Another week behind us....

Sometimes I wish we had a pause button so when life starts hurling us forward too fast, we can just pause and catch our breath. Then there are moments when I wish I could simply fast forward through it all to our next visit home. We already have the memories of our last visit home, so there really is no need for the rewind button. We can't go back because then we can't be who we are now. I guess that's what memories are for.....who we were then and who we were with then, what we did and where we went and how......

In any case, more than another week has zipped by, rippling and raging, depending on the weather of the day and the climate of the moment.

Our training fun with the horses has ceased by mutual agreement. Some activities are best meant for mentoring and friendship and this was one case. I will still find opportunities to ride and be involved in horses....I have proven that to myself time and time again. Right now, I am sooo busy with the last month of classes that I barely have time to eat, sleep and teach, let alone ride horses!

Since I arrived here, I have desperately wanted to plan and complete a field trip with one of my classes to read aloud......on the 18th we are going to the Japanese School (I TOLD you Doha was diverse). I am so excited and so scared....I told my students today that they cannot let me down. I don't believe they will. I am enjoying this class of young men this semester like I have not enjoyed teaching in a long time. I always love teaching my classes, no matter the cultures, the language, or the gender....but this group has challenged me and intrigued me in a new way. I can't put my finger on it. But I am enjoying it. I come home exhausted lately...that seems to be the way the last month goes. Students and teachers alike seem to put forth all their energy and effort into those last assignments and lessons, the last quizzes, the last oral interviews and presentations, the upcoming final exams....I push them. They push back. But every day I laugh in that class with those young men. I laugh at myself, at them, WITH them....we joke with each other, we argue with each other, we teach each other, we challenge each other and ourselves to do better, to do more, to keep trying....they are marvelous and wonderful.

Today is Thursday, the last day of the week, when I am so drained I just want to sleep. So, what do I do? Today Nelson and Nettie were gone when I came home. I paused awhile, ate a snack, drank some juice.....I sat down at my computer, I found an article on Facebook that one of my students might be able to use in his research paper. So I sent it to him. Posted another one on my profile. Sometimes, I simply can't cease being a teacher, even when I pause. :) I'm not even sure if it's teaching....

"What is a teacher? I'll tell you: it isn't someone who teaches something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her (his) best in order to discover what she (he) already knows." Paolo Coelho

I love Paolo Coelho. He is my new favorite author and I can't wait to hit the library back home and read all his books! :)

Anyway, I have realized that I don't think of my students as just students (never have)...they are tomorrow's managers, and leaders, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers...they don't know those things about themselves yet, who they might be, could be. I asked my class this week what do they see about themselves in 5 years. In 10 years. Goals. Dreams. Achievements. Some have an idea...usually in terms of jobs or careers, graduating with their degrees, even geography (where they'll be living)...they asked me the same question, and all I could think of was "home." But, when I look at them and think of their lives in 5 or 10 years, I am thinking of "who" they will be and if what I am doing right now, at that moment, in the classroom, on Facebook when I'm sharing an article, sending an e-mail informing them they have missed too much class, marking them tardy or absent, making them redo an essay they've plagiarized or (gasp) giving them a zero, will someday have an impact on that 25 or 30 year old young man. God, I hope so. Inshallah.

Next week, I am going to ask them WHO they will be in 5 years. In 10 years. I wonder what they'll say. I wonder what they'll teach me. I wonder what I'll learn from them again.

And that's all I have to say about that. (Forrest Gump)