Reflexiones on Being Profe. Callie

Sometimes the flavor of frustration

coppery and quick to strike, pumps

through every nerve ending with venomous intent

a spasm of anger recoils my smile

to pursed lips screaming for an undisturbed

moment of breath.

Like a toddler who can taste feelings

before knowing how to categorize them;

I am thrown for loops by teenage laughter

snide ironic comments that can only be

bent by the hasty mouths of 16-year-olds.

There are a finite number of times I can utter a stern

“silencio”

before I feel my head expanding and contracting

with intended patience

mauled into a clenched jaw

and disappearing smile wrinkles…

My sparkle funneled, a channel of molten negativity

I sense my energy in these moments

suckling parasites, thriving in darkness

hatching plans for how to breed

battling for power over my well-being.

Other times

I taste pure golden sunshine

and gulp the mischievous spark of youth

like it still belongs to me

and I want to congratulate

these little bastards

for challenging me to my wits end

I see the battle waged

between teacher and student

as a parody, a commentary of irony

my karmic fate.

Inner smiles and sly winks abound

and joy radiates from my grounded core

energy flows freely in these moments

when a single word or note gives me goose bumps

and smiles make my soul fly.

Pensamiento Critico

I'd like to share the following reflexion I just received in the notebook of one of my "critical thinking" students, Elvia, in response to the following question:

Que significa medioambiente? Cuales son las cosas y lugares mas importantes en la vida y porque? (What does "medioambiente" (translated as nature and culture mixed) mean? What are the things and places that are most important in life and why?)

Medioambiente para mi es el medio donde todos podemos recrearnos. Es un lugar donde
(medioambiente for me is the medium where we can do recreation. It's a place where

sentimos un ambiente de paz, de tranquilidad, donde podemos reflexionar y concentrarnos sin
we feel an air of peace, tranquility, where we can reflect and concentrate without

que nadia nos moleste. Es el lugar donde mas sentimos seguros, es algo natural, es toda la
anyone bothering us. It's the place where we feel the most safe, it's something ntaural, it's all the

naturaleza que nos tenemos. Es algo que no podemos fabricar con nuestras manos pero si
nature that we have. It's something that we cannot make with our hands, but yes

podemos cuidar y proteger podemos ayudar aunmentarlo.
we can take care of and protect and help to make it better.

Las cosas y lugares mas importantes en mi vida es todo lo natural, es lo puro y todos los lugares
the things and places that are most important in my life is everything natural, pure, and all places

que ayudan a la gente y no destruyen a las personas.
which help people and don't destroy people.

Pretty profound for a 15-year-old, huh?
My students constantly blow me away and give me goosebumps and proud teacher teary eyes.

April Showers Bring.... Jules and Justin!

I am ECSTATIC.

My cousin Julie, one of my biggest supporters throughout the last 15 months I have spent here in Nica, arrives on FRIDAY with the ever so marvelous Justin :) They're coming almost exclusively to see what life's like here in Cusmapa, to meet my friends and family and students here, to know my loved ones and to bear witness to the hardship and joys people in my pueblo live every day. I am so blessed to have these two in my life, and cannot wait to watch the sunset and drink tea and manifesto and learn and love and live with them until May!

I had an incredible journey through Costa Rica for nearly two weeks with Kayla, Marcy, Jessica, and Harley (all Missoula buddies of mine)- we frolicked the beaches on the Pacific side and the rainforests in the Carribean. Activities included- beach tours by microbus (aka: party-bus), boogie boarding at sundown, watching baby sloths clamber in branches right at head-level, hooting and howling at monkeys at sunrise, ribbiting at tree frogs, marveling at flowers of all shapes sizes and colors, pirating a snorkel trip (poor other tourists didn't know what was coming), reggae sing-alongs with taxi drivers, blowing fireballs, meeting a wide array of some of the craziest and kindest people I've ever met traveling (Manfred the Austrian scuba diver/dead fish collector/short-shorts wearing drunkard being the main event), looooong busrides over mountain passes through driving rainstorms at night, watching smoke rise from the mouth of an active volcano, lots of Flor de Caña (Nicaragua's specialty rum), bike rides through the rainforest interrupted by pizza and beer pit-stops along the way, galloping down the beach on my misbehaved horse, Rubio, eating LOBSTERS, salsa dancing with waiters, hanging with the rhastas... the memories go on and on and on. Needless to say I am suddenly afflicted with both a dire need to get the heck out of dodge and see more of the world and it's many marvels yet with one side of my heart stuck here in a place where one word from one student or one "Adioooos Pues" from a teetering old man on the street makes my heart melt.

Life continues to overflow with such goodness, that I am often left breathless.