Some thoughts about January...

We were told that January would be cold, dark, and rainy, and for the most part, that has been true, though the "cold" is still relative. I did manage to take advantage of living next to the ocean and go swimming a couple times in between rain showers; once was at three in the morning on a perfectly clear and calm night.

January at OCSI is very different for the middle school and high school because we have J-Term, so rather than teaching my normal 7th and 8th grade English classes, I have been teaching a semester's worth of Speech and Debate to 9th-12th graders in four weeks. I have really enjoyed getting to work with the older grades and challenging them to think deeper about issues and to prove their ideas. I have missed the excitement and quirkiness of the 7th and 8th graders though, and I will be happy to be back to a "normal" schedule starting the middle of next week.

January has also been a time of pretty intense spiritual warfare for me and for others at school. We have dealt with an attempted suicide, threats of violence against teachers, more behavior issues than normal, and more outright rejection of the gospel than normal. I am reminded daily that we are on the front lines of the most important battle we could ever be a part of. But, as I told one of my students this week, we are on the winning side, and nothing the enemy tries to do against us will prevail because with God on our side, who can stand against us?

January is also a month of beginnings. Both Ark and I started a grad class for our Master's degrees, and I am now learning how to again balance homework on top of work for school. So far, my Adolescent Psychology class has been very intriguing and applicable, and finding new coffee shops with free wi-fi makes doing homework much more fun. Another beginning for this month is joining a Capoeira class. Don't know what that is? We didn't really either a few weeks ago. It's a combination of martial arts, dancing, rhythm, and music that originated from Brazil. We have only been to one lesson so far, but we had so much fun and could barely walk the next day from sore muscles. Not sure that we'll be doing flips and hand stands anytime soon, but it's a new way to get off campus and meet new people.

Thank you again to all of you for your prayers.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Monday was the first Japanese holiday that we have gotten to celebrate thus far at OCSI. The name of it? Kite Day. Japanese schools were all on holiday so they could go with their families to fly kites. I'm really not sure what the cultural significance of the day is, but it was kind of fun. So I discovered that I don't know how to fly a kite. Sad, I know! Luckily, all my student's parents but two came, so I didn't need to "show-off" my awesome kite flying skills too much.

It was actually a great kite flying day! Moderate winds grabbed the kites and allowed them to soar in the air, well, some of them. I knew that it was going to be a problem when it was time to 'put kites together'. I didn't even know that you 'put kites together'. In my kite naivety I assumed they already came assembled. My second clue that I didn't know what I was getting into was the fact that the assembly directions were in Japanese. Of course they were in Japanese. Luckily, this was not my kid's first Kite Day...they knew how to put kites together.

So my 12 student and I tramped out onto the soccer field. Most of my 12 scattered to find their parents. That left me with two lone rangers to 'assist' in flying a kite. Luckily, one of those lone rangers is a completely independent lone ranger. I would see him every once in a while running past me yelling, "Look, Miss Goodwin, my kite is flying." I looked up and sure enough his kite was high in the sky. The poor student stuck with me... "Ok, GO!" I'd yell. He'd get tangled in his kite string and fall over...and his kite would hit the ground with a sad thump. This went on for the entire hour. Poor kid never got to hold his kite while it flew in the air. What can we do to remedy this? Kite Day will happen again next January so I guess I need to buy a kite...