April 20, 2009
We’re sitting in her living room, the smell of peanut butter and marshmallows hanging in the air like day-old birthday balloons. The heat of a Mississippi summer and the buzz of an oscillating fan are lulling me to sleep and Gran is rocking in her blue chair.
She’s humming a song she’s made up as she folds and snips at an old piece of newspaper. I wonder if it’s the obituaries page or the comics perhaps; she always reads them first.
My feet are hanging off the couch, miles from the floor and there are tiny specks of dust floating haphazardly in a beam of sunlight that’s cutting across the room.
A lazy Longview day with nothing to do but sweat.
The rocking stops and she smiles contentedly at the black and white scraps now piled high on the floor.
“Look,” she says and like the magic of a well rehearsed stage show, she unveils her work of art – a strand of paperdolls dancing to the cadence of a fan-made breeze and I have never loved her more.
Posted in family 
4 Comments »
April 19, 2009
“Sebas, I know that you think third graders are no good at soccer and I know that you get frustrated with them and I realize that all the other boys use those words, but gentleman do not behave that way! Do you understand me?! Gentleman. do. not. behave. that. way!”
“Yes, Mees. But, Mees, it’s just that sometimes the gentleman runs away and I’m what’s left.”
Posted in teaching 6 Comments »
April 15, 2009
Day 3
We were warned that today would be the toughest day of the hike, so we got up early to hide from some of the jungle heat and to make our way to the City before lunch.
The walking was precarious and more than once my feet slipped on rocks that weren’t meant to be walked upon by shod feet. We creeped along the side of the river, high above the water, balancing on tiptoes and clinging to hanging branches. We climbed up and through fallen trees and over boulders and fences and we crossed the fast moving river nine times before our guide said that only one crossing remained.
There was a mystical sort of silence when he said it and I think it had something to do with the finding of what had once been lost.
And find it we did.
We crossed the water and right there on the other side, the steps began and one by one we walked up the them, trodding carefully on each and every one that had been laid so many years ago by a people that thought the strength of the Earth could be soaked up through the soles of their feet.
Then, there was the city. A city lost no more.
Day 4
The end of a long day. There’s the quietest rain falling, the sun is nearly gone, and I’m trying desperately to determine how to best write while a gentle Colombian breeze rocks my hammock. I hear the fire crackling and the cook is standing over it singing to himself as he stirs the frijoles that will fill us all ’til morning.
I cannot believe that I am here, but the blister on my toe and the smell of a four day sweat remind me that, yes, today is real and I am in it.
Day 5
Done. We left late from camp and stopped to play in a sceret swimming spot. We dove and jumped from ungodly heights and got eaten alive by mosquitoes and the like for nearly an hour before we made our way up and out of the hidden spot to eat watermelon and start another climb.
Straight up at no less than a 45 degree angle for over an hour. Found a nice rhythm today and the group stuck together well in a clip clop of booted feet. We stopped again when we cleared the shade to yell across the mountains– each of us dripping, but somehow content.
Back at Day 1 camp now and after my a nap and my second bucket bath, we’re playing chess in the candlelight.
Day 6
We were in no hurry today and slept in until a tardy 7:00 a.m. Before breakfast we walked across the sun-soaked mountain and down toward the sound of moving waters. There, hidden in the trees, was a waterfall. We carefully climbed barefooted down the side of it- the six of us and the family that gave us a place to hang our hammocks.
I stood there in the spray and laughed at the way nature’s surprises and wonders can turn the burliest of men into giggling, playing boys again.
Breakfast of arepas and eggs, packs loaded, waves, kisses, and hugs goodbye. Then, the start of a long walk home. A long, steady climb, sweat, sharing water, resting at the top, chatting like friends that have known each other for six lifetimes rather than six days.
Posted in colombia, travel 5 Comments »
April 13, 2009
Below are entries from my journal. The rest to follow. I promise.
Day 1, end
Dear Jesus,
Please help me not to do bodily harm to my friend, Jill. This torture is all her fault. Amen.
Got up early, met the crew and guide. Jill and I volunteered to ride los motos to the pueblo as there wasn’t enough room in the Jeep for all of us.
The Colombian man I was smashed against asked me over the course of the 40 minute ride if I’d have his babies. I informed him politely that I neither spoke Spanish nor had sex. Muchas gracias y bug off, creepster.
Oh, and dear Jesus, Could you please forgive me for all the curse words I said today? That’d be swell. Amen.
The mountains are gorgeous and we are, by all accounts, in the middle of nowhere and I am, by all accounts, sure to die before this is over.
