sit, or just a small donation of $20.  

The saga started off as Maggie wanting to use only the phone to look for apartments because she was leaving her husband.  She just had to get out of this relationship, so why would we not help her?  Could she be being abused?  Possibly, so as Christians we decide to help her out and let her use the phone.  One day as I was getting some ice cream out of our freezer when I heard someone rapping on our door.  Of course I knew it was Maggie, as she is the only person to ever come over.  I answer the door politely and let her in.  "Oh, that ice cream looks very good.  Can I have some?  I have not eaten all day," she says as I without question scoop up another bowl.  I want to be nice to this women so I give her some ice cream and sit down to some friendly conversation.  A long, two hours later, Maggie finally leaves as my room mates have arrived home and we quick her out so we can go to bed.  

The drama continues everyday as she needs to use our phone to look for an apartment.  But this is not all.  She now is asking for ice cream and food every time she enters the door.  We always feed her, but we tell her she now has a time limit on our phone as we need our privacy.  She tells us she has a phone, but she sold it for money, however, she gives the landlords a number that isn't ours and tells them to call it.  We sense fishy things going on, but we just don't know what to do.  We all want to be nice, so we continue to help her out.

The next stage is money.  Lately, she always has a new story of why she needs money.  She comes over quite often lugging something with her that is "such a great deal!"  For example, one day she brings in a bag full of expensive suits.  "They are thousand dollar suits.  They are great suits, but I need twenty dollars so I will sell them all to you for twenty dollars."  "Well Miss Maggie, I am doubting they are going to fit me," I say as I smile big.  "Oh yes they will.  They are big suits.  They will for sure fit you, do you want to buy them?"  I try one on as the shoulders in the coat push my shoulders together, smashing my lungs and I shove my arms through the whole, exposing my elbows at the bottom of the cuff.  Obviously this thing is not going to fit me and neither are the others.  "Well you could just give me twenty to help me out.  I really need medicine."  As I have no cash in my wallet, my room mates go together and get this for her, remembering the day before that we gave her twenty dollars for her brand new DVD player that had no remote and  no buttons to work it.  But kindly we give her more money wondering what it really is being used for.

So, how long do 5 young adults, making two dollars per day continue to show the love of God and support this woman and whatever her habits are.  It is obvious she needs help, but she is always feeding us unreasonable stories that she contradicts every time she comes back.  Do we continue to let her in the house and feel like we are being taken advantage of, or do we continue on?  It really is a tricky question.  Sometimes, it is just hard to be a Christian!!  And then, the door raps again...

We try to talk through what we will say until we HAVE to answer the door because she has been out there for a while.  Before the door is open she says, "can I come in?"  We decide not to let her, as there are only two of us here with no money.  We also had just sat down for supper, so we wanted to eat in peace.  That is when the obvious fake crying came into play.  "My husband just left me!!!  Why do you have to be so nasty to me!!"  I really didn't know giving someone an abundance of food and $40 dollars was nasty, but that is just me.  Maybe it is.  We are to the point that we honestly don't know what to do.  It is obvious we are being lied to and taken advantage of, but how would God handle the situation?  I wish I knew!

MISTA ISAAC! IS 30+6 EQUAL 28?

Eighth grade. What was I doing in eighth grade? This time in my life, I was busy working on Algebra, writing essays and "time machine" projects, my plans for the next ten years, learning countries, capitals and world history, learning about the perfect health of the body and even learning the proper slide positions for my rusty, yet working trombone! What a different world we grow up in!

While I listen to my students struggle and misread words such as ran, cat and truck I think back to the days of learning this in first grade and try to think of how my teacher helped me get the concept straight for how sounds go together and why. I try to remember jingles such as "I before E except after C" and "change the Y to I and add ES" and while I am successful at remembering them, I can not teach the boys why they do this, or other rules and why they are true. Why is bike spelled with a silent 'e' at the end of the word while bight sounds the exact same for the 'i' yet, it is spelled so much different? I try to make things up, and surprisingly sometimes I feel like I may be right! Either way, I am having fun spending the day with these three gentlemen. Hopefully I will get some pictures of them soon, however, sometimes I just feel like a creeper teacher asking my three young BOYS, hey, you mind if I take a picture of you? That screams nothing except, "Get away man, get in your 15 passenger creepmobile and get out of here!" Maybe the time will come though!

