First of all, events of the past year had added a couple of layers of appreciation for the holiday celebrating a great man. This fall, my class and I studied King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"--which is so powerful. Also, in teaching my Chinese students about the American Civil Rights movement, I learned and understood things in a new way (seeing from a different point of view is so powerful).
Then at Christmas, one day after a hike we stopped by the Little Rock Nine memorial site (across the street from Central High School (a gorgeous building), where it actually happened). That was a wonderful reminding and additional learning experience.
So, my appreciation of MLK and the things he helped happened had grown.
I celebrated in my own way, but I found it rather appropriate. Often I help with Day of Service, which I think is a great thing, but this year I just enjoyed the reality of my life. A life that can be the way it is, in part, because of the civil rights movement.
I spent a large section of the middle of the day with a lovely family who is originally from Egypt. I learned how to make Kofta (beef meatballs) & Okra and several other simpler dishes. So delicious. And Abeer (the mom) and I had a wonderful time just visiting, practicing English, etc. (I know the dad much better, so this was a special occasion). It was so fun! I truly love learning about different cultures, seeing the immigrant experience up close, and making new and wonderful friends.
That evening I had a dinner party with my students from last semester. (We purposefully chose MLK day, since we'd bonded over him last semester.) These 8 students (and the situation in which I had them) made for a dream of teaching. Truly fabulous. And being able to have them in my home was so much fun! They very enthusiastically helped me cook (politely vying over who would get to do with job because it was hard to create enough for everyone); we ate delicious Navajo tacos (they inhaled the fry bread--next time I'll know); and then played a rousing game of Mafia. My heart was so incredibly happy this day.
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| It was cold (the sky lights above don't help), so we tried to warm the dough with a hair dryer. They thought it was hilarious, and then they insisted that we "dry" every piece--even after the counter was warmer and didn't need it. |
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| They might not look like anything special to you, but seeing this picture the tears come, I love them so much! |
1 comment:
That is just awesome! How neat that you are so close to past students.
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