February 1, 2006

• What’s Going on

  Tomorrow, Rachel and I drive to Hershey so Rachel can have outpatient surgery at 10:15 to correct her bladder reflux.  She had this same surgery done three months ago, and it almost fixed it all, but there was still slight reflux on one side. The doctor injects something which makes the opening of the ureter swell up a bit so the valve will cover the opening properly. But, they don’t want to inject too much or the ureter could be so swollen that it won’t allow proper drainage, so they err on the side of caution.

  Please pray, because I never like the idea of general anesthesia. Also, you can pray that Rachel will not throw up in the van or that we wreck or anything icky or horrible.

  Today is Art and Music class again. I’m teaching Picasso to the kindergarten class. I’ve printed a full-size picture of their faces, and we will cut them up and glue them on another sheet of paper in a funky way to imitate his style. But, really, the more I studied Picasso, the more I appreciated his work. His simple line drawings are particularly captivating to me.  Also, the faces aren’t “so” messed up as I was going to instruct the children today!  Oh, well, they’ll at least get the general idea.

  I’ve been working hard on my Bible memory, and I’ve learned about 12 verses in January (not counting memory with the kids). It’s not an amazing number, but it’s more than I learned last year on my own!  I’ve also read my first missionary bio for the year, Janet and Geoff Benge’s  Jonathan Goforth.  What an amazing, humble, enthusiastic Canadian!  He served for years in China and saw thousands of converts. But, what impressed me the most about this man who lived late 1800s-early 1900s was the way he served at home before he became a missionary. He was zealous to witness to everyone and went to a poor area in the city where he went to Bible College to personally witness to every home there.  And, he did, too! Only two homes refused him entry. Another impressive thing about him was that by the time he died, he had read through the Bible 73 times.  Lord, may I be so faithful!

  The children and I watched a movie last night, which I thought I’d review.  Despite it’s lascivious-sounding name, Mad, Hot Ballroom is a clean, entertaining documentary which follows a number of New York City fifth grade classrooms as they prepare for a city-wide ballroom dance competition.  The film picks up at the beginning of their classroom dance practices and goes back and forth among filming the dance class practices, personally interviewing the ten and eleven year-old kids, and interviewing different teachers and administrators.  We get to see inside some of their homes and hear what is important to them.

  The interviewer obviously asked the kids questions such as “What do you think about boys/girls?  What do you want to do with your life?  What’s it like to live here? Why do you like ballroom dancing?”  The kids’ answers are funny and poignant.  They seem to be at the age where to some boys/girls are still a bit “icky” to each other, but they are starting to notice the opposite gender.   Hearing the girls speak about drug dealers and their parent’s not allowing them to go out of the house by themselves because it isn’t safe brought a different world into focus for me. 

  The film is charged with emotion, especially during the competitions. Will the schools we’ve been following win?  There really is no way to know for sure, because this is real life, not a movie. They could win or loose. The tears are real.  The excitement they felt (and we felt) waiting for scores to be tabulated was real. 

  There is no swearing, children are respectful to adults and to each other (or they are called for it!). As far as promiscuity, boys and girls do dance together (ballroom-style, nothing touching but hands and arms) and they do sway their hips.

  This might not be the movie to watch if you are looking for an action-adventure night, but it was certainly worth checking out to discover a bit of America that I didn’t know existed–fifth grade ballroom dancers in New York City.

  • 11:10 am
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