The Nile of blogs

Well I guess it is time for me to join the blogging party. I realize I am not the greatest writer, so if there are some oopsies... my bad.

The trip started out with one of the worst hotels I have gotten yet. One of the biggest comforts I have is the tv. However, this was stripped away from me here, every time the commercials came on a high pitch ringing came out only interrupted by what sounded like an old computer connecting with the Internet. This very quickly encouraged me to sign up for Netflix. First movie I watched was 180 degrees south, a documentary, it's good.

The town I was in only had two restaurants, a Mexican place caked in a thick layer of grease, and then Perkins, which is the long lost twin of Sharis. It was the worst town to have my phone die in because I forgot my charger in the office before I left. No worries though, I made my way to another town to spend 16 dollars on a charger!

Stuff started to look up when I got out of that thriving town. I was in a way better hotel and got my self ready for a long day of five visits. They were great visits, nothing felt better than adding to my stack of info cards. That was until the last visit of the day.

I am already pretty tired from the day, so now it was time to fake the 'happy to be there' smile! To add to everything, I was worried the car was going to be stripped. The school was in a yellow warehouse and all around were old run down houses. So as I walked out, I did as Seth would have, left one hand open, I was aware of my surroundings, puffed up my chest, and kept my head up with confidence. It worked.

I walked into the building greeted by a young couple full on making out, they only stopped to glare at me as if I interrupted the most romantic moment of their life. My hope for a good visit was gone. The secretary was wrapped in a blanket and pointed me in the direction of the counselor.

Charles, the counselor, resembled a snake. He had bright blue eyes, a pointy nose, a long braided pony tail, and to top it all off he had a very pronounced lithp (lisp). He then showed me the entire school, it didn't take long because he brought me to a balcony that overlooked a big room full of computers and about thirty students. It was mainly an online school. He wasn't very quite either, so when he talked about the school on the balcony everyone looked up at us, so I waved back awkwardly and they just continued with their work. After the great tour we went back to their conference room and he said,

"SSSSo tell me the sssselling pointsss of your ssschool, we have about five minutessss." I was a bit annoyed, but I just assumed he had a real busy day. When I left I was just happy that couple wasn't still at the door and to find my car in one piece.

As I got back to the hotel I stopped by the desk to ask them what the good restaurants were in town. I reluctantly rang the bell, they always come out super annoyed. When I did a dog jumped up on the counter in front of me, it scared me to death. The lady came running around the corner and pulled the dog off as she apologized.

The next day was an interesting mix of schools. I only had two this day. The first school was awesome, it was a small private school. The counselor was one of the nicest I have seen. The teacher made her students stop in the middle of a test so I could tell them a little bit about the school and then I stayed there for lunch. Some awesome kids came to the table. The most interested kid I thought was part of the grammar school, he was shorter than Cara...poor kid. His mom, the gym teacher brought him to the table saying, "He is very shy, he rarely talks to strangers." So I asked him what grade he was in as his mom kissed him on the head and walked away. He looked up, smiled with wide gaps between his teeth, stared for a second building up confidence, and said, "I am in seventh grade." My first thought was, "Come on, he isn't even in high school yet, it is another five or six years before he can even start applying." I expected questions like, does it rain there, or are the teachers nice.

I talked to him for a bit about the day and things he likes to do and his face lit up. He started asking question like, "do you have Greek classes? Because I want to be a preacher or a missionary and I need to know Greek, it's what a lot of the Bible was written in ya know." I told him about Greek and how Dr. Derekson (I don't think that is spelled right) helped write some of the footnotes in the Nelson Translation. He told me that was his favorite translation. This kid knew his stuff and kept me laughing with his enthusiasm. It was one of those visits that makes everything worth it because there are so many kids that would be perfect for the school and they were genuinely interested.

Now the next school was a very different story. I walk in and the counselor took this day off and forgot to tell anyone I was coming. So they took one of the lunch tables and said I could set up on it during lunch. The bell rang just as I finished and the first thing I heard was, "Geez watch out you "f***ing b****!" I looked up at the school banner and it said, "Alternative for Dropout Students." I looked over at the banner next to it with their mission statement, "To reintroduce students to academic excellence." The kids came around the corner and it was some of the roughest kids I have seen for a while. For the first time I was pretty nervous as they all walked past looking me up and down. I saw one pregnant girl and another with a baby in her arms, and one guy was wearing real handcuffs on his wrist as a bracelet.

The first girl that came up asked if we have black people at our school. Her plan was to marry a black guy with a lot of money, start a family and then once the kids get into high school she would go to college and start her career. At least she wants to be around when her kids are at home, and she actually liked that it a was a Christian school. The next kid, and last kid that came up to me and said, "My dad wants me to go to this school."

"Oh yeah, well what do you think?" I said trying to get an idea of where he stood.

"I don't know, do you have a culinary major?"

"Sorry we don't."

"Then no, I don't really want to go." Then without saying anything he just walked away.

I didn't get one card and no one cared that I was there. But these kids broke my heart.

I started to wonder what these kids went home to. Homework is probably the last of their worries. I heard more than one talking about their PO, aka parole officer. The teachers just ignored the foul language, it was clear that was the least of their worries. Other kids talked about the fight they got into the night before. One girl asked if another would go to her party. When she walked away from her friend she said, keep yourself out of jail until then. At some point I realized that about half the lunch room walked outside, they all were taking a smoke break.

How many of them were born to a single mom, how many of them still had their parents around at all? Maybe that visit was for me more than them, a wake up call maybe to see the life a lot of kids live.

Well to get out of the half sad, half scary mode, I finally did it! I went to a movie by myself! The worst part by far was buying the tickets. I was just praying I didn't see anyone from the visits, everyone looked at me like they felt bad for me. I almost wanted to assure them that I really do have friends. When people were filing in it became apparent that it was going to be tight. I ended up sitting next to this big group which I found pretty funny because I did everything I could do avoid that very situation. I saw Moneyball, it was pretty good, wait for it to come out though.

But that has been my week. I have a big church visit today. There are around 7,000 people going to that church. That is what I was told anyways.

Hope all of you are having a great day. Miss you guys!

I know I wrote this yesterday, but it took me a bit to find the blog place again and how to post it. But don't worry, nothing really worth writing about happened at the church visit or the visits today.

Ok well, still miss you guys! Hope you're having a great day!

Beau St.Peter (Tank)