"Your imagination will point you in a new direction. Go for it!
Lucky numbers: 2 7 13 33 47"
-My fortune cookie from the Vietnamese restaurant I patronized a couple of nights ago
After a year break, I’d like to personally re-welcome myself back into the blogosphere from my current abode—a minivan trekking from Colorado to South Dakota toting my clothes, guitar, mountain bike, and parents. I'm moving to start a new job in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, working with refugees and immigrants. But more on that in a minute . . .
Like the writing I did during my year in Africa
[http://blogs.mcc.org/salt/amspaul/],
this blog will soon be chock-full of stirring storytelling, sanguine satire, and the occasional bout of sagacious wisdom, all permeated by a decidedly Christian spin—often leaning left, but always right. So hunker down if you’re in your rolly computer chair and buckle up if you’re consulting your iPhone in your car. No wait, pull over. Reading while driving is dangerous, young man/woman!
Before I tell you about my new job, I’d like to share some quotes from the job I’ve held for the last nine months: a 3-D version of The Family Circus comic—a.k.a. preschool teaching. The wisdom and/or silliness, delineated here thematically, come not from me but from the mouths of babes (my three- four- and five-year-old students, to be exact). The names have been changed to protect the semi-innocent . . . or actually to protect me, since I didn’t distribute a parental waiver before publishing this.
On Marriage:
Bobby: [Looking at a picture in my purse] This guy in the picture, is he your husband?
Me: No, he’s a friend.
Bobby: Are you married?
Me: No.
Bobby: Good. Married people are mean. My mom’s married and she yells at me all the time.
On Telling It Like It Is:
Four-year-old Kira: [rapping] Lemme hear a uhhh uhhh uhhh and I got to get some mo’ and then a uhhh uhhh uhhh . . .
Bobby: Kira, I don’t think you even know what you’re talking about.
On Sharing:
Me: Lauren, the dress you’re wearing today is so pretty! I would wear it myself!
Lauren: And you could wear it, too, Ms. Amy, because it’s too big on me.
On Not Taking No For An Answer:
[All preschoolers are at the lunch table.]
Adam: Who wants to marry Ms. Amy?
All the boys’ hands shoot up at once.
Me: That’s very nice of you boys, but let me remind you that I’m 20 years your senior.
Trevor: [Face lights up] That’s okay, Ms. Amy, because I’m bigger than all the boys in the class, except for Luke.
Me: Well, that settles it then!
On Human Physiology:
[At the lunch table.]
Bobby: I have a question . . . do girls fart?
Trevor: No, girls don’t fart, they only burp.
Anna: [Confused] I once farted in my house . . .
On Flying High:
Eddie: Ms. Amy, swing me higher and higher and higher and higher and higher—higher than the school and the birds and the sky and the eeerf!
Awww . . . aren’t those preschoolers cute??? Wait till they pee their pants in the middle of class, and then I’ll re-ask you that question.
So come to think of it, I don’t actually know much about my new job, apart from the fact that I’m doing social work for Mennonite Volunteer Service and partnering with Lutheran Social Services and my clients will be refugees, immigrants, and volunteers volunteering for the sake of those refugees and immigrants. So you’ll have to wait until my next blog to hear about what I’m actually doing.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I need to continue my journey across the eeerf if I’m ever gonna make it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
P.S. If you do scan my previous blog, which is verbose (being as though it covers an entire year), I would recommend focusing upon the entries "The Story of Grace," "On Zanzibar and Living," and "What I Really Came For . . . ".
P.P.S. The left/right joke in paragraph two above is stolen without permission from my friend Tyler. Thanks, unknowingly generous friend! :)
