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Published: September 22nd 2006
The daily commute
Today I took a taxi to the doctors to find insulin. I took pictures from the car window. As we sat wedged between a bus and a bike and a horse drawn cart the driver commented " In China everyone fits."I succesfully completed another week of classes. I think I am getting better. Although I got a call last night at 9pm telling me my 10am and 2 pm class was canceled. No explanation just canceled. Determined not to let the very rowdy middle schoolers control my classroom today I laid it out for them that if they did not listen and speak up in class i was going to bring in the chinese teacher. That shaped them up real fast. They are very good for their Chinese teachers. One student told me that when he was bad he had to walk around the playground all day in imatation of the long march. But I don't want my students to be scared of me. They can't be scared because its a conversational class they have to speak or i can't grade them. Today i did lock the door and when two of the boys did not return from break with the rest of the class they had to go get the headmaster to let the back in.
Learning Present Past and Future
Me: What are you doing today?
Student: I am doing my homework
Me: what did you do yesterday?
The daily commute
I like being able to bike every where but I am going to have to buy more pants. Yesterday I went to bike to school and had to turn my skirt around backwards so I was sitting on the slit. Student: I studied
Me: What will you do tomrrow?
Student: I will read my homework.
They live at school and all they do is study.
I have been sick this week so I have been resting at home and not going out much. I a very bad head cold. Really bad headaches and unable to breath at night. Steven says it is because I run the fan at night. And that I should take some Chinese "Manythings" I really did not want to it scares me. But willing to try anything Stevens wife brought me Chinese medicane. I don't know if it was the thought of having to drink any more of the horrible liquid or what but I drank it and 30 minutes later I felt fine and I could breath. You have never tasted anything so foul.
Staying in the bed as much as possible this week I finished reading Derek Princes book Prayer and Fasting. If you have not read this book you should. It has changed my life. I wish I could write more freely how this book has affected my life. As I read it I realized how little I understood of
The daily commute
Looking down the side of Tianamen Square you can't see very far because the pollution is so bad. I can't wait for it to get cooler so I can close my windows and not have to clean my floors of soot everyday. fasting and how the principles laid out in the book I saw manifested naturally while in Columbia and meeting above the shack. We come together so often to eat but how often do we collectivly fast. I never understood fasting until now. I am rereading it and I am going to start fasting when I feel better.
I have also started reading A testament to freedom. Thank you Bjo Dan and Hope for the wonderful letters. It was so good to open the cover I had not seen them before now. I am commiting to memory one of Bonhoeffers poems.
Hopefully next week I will feel better so i can go out and look around more but I have been blessed to stay in and read and still be well enough to teach.
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cheryl buford
non-member comment
encouragement
i was very encouraged today reading your journal tricia. thank you. life can be hard but the hardness is sweet sometimes. i will read the prince book on fasting. have a good day. cheryl