Being with these boys for four months, I want to become a part of their life and learn as much from them as they hopefully can from me. We come from totally different worlds and this may be my only chance to learn about this lifestyle and their only chance at having a male figure in their life. Therefore, I want the best for these young gentlemen. Some of you may have heard through email or word of mouth, but the football season is currently on hold. To save my time of typing and yours of reading, I will just give little details. Their families don't have the money to pay for the season. We must come up with money to pay for buses, rent of fields and pay for the refs. However, our budget is reading right at the zero mark, therefore, today they were putting the axe down saying no football. I stepped in the way and said hold on, and have asked people I know to please donate and help these boys out. They have nothing! Today, I overheard one of the boys tell the other one that he hopes the rice and beans he ate at school keeps his stomach full until tomorrow when he gets his lunch again. "Why is that," I but in hoping to hear a different answer than I knew was coming. "Mista Isaac, I go to bed hungry every night!" If your heart does not break when you hear this coming from someone you work with, you are the tin man! Even he would melt at that! These kids deserve so much more, and to think that this is how the majority of the people are in our world just seems unimaginable to me. Why are we so lucky?

How much will I be able to help these boys this coming year? I wish I knew, therefore, I could strive to do more. After the boy took a full minute to add 30 and 6 to get the answer of 28, I told him to write it out on the board with an "equals" sign. He did this, but left the equal sign out, so I told him again, "Jude, put an equals sign." He marked a "+" there and looked at me slowly to approve. "Do you know what an equals sign is, Jude?" "No, Mista Isaac, I don't know!" (remember, these boys are in EIGHTH GRADE!) I just had to smile at how much work I noticed that I will be doing in the next four months. Because those boys are going to be learning in the mainstream classroom after I leave this place, and actually be learning. Not just sitting there getting more and more behind. I am going to make sure of it. Today, in the teachers meeting, it sounds like once I am gone, there is not hope for the one boy and the others will just be forced back in, and will just live with being behind. This is not an option for me!

Being thrown into this position with no teaching material or anything at first, just the words, "Teach them math and writing!," I feel like we have made giant strides. These boys did not want to do anything at first. Now, I have them begging me to write a paragraph on the board with mistakes so that they can correct it! In TWO days! THAT is the best feeling in the world. I don't care what anyone says!

ORIENTATION

Nothing like having a break after your first day of work.  However, with all the room mates arriving in Miami last night, Heidi Aspinwall, the DOOR director had today planned as a day to see the city, learn the layout, places to shop and also just to get comfortable with each other.  Today we learned about the city, how one out of every 12 people is caucasian like us.  This really is a rarity to find in the USA.  The city is so amazingly diverse.  There are more signs and billboards in Spanish than in English.

As we drove around, we saw parts of Little Havanah, Little Haiti, Overtown (the African American part of town) and then all the little neighborhoods that have their own history.  Basically, we drove on the streets my mom always warned to stay off of.  I love being a rebel at times!  While I am pretty much used to the layout of the streets and neighborhoods, I really found today very helpful as history was explained as well.  We even made it over to South Beach to see if any starts were out today.  However, no such luck.  We didn't have the $100 to pay the cover charge to the right bars to get that lucky! haha....lucky, right!  Anyways, it was a relaxing trip through the city, ending at a local Thai restaurant where we all sat at the table 1 foot off the ground, squeezing six pair of legs under this card table thing.  A table of which my legs alone were crowded by themselves.  But stories are made with events like this, right?  (That was a horrible story, but really, the most exciting thing I could think of for the day!)

The day was finished up by having a family meeting and talking about rules of the house, expectations, and duties as we tried to write a covenant that we would all sign and abide to for the upcoming year, or four months for me.  However, after much deliberation, we have no covenant, and no rules.  However, we can not date for the first four months.  There goes my luck of finding a Latino princess while I'm down here!  

Tomorrow it is back to work for me, as I go to see if the 3 boys Max, Oliver and Jude made even more progress in my absence.  Also to see if there is any chance whatsoever that they decided to install an outdoor AC unit for the lunchroom, or maybe even a fan.  Maybe I will take a spray bottle fan or something for this daily event.  I may have to give up my stylish trends, buckle down, and just carry the dang thing!  After all, I am now  "nerdy"...."adult"...."teacher!"  Anything for comfort in my old age!