A New Kind of Day

These past two weeks have been ones that have changed our lives. Never before have we been this close to such catastrophe and huge loss of life. We have seen person after person be affected... can't find a friend, haven't heard about a brother, buried their cousin, now housing their homeless relatives... everyone in Haiti knows somebody who was there at the quake. For us, we didn't lose anyone we knew, but our friends did. Our house wasn't destroyed from beneath us, but it shook hard enough not to let us forget that thousands did. The world isn't in chaos in north Haiti, but it did change.
From Wednesday morning after the quake things haven't been the same. Kris left early Wednesday taking with her medications, bandages, and our daily routine. There was a void when Kris left that someone or somebody had to fill. It turned out that we all had to come together to continue on. Kathleen and I began to homeschool Elijah and Anna from 7:30 am (usually we were a little tardy...oops) and finish at 3ish.
We started each morning with some singing hymns and reading about different countries in the world (first picture). They didn't complain too much, but I am sure that they will be glad to have their mom back after my tone-deaf attempts at carrying a tune. It is a good thing my beautiful wife was there to help me. After that we would read aloud to the kids. I would read history with Eli (we learned about communism, Vietnam, Korea, etc), then they would do math, french, grammar, science, and we would read some of the subjects with them. I have never read aloud so much in my life! It is a skill to be able to do that for a long time. They got a break at 10 in the middle of their subjects and then lunch is at noon. After lunch they do spelling with Kath (second pic... they are not always smiling). The day would end with them finishing whatever subjects they had on their list. They were working hard to get done before their grandparents get here so they could get some days off. They did a great job! It was good to hang out with them most of the time. Granted they are still 12 and 8 and brother and sister, but kath and I love them all the more after a week and a half of teaching. (The last two pics are Eli and Anna hard at work)
When we were done in the Thede's house we would come home and hastily plan our English class and head to that at 3:55. We have been teaching beginners on Mon/Wed, Intermediate on Tues/Thurs, and have English Club on Friday afternoons. Our English classes are going well and we always enjoy them once we start teaching, but I am not going to say I always skip to class. The students are great and we really feel more at ease with them. It is great to be making new friends. We get done teaching class at 5:30 and then get dinner ready. Both of us were usually pretty tired having put in a full day of teaching. We hang out and then go to bed at 10ish.
Eli and Anna finished school and now the Team Season begins today with the arrival of Kris's parents and another couple. We have no idea what our days are going to look like now, but we know that they will be put to good use! Tomorrow Bill and I are again working on getting water to the medical clinic... sounds like fun to me.
Have a great Day!