Still, we are here and Day 1 is finished. Hammocks are hung, we’re all laughing, and believe it or not, excited about tomorrow. I bow out at a ripe 7:30 p.m. and wave like a Southern belle at the rest of the crew still sitting at the table. ” ‘Night, Profe,” they say to me as I climb beneath my mosquito net and let a much needed sleep take me over.
Day 2
Another day of nothing but climbing. Straight up into the Sierra Nevadas.
Reached our campsite by early afternoon and went down to the river for a swim and a nap on a sun-baked rock. A group of 18 men and women all over the age of 65 just arrived to bunk with us. They made the two day trip we just finished in about six hours. I do not hate them. I do not hate them. In fact, it’s impossible to hate them. Their zeal and humor is downright contagious.
Dear Lord, help me not to be old and ornery at retirement age. Instead, let me think about hiking into the middle of nowhere with a bunch of other crazies even if I don’t actually do it. Amen.
Posted in colombia, travel 5 Comments »
April 3, 2009
Con mi amiga Jill
Braving the last flight out of Manizales
on an ever cloudy Friday.
To get to a hostel
I don’t know the name of
So we can leave at sun up.
For
Six days of hiking through the jungle.
And five nights sleeping in hammocks.
Across two rivers
Climbing 1200 stone steps.
All to see a city
that the world says is lost.
La Ciudad Perdida.
See you on the other side, friendcitos.
Posted in Uncategorized 5 Comments »
April 1, 2009
Roald Dahl is a wonderful source for new words and always a kid favorite.
Today my class and I were reading about The Chocolate Room and silly songs that Oompa Loompas sing. I was using my best reader’s voice and my students were locked on every word.
I read fast in places and slowly in places and whispered in places and shouted in places.
And right after the line, “Charming! Enchanting!” Mr. Wonka exclaimed, a little hand shot into the air.
“Mees! Mees! Is enchanting what you are?”
I felt my face turn crimson and smiled at the honesty in those two anxious, excited eyes.
“I’m not sure if I’m enchanting, Rafa, but I am, in this very moment, enchanted.”
Posted in teaching 5 Comments »
March 31, 2009
I stared in awe at the distance.
The sky was dark and ominous like the shadow of some growling monster ripped from a childhood nightmare and I’m almost certain that I could see the rain falling in enormous, lethargic drops. I stood bathed in mountain sunshine as I watched the storm rage in a part of the city that I couldn’t touch.
“I’ve been there,” I thought to myself.
And I have.
I was there naked, freezing, and alone in the downpour- alone at rock bottom- as the rains soaked me through.
I was there trying to convince myself that the rush of water was cleaning me, washing me, giving me a chance to start over without all of the dirt. But all I felt was cold and beaten and worn as I stood shivering, staring longingly at the sunshine just across the sky and a million miles away.
Posted in my emotional state 1 Comment »
March 30, 2009
This is my too cute Destination Imagination team.
The too cute team that won the Colombian national competition, thus receiving an invitation to the Global Finals in Knoxville, TN.
How exciting is that?
I’m bringing my Colombian angels to the Dirty South! Get excited.
Posted in rambling 4 Comments »
March 28, 2009
There was this one time, like 352,000 years ago– like not in this life, but in another one— when I promised to help do 467 million different things all in the shortest timeframe known to man.
And that one time I forgot that there was only one of me and that sometimes I get sleepy and moody and irritable and super emotional when I’m not by myself enough.
And I forgot that every so often I feel the need to run into oncoming traffic and wave with both hands as if it’s the most normal thing in the world to do when one is feeling the need to just be alone.
But in the moments between the madness (when I admit to myself that one time is actually now), I see the beautiful brown faces of children that are growing and learning not to roll their r’s when they say the word tomorrow and I smile at the knowledge that I taught them that.
And in the not-so-quiet of evening, I hear the uproar of Spanish swear words from the streets as Bolivia and Colombia battle in the South America futbol qualifier.
Then, I crawl beneath my covers and grin at the life I’ve made in coffee country for awhile and as sleep draws nearer the slightest hint of sadness takes me over.
It seems the end is closer than I ever thought it would be.
Posted in change, my emotional state 7 Comments »
March 24, 2009
You know that scene in all of those bad romantic comedies where the blonde stands on the sidewalk grinning like a bobcat on crack and then the bus drives by and drenches her with grody, nasty street water? Yeah, that’s never happened to me.
And the wet dog look? Who me? Never in a million.
And there you have it, friends, a day in the life.
Posted in because, Uncategorized 6 Comments »
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