Salute to My Dad

Dad's 80th Birthday Party

On this Father's Day, I want to salute my dad.  He turned 80 this year, and we've spent some time looking back at his life.  Here are some of the things we remembered about Dad.

In his youth my dad faced some significant challenges.  At the age of three he was severely burned on one leg in a fire at his home.  His mother was also burned over a significant part of her body, and they were both in the hospital for many months.

Dad also had a lot of trouble with one of his eyes.  He told me he had surgery on it when he was a kid.  His dad took him to the hospital and just dropped him off for the surgery.  No one stayed with him.  That's just how things were back then.  It amazing to think of it today.

When he was dating my mom, he drove her and my aunt and a friend to Kentucky to visit relatives and they had a bad wreck.  A truck crossed the center line and hit them.  My dad had a significant injury to his arm and you can still see the effects of it today.

Through all this I know my dad as someone who overcame these difficulties and who went on to work hard all his life and build a good life for us all.  I am thankful for his perseverance in the face of trials.  As he has grown older he has worked hard to deal with his physical limitations.  He had both knees and one shoulder replaced and worked like a champ to do his rehab and stay as active as he possibly can.   Even now, I don't think he's ever happier than when he's riding his tractor and working in his garden. 

Looking back at Dad's life I am always thankful that he worked so hard to make a good living and a good life for our family.  He worked at a dairy and I often think of him in his white work clothes and paper hat.  I can't open the dairy case at the grocery store without fondly remembering the smell on his clothes when he came home.

Some of my fondest memories of my dad are from the vacations he took us on.  Each year we got to take a fun family vacation.  We went to Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, and Missouri, and our most daring trip took us to the World's Fair in Montreal, Canada in 1967.  After I got married and moved to Tennessee we spent several years vacationing together at Fall Creek Falls where we would get one of the fishermen's cabins.  

I am thankful for a dad who made my childhood so idyllic and who gave me a secure and loving home to grow up in.  I am very thankful he's still around and that he is continues to be at work in my life.  He has been there for me countless times and I love him very much for all he means to me.

The Joy of Teaching

Recently I've talked to one of my former students from Bledsoe County.  I've asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up every year for the past five years, and up until now she's always said she wanted to be a teacher.  This time she said she wants to be a nurse or dental hygienist or something in the medical field.  Now, there's nothing wrong with changing your mind, and my students have done it often.  The difference here is that some teachers have spoken to her about their discontent with the teaching profession and have persuaded her that teaching is the last thing she wants to do.

Another really bright girl that I recently met told me the same story.  She said that her teachers discouraged her from going into teaching.

I think this is really sad.

It's not that I don't get it.  I do.

I've felt the pressure to get my students to perform proficiently on standardized tests.  I've felt discouraged because my creativity was being squelched.  I know very well the stress that is involved in teaching.

But there's something else to take into account when it comes to whatever you decide to do for a living.

You have to find the joy in what you're doing.

In the past couple of months I've listened to two comedians talk about this very thing.  First I heard Stephen Colbert when he was interviewed on Face the Nation.  He said that he has always called his show "The Joy Machine" because if you don't find the joy in each show, the machine will eat you alive. Just a few days later I heard Jerry Seinfeld say on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" that the thing that kept him sane in a crazy business was that he found the joy in the daily work.  ( I highly recommend checking out both these links, especially if you like these two comedians.)

There's a lot of joy to be found in teaching. It comes from doing something that has impact and significance in the world.  Education is a key factor in creating a positive quality of life in the future.  Teachers make a difference in students' lives.

For me, joy is found in being with children.  Every day I get to teach, I get to interact with kids who make me laugh, who amaze me with their insight, who have great potential.  Every student has the story of their own life that needs to be understood, and I find joy in getting to know that story.  I also enjoy going places and experiencing new things with kids.  Being around young people keeps me young and relevant, and lets me see things with fresh eyes.

Since this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, I wanted to share these thoughts.  This is a hard time of year for them, and teachers need to feel appreciated.  I hope I can encourage them too to keep finding the joy that probably led them to this career in the first place.

Teacher friends, keep up the good work!
 

