One Wild and Precious Life

 Since my return from the states, I'm finding that my skills as a mindfullness practitioner have really been put to the test.  There's the usual "stuff" from school, of course.  My home has been like my sanctuary away from school, but has definitely been feeling less so over the past month.  I've been innundated by loud music so much more than usual--I've been having to spend a lot of time just wearing noise cancelling headphones to exist in my space.  I also have to wear them to bed to have any chance at sleeping.  This isn't unique to me; lots of volunteers have had to purchase noise cancelling headphones to sleep.  I also went more days in January without water than with it, which starts to take its toll.  I remain thankful for all my experience backpacking, but let's be honest--the overall level of "freshness" you want when camping isn't quite the same as what you want when you have to wear professional clothes and work with others.  ...

 Full quote:  It's official--my close of service (COS) date is July 5, 2025, which means I have less than 6 months left!  I know that a lot of volunteers talk about how hard it is to think about leaving and returning home.  I am definitely not one of these volunteers.  Don't misunderstand me--I am deeply thankful for this experience and I remain glad that I did this.  I have learned so much about so many things, including myself.   But simultaneously, I am feeling very, very ready to be done.  There are a multitude of reasons, most of which are best left unsaid in this forum.   I remain deeply commited to being present and finishing my projects.  There are still roadblocks beyond my control holding up a big part of the library project.  While I really want to see these pieces come to fruition, I've also made peace with the fact that they might not get done before I leave.  It's the reality of the situation and I've do...

We have made it (almost) to the end of term 1 at school.  Students finished exams last week and after exams instruction stops.  So for the last week and a half of the term, its a bit more of a free-for-all than usual at school as teachers are trying to do their grading and the kids are left mostly to their own devices.  I was hoping to use this time to make some big leaps forward on my library projects, but there's been another bump in the road--and that's a whole story that I'm not going to get into right now.  What I am going to get into is saying goodbye for a few weeks.  I'll be back here sometime early in the new year.  I'm going to be traveling to WI for most of break (as many leave days as I could spare).  My plan is to relax, sleep with a blanket (!), run in the cold, cook, bake, eat, and drink.  I need this trip to be a chill one, so I'm just hanging with family.  To all my WI friends--I miss you and will visit you when I return to t...

I was sitting in the library a couple days ago trying to figure out how I could make shelf dividers for the non-fiction books (which I FINALLY got sorted--but more on that in a minute).  As I strolled around looking at what I had available to me, I was suddenly flooded with memories of my grandma Hettenhaus.  It took me a minute, but I realized that what was coming back to me was all the time that I spent with her during my summer breaks and the work that I would do with her.  Grandma watched us during summers when mom and dad were at work and being grandma, there was no way I was going to spend those days doing nothing.  She'd take me to work with her at our grade school where she did things like strip and refinish the floors.  She made me work with her in her garden or do chores around the house.  She'd send me off to farms to help pick stones or bale hay.  I helped her fix things--and learned how to make do with what was at hand.   It was ...

 In this second year of service, I think I'm not alone in thinking about what I'm going to leave behind--what impact will my time here have?  I hope that one of the biggest impacts I have is showing the kids that I work with that they are valuable, loved, and that there are adults who will listen to them and who will not beat them.  I also hope that my students will be better readers and that they will want to continue to engage with books and learning after I leave.  I also hope to leave the teachers with a literacy resource center with teaching materials and equipment that support them.  So what has been happening in the last few weeks to help in laying these tracks? Recently, I was working with one of my small groups and had so many "proud teacher" moments.  We had spent the lesson working through a text that was challenging for them--I knew it was going to be a hard task.  But we did a group reading together and they worked hard to sound out all of...

 Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions.  A couple notes about this video: 1) my voice is a bit scratchy and crackly because there was burning happening when I recorded and the smoke messes with my voice 2) In some of the slides, it sounds like a teapot is whistling--my apologies that was the fan getting picked up by my headphones (its not too loud, I promise) 3) In the slide following my intro, I state that the "ministry of health" was involved when I meant to say "ministry of education" (the error is actually quite obvious, lol)