This week you wouldn't know that we just moved over 3000 miles. This week you wouldn't know that our lives have changed completely: new culture, new language, new jobs. This week life seems pretty familiar.
Because we're starting the new semester online.
Once again I'm sitting cross-legged on my bed, staring at a computer screen. Sure, it's a different bed; this one is in South America. And sure, those middle schoolers peering at me from the little squares on my screen are new to me; I'm still trying to match the faces with the names, as I explain to them when I request that they turn on their cameras.
The bird noises outside are different ones. This apartment in Asunción, Paraguay, is air-conditioned, unlike our house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (And we need it; it's supposed to be 108 some of the days this week.) The products in our fridge and our cupboard have Spanish writing on them. This really is a new place. But it feels all-too-familiar this week.
4 comments:
108 degrees, Ruth-!! Thank the Lord for AC.Here in central NC we have some patches of snow on the ground. I can see you sitting there with your laptop learning all these new faces - here's to your new adventure (even if it feels-all-too-familiar at present).
I have to adjust my thinking about you. Such extreme heat! I'm glad you have A/C. Seeing faces on a screen, I don't know how you keep at it. I had to meet virtually with one set of kids yesterday due to quarantine and it was frustrating. I had a third grader presenting to get the 2nd grader onto the right page. And he kept running away. It's hard enough to focus inside a classroom, but in his bedroom, it was near impossible. Good luck with your new students and your new surroundings. We traveled to Chile one Christmas and I kept having the feeling I was watching myself in a foreign film. A strange feeling.
I just saw Molly's post about winter in Maine and it is hard to square those photos with you being in 108 degrees! Thank you for including us in your adventure.
Ruth, hooray for air conditioning. I am here in layers and still feel the cold. Tea is warming and so is hearing from you. Many wishes on the unfamiliar becoming familiar in due time and the familiar bringing you blessings.
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