Teaching in Kosovo

The main purpose of my trip last month was to teach school.  My sister Penny is friends with a woman named Nadine who started a school in Mitrovica, Kosovo.  She has lived in Kosovo since around 2000 and raised her daughter there.  Her daughter married a man there and now they are all working at the school.  Nadine wanted to make a trip to the U.S. to see if she could recruit teachers for next year.  She is the science teacher at the school, and so my job was to be the science teacher in her absence.

I took some materials I had used in Bledsoe County and taught a simulation about a family lost at sea.  Each student received information on a different family, including plants and animals they had encountered, and the students had to do research to try to determine where the family was located.  The students did a great job, and they seemed to really enjoy it.

My traveling companion, Kay, is also a teacher, and she was a lot of help in the classroom.  She was so willing to do whatever I needed to make the lesson go smoothly.  She contributed many good ideas to our plans, and I'm very glad she was able to be with me on this adventure.

My favorite part of the week was on Friday.  The students, who were speaking English as their second language, all had to prepare a dramatic reading to present to the class.  I was able to watch all the 6th and 7th graders present their readings.  They were delightful.  Three girls gave a reading from one of the Harry Potter books, each one playing a different character.  The girl playing Ron got all the sarcasm just right.  Two other girls read a story called "Gloria Who Might Be My Best Friend."  It was very touching.  Another boy gave a solo performance of a Judy Moody book.  He would read a couple of pages and then pantomime what he had just read.  It was all very entertaining, and their command of the language was so impressive.

Here are some pictures from the week.

We stayed with Nadine's family.  Most of the homes in Kosovo are
multi-generational.

Kay demonstrating the concept of different
densities of salt water.

During lunch period there is always time for a little dodgeball.

The view from our classroom window.  The city
was not a very attractive place.  The building here was a car wash which
is a popular business in Kosovo.

I love teaching!

The ninth graders working on their project.

We were able to spend one afternoon doing experiments about bubbles.

One evening the whole staff went out for dinner.  They
were all such a pleasure to spend the week with.  Kay and I
are hopeful that we were able to encourage them in the work
they are doing there in Kosovo.

This Really Felt Like The Amazing Race

On our way to Kosovo, Penny and David took us to the capital city of Macedonia, Skopje.  It was beautiful weather, and I enjoyed touring the birthplace of Mother Teresa and visiting a memorial built to honor her.  The town square was a busy place on Sunday afternoon, full of people and music and dancing.

One of several statues of Mother Teresa

Macedonia also claims Alexander the Great as a native son.

I really loved this fountain which honored mothers with their children.

While we were in Macedonia, a couple of our experiences reminded me of the real Amazing Race.  We were able to walk through the open market full of booths with all kinds of merchandise and produce.  The sights and smells reminded me of the many times teams are sent to hunt an item at a market just like the one in Skopje.  It made me smile to think about it.

But smiling was not what I was doing on our next leg of the "race."  David and Penny wanted to take us to a lake they had found during a previous visit to Macedonia, but they did not know for sure how to get there.  They looked at the map and found a town that seemed to be on the way, so they entered that town in their GPS.  Now, when you're in unfamiliar territory and you're using GPS, once you begin, you find yourself at the mercy of the GPS.  The voice of our mechanical guide took us up a narrow mountain road with many curves and switchbacks.  Meeting another car was a nail biting experience.  

We stopped once to ask a local person for some directions and were told that we were on the wrong track.  But we continued into the remote mountain terrain until we had determined to turn around if we had not found the lake we were looking for in another ten minutes.

It was only a couple of minutes later that we arrived at, not our original destination, but an overlook that gave us the most glorious view of mountains and a distant lake.  The thought that we might have turned back before finding this beautiful place makes me cringe.  We truly enjoyed to unexpected discovery, and found our way back to civilization and the road to Kosovo.

Veliko Tarnovo

We flew from Prague to Sofia, Bulgaria, where Penny and David picked us up.  Then we were on our way to their home in Veliko, Tarnovo.  We made one stop at a large cave long the way.

And finally we were there in their town in central Bulgaria.  For your information, Bulgaria is about the size of Ohio.  Sofia is on the western border and Veliko Tarnovo is in the central part of the country.  The next day we spent time touring the town.  It was a charming town.

Mother Bulgaria honors those who have fought for her.
Bulgaria has been on the losing size of every war.

Bulgarians takes pride in their graffiti.  It is everywhere.
Some of it is very interesting.

