Life and Times of an English Language Doctor

 The weather has warmed up to the sixties for the past few days so I've been able to shed my coat. I'm not quite ready to leave it at home yet. Weather here is not as variable as it is in Texas, but when the sun goes down, it still drops to the thirties at night.  Tomorrow, when I go to church, I will walk under the willow that facinates me. It started greening a few weeks ago--the first sign of spring.  Most of the trees are still bare, but I saw one covered in white blooms on my walk home from school.  Imagine I'll be indoors a lot in spite of the spring sunshine. This is the season for writing assignments to be do. I have 160 pages of research reports to read. Forty pages have been slow in getting submitted, so it may be next week before I see them. I've already read 40 pages, but it has taken me three days to do so. Students submit the papers electronically and I mark them electronically, so it is a little difficult to take them outside to read. I hope I finish s...

 Yesterday, on my walk to work, a man with a flower truck approached me and gave me a tulip.  I told him, Thank you, but had not idea why he was passing out tulips. Since I had six hours of teaching ahead of me, I passed the gift on to the receptionist when I signed out the key to my classroom. Later in the afternoon, while I was walking home, I ran into a colleague of mine from the high school. She was carrying a couple of flowers that her students had given her.  She explained to me that it was Women's Day and the tradition was that men and boys should give women flowers.  Last night, the pastor brought a dozen roses to prayer meeting, but forgot about them until there were only five people left at the church and I was the only woman. I shared with the gentlemen who had wives and daughters, and brought the rest home to share on this blog:

Thank you for friends and family, who bring encouragement and cheer I've done nothing to deserve their love Yet they draw me near "A diamond in the rough," they call me And help me realize That though I am not worthy  I am not worthless in my Creator's eyes Thank you for the thorns and thistles For jealousy that crushes me in the ground Pointing out my faults and failures With false accusations weighing me down A diamond in the rough You call me so I withstand their viscious lies For though I know I am not worthy I am not worthless in my Creator's Eyes Belittled, betrayed, and bruised Battling bitterness and grief Fearful, flawed, fretful Plagued with failure and disbelief A diamond in the rough You call me Exchanged for a Pearl of Great Price Although I am not worthy  I am not worthless in my Creator's eyes In faith, I see my flaws fixed  And my fears flee My faults and failures are forgiven My spirit is made free And while I am not worthy of such a wonderful...

A friend of mine, a teenager during the break up of the Eastern Bloc, told me of her adventures when she was a teenager.  She and her friends went to a large factory in Odessa, now under siege, to practice their Russian. She said they went through another city that is also under siege. She said that the Ukrainean language is similar to the Slavik languages, which, along with along with one of the longest borders with Ukraine, explains why so many are choosing to flee to Poland rather than their neighbors to the south.  The conflict feels pretty close when you think of it in these terms.  It isn't the closest I've been to conflict. Some of my most vivid memories of growing up in Africa center around the first coup. One day, we had rebel soldiers in our backyard fighting the police in our front yard. Fortunately, we lived on the 2nd floor and no shots were fired at our house. We got a front row seat to the battle--everything we could see from under the bed, where Mom told u...