Finals Week and The Break

The posts have been so sporadic from your author...but we trust you'll understand...

We've just experienced what is common here around holidays...the 6 day school week!

To take off the Friday after New Years Day (thus granting us 3 days off in a row) we had to go to school on Sunday January 4th. It was certainly a new experience that left us exhausted and brain dead when we reached last evening (Friday night.)

To add excitement to the marathon school week we have had the added pressure of a Reciting Competition (14 students who speak Chinese recited in English and 2 students with whom you Blog followers are familiar, recited in Chinese), the first two days of Semester Finals and a visit from a distinguished professor from America! By close of school Wednesday I thought that childbirth had been less demanding...this due to the fact that the Reciting Competition was finally complete. We've been practicing with pronunciation and interpretation for 4 weeks with our students and finally the day of the show arrived complete with nearly ALL the parents in attendance as well as the Chancellor of the school and the aforementioned professor from America!

As the first student, a shy and quiet young boy began to recite his piece "The Big Red Sled," I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. He was a white as a sheet and I thought for certain that he was going down! I kept thinking..."this is a crucial moment in his life...he's either going to think he's a failure at this public speaking/English thing...or he can feel victorious that he made it through."

At the conclusion of his piece he was supposed to give a brief translation of his story back into Chinese...

he froze...

So I went over, kneeled down, and started to ask him questions about his story in English...and within a few tense, quiet seconds...he began to respond! So tentatively at first and then the English just started flowing out of his mouth to my ears! His confidence restored, I high-5'd him and sent him to his seat.

I believe...crisis of confidence...averted!

For the last 3 days of school this week we've finished up with a seminar by the professor from the US. Great information and so much encouragement for our work here!

We struggled in our "free time" at school to finalize our Exams that began for Social Studies, Science and Music on Thursday and Friday. Monday all the students will sit for exams in the traditional way it has been done here for ages...

The first 1.5 hour will be the Math final for all students.

The next 1.5 hour the students will sit for their Chinese final.

After lunch the brain-drained youth will sit for our English finals. Then...they'll be dismissed for their Spring Festival break from school...until February 12! One month of break!

We are so excited to have the break and down time as a family. As we look back, since we left The Old Place, we've been going "non-stop" struggling to settle in The New Place. We feel good, we feel strong...but I suspect that a rest is in order for all of us.

We knew, before we came, that one week of our Spring Festival Break would be spent in Hong Kong with many other teachers from our organization at The Old Place. But what would we do with the other 2.5 weeks? Explore here...sleep in...rest and rest and rest?

With the recommendation of a sister here...we found an amazing opportunity...in Thailand. For those of you from The Old Place...think of Cedar Springs...there's a retreat center in the North of Thailand (no beaches, but a swimming pool!) that has been serving cross-cultural workers since the 70's, I think.

Interestingly enough, the lady who founded the retreat center was born in our very home county back at The Old Place!

So we're excited! We had very little money to travel, but thanks to (or as a result of) the Bangkok airport crisis in December with protesters shutting down the airport there for many days...the airfares to Bangkok were amazing! Our entire family of 7 is flying there from Hong Kong for less than the cost of one person's ticket usually!

We're going to have train adventures...2-3 sleeper trains (our first experience with them). We'll travel by plane and by elephant (this is BY FAR the highlight for Brownie who's favorite animal is the elephant) and by ferry as well.

We expect we'll have some crazy pictures and reflections to post to this blog as we travel over the 3 week period.

We depart The New Place on January 18 then arrive in Hong Kong on the 19th. Fly to Bangkok where we hope to connect with some cross-cultural working friends who are also from The Old Place (Davis family) and check out their work for 2 days or so. Then we're off to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand where we'll stay for 10 days. The Cedar Springs-style place will have staying in a traditional Thai "tree" house on stilts in an area of heavy vegetation. They will feed us (and the other cross-cultural working families from around the world...about 95 people in total) three meals a day in a dining room like the one I've got so many precious memories from with Ladies' Retreats of GNF in the past. (sniffle, sniffle)

Then on the 31st of January we'll transfer back to Hong Kong to meet for training with our organization and the other teachers from all over the region here. We're so excited to meet other families/people like us and hear their stories!

After a week of training we'll likely board another sleeper train and head back to The New Place. We've been told that by March 1st the cold will be moving on and we'll be marching toward the sweltering summer again...

Please lift us up during this time for traveling mercies and good time to work through all the issues that are new for our family living cross-culturally. Each of us, down to little Bub, need to continue to process and reflect on our first 6 months here...my, how blessed we've been...my, how we've struggled at times.

How we value you. Thank you, for your interest in us. Thanks for reading this Blog. Thank you more than anything for supporting the work we've been called to here.

Steven Curtis Chapman, one of our all-time favorite artists has written several songs that capture the sentiments that we're feeling at the start of this new year..... today these words are rolling through my mind...

"Saddle up your horses, we've got a trail to blaze,
Into the wild-blue yonder of God's amazing grace,
Let's follow our Leader into the glorious unknown,
This is a life like no other....this is the Great Adventure."