The art museum

It was really great to spend time with my sister and see what her life is like.  It was great to go in the spring too.  Penny said they have a tradition in Bulgaria.  At the beginning of March people put a woven piece of string around their wrist.  They wear it until they come across the first blossom on a tree or bush, and then they tie it on the branch.  We saw many strings ties on the branches around town.

Notes from My Trip

We left for Europe on April 12.  I was accompanied on this trip by one of my sister's friends from Pikeville, Kay Berkebile.  Kay and I had only met to book our flights prior to leaving on this trip.  She turned out to be a fine traveling companion.  I was very thankful to have her along.  She is an experienced international traveler, and she thought of many things that I would not have.

The first leg of our journey took us to Prague in the Czech Republic.  We were met at the airport by a friend of Penny's and a fellow missionary, Melissa Wells.  She accompanied us to our hotel where we encountered a problem with our room.  When we had booked the hotel, we had forgotten that although we were traveling on Tuesday, we wouldn't be to Prague until Wednesday night.  We booked our hotel for the wrong night.  Kay made several calls to try to correct the problem before we arrived, and Melissa even went to the hotel on Monday to try to straighten things out in advance of our arrival, but no luck.  When we arrived we were told that we would be charged for the night we had book originally.  Since they were so uncooperative with us, we decided not to spend the night there.

Melissa arranged other accommodations for us.  That's how we ended up in a Korean hostel.  Melissa had met the owner of the hostel in her language classes where they were both learning Czech.  The owner, Bryan, was a nice young man with fairly good English skills and the hostel was nice.  It included breakfast which turned out to be Korean fare.  Bryan's mom prepared squid, salad with homemade dressing, a beef dish, and some kind of seaweed soup.  It all tasted pretty good to me, but it certainly was a strange meal for breakfast.

Here are some of the highlights from our day in Prague.

The pictures above are all views of St. Vitus Cathedral in the center of Old Town Prague.

The impressive outside view of the cathedral

A beautiful view of the Vltava River

There were beautiful gardens everywhere.

Our Korean breakfast, squid in the center,
and I forgot about the beets.

Bryan, Kay and another guest, with Bryan's mom
in the background.  We invited Bryan to visit Tennessee
and he was very excited at the prospect.  Everywhere we went,
if we mentioned we were from Tennessee the response was
"Jack Daniels."

Next Leg of My Amazing Race

It's time for another leg of my personal Amazing Race.  In April I will be making my way to Kosovo.    Through my sister Penny I have connected with Nadine Hennessy who leads the Kosovo Leadership Academy.  (You can find out more about the academy here.)  Nadine needs to come to the United States to recruit new teachers during her spring break.  She teaches the science courses for the middle grades, and she has to have someone to substitute for her so she can be gone more than a week.  That's where I come in.

During the week of April 11-15 I will be teaching a science unit to students in grades 6-9.  I am going to be using a unit called S.O.S. that I have taught several times with my students in Bledsoe County.  It is a simulation about using science and social studies to find a family that is lost at sea.  It is a very interesting unit.  (For those of you who are wondering, they speak English at the academy.)

On this trip I will be joined by another of my sister's friends, Kay Berkebile, from Pikeville, TN.  She is also a teacher and an adventurer, having made several trips to Europe to work in programs that teach English as a second language.  When we got together to book our flight, we hit it off right away so I am looking forward to spending time with this new friend.

Kay and I have made our itinerary which begins by a layover in Prague.  Kay's already looked around for some things for us to do...

Kinsey Palace

Prague Funicular Railway

From there we will travel to Sophia, Bulgaria, where my sister will meet us, and we will spend a couple of days seeing her home and surroundings.  She will take us to the academy and deliver us into the care of the staff of the school.  After the week is over we will head back home on April 19.

The one glitch in my plan is that Phil will be leaving for Canada before I get back from this trip.  Originally I had planned to go in February or March and the trip got pushed back.  And then the director at Camp of the Woods has to travel and needed someone to be at camp while they are away which made Phil's departure earlier than we expected.  We will be apart from each other for several weeks.  We have decided to go ahead with our plans and be okay with this, but we have determined  not to let this happen again if we can help it.

As always, I will be looking for some "roadblock" to complete while on this trip.  We'll see what we can come up with.  I'll keep you posted here as the trip unfolds.  Your prayers for the journey would be appreciated.