This week brought a great surprise: a friend from my teenager days in Switzerland showed up, with husband plus six children in tow! Some of my readers will remember Allyson Hilbig! It's a small world, to say the least.
We must have spent most of our time, way back then, laughing hysterically. Because that's what I want to do whenever I glance in her direction.
The memories are endless, and include paying David to swim across a swampy and freezing mountain lake, my being coerced into a motion-sickness-inducing amusement park ride in Zurich that left me ill for 12 hours, racing down the world's longest alpine slide track after making a pact to never pull on the breaks even if we risked flipping off the ramp, and enduring a church girl's camp which in Europe is tantamount to a week of forced labor. Or so we thought (it actually involved milking goats and raking hay on a steep mountainside).
Allyson's family promptly spent their first two days tutoring at the school. I was moved by how helpful and kind her children all were. I imagine that helping other kids to read for five hours on end can be a little tedious! Yet none of them were anything but patient and gracious. Our students, in turn, fought over whose turn it was be tutored by the new Americans.
Here's Olivia, age ten, helping Vannamalar who's only a year or two younger. Unfortunately I don't have a shot of Tyler, age eight, who spent several consecutive hours reading with second-graders like himself (will try hard to snag one tomorrow)!
We must have spent most of our time, way back then, laughing hysterically. Because that's what I want to do whenever I glance in her direction.
The memories are endless, and include paying David to swim across a swampy and freezing mountain lake, my being coerced into a motion-sickness-inducing amusement park ride in Zurich that left me ill for 12 hours, racing down the world's longest alpine slide track after making a pact to never pull on the breaks even if we risked flipping off the ramp, and enduring a church girl's camp which in Europe is tantamount to a week of forced labor. Or so we thought (it actually involved milking goats and raking hay on a steep mountainside).
Allyson's family promptly spent their first two days tutoring at the school. I was moved by how helpful and kind her children all were. I imagine that helping other kids to read for five hours on end can be a little tedious! Yet none of them were anything but patient and gracious. Our students, in turn, fought over whose turn it was be tutored by the new Americans.
Here's Olivia, age ten, helping Vannamalar who's only a year or two younger. Unfortunately I don't have a shot of Tyler, age eight, who spent several consecutive hours reading with second-graders like himself (will try hard to snag one tomorrow)!
To comment in the exotic language of Utah, "That is freakin' awesome!" What a beautiful experience for her family and for you. Your light and example are inspiring others. Keep shining.
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