RIA First Day of School

Warning! This blog entry contains cute kid pictures that may bring a smile to your face. If you need to stay in a grumpy mood, do not read any further - it may ruin your day...

Whew! What a week! Today (Sunday) broke blue and clear; the sun bathing every tree and flower in striking glory. It wants to make one thank God for the beauty of the world around us. I hope it feels that way to you too! After Morning Worship in Basel, our friend Jon offered us a lift home as his wife was away visiting her folks near Stuttgart. Since it was such a relaxing afternoon (and the shops are all closed) we strolled over to a local café for lunch. They serve Turkish, Italian and German food for a reasonable price and it is very close to our apartment. It is kinda funny in most restaurants here that they bring the food when it is ready, not when the whole table's order is done. Jon got a salad when Delynn's plate and my pizza came. We tucked into our meals, Jon of course finishing his salad first. We then waited for Jon's main course to arrive, and waited..., and waited... It finally arrived after what had been been a miss-communication with the kitchen, so we all finished our meal together, filled with the warmth of good company and spicy Turkish kabap.

Delynn and I have finished up our first full week of school. What a wonderful experience it is to reconnect with our returning students and begin to build relationships with the new students. As I have mentioned before, a significant number of student families were relocated over the last school year and this year we find ourselves with more new students from around the globe. Several new students are coming into an english-speaking environment for the first time which adds new challenges to our teachers on how to bring the students up to grade level and teach them all they need to know.

I have to say however that we have some of the cutest kids on the planet. Now, I'm sure that every teacher feels this way - I wish that I could combine these pictures with insight into their unique personalities, to convey the memories that flood our hearts with each face, but I cannot. You will just need to take our word for it that these are some precious children. God makes each one so different from the others - and we are so glad for that. Imagine how boring life would be without the beautiful hues of personalities, the fragrance of different smiles, the resonance of a myriad voices.

Not to say that everything is peaches and cream. Everyone who teaches understands the tears that go with the job. The first week can be hard for the children - especially those that have never been in a school before. It can be trebly hard if the childs first language is not English or German (or Swiss for that matter.) Imagine walking into a new environment where you parents leave you and go away; the people are all speaking gibberish and they expect you to follow new rules that have no context (Why are we always lining up to go to the potty?). God however has been so gracious to us. We have so many students that are proficient in multiple languages (some speak three or four different languages, switching seamlessly as the need arises) that they can ease the transitions for our new students as they learn the English language - and believe me, they learn quickly!

Okay, final warning! Here they come...

Doesn't this young kindergartener look excited to start school!

Delynn gets a laugh as this young student shows off her new backpack!
This returning student is sporting the latest in 2nd grade fashion - two missing teeth!

Finally, these two 1st graders are part of our transition team - they help the Spanish and German EAL (English as an Additional Language) students understand what is going on in the classroom.

A word about EAL. It used to be called English as a Second Language (ESL) but then for many students, English is their 3rd or 4th language, so it was called English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Now I thought this was a fine name, but apparently, the teaching profession likes to change names every few years just to keep people guessing, so this year EAL came into vogue. Maybe by 2010 it will just be EL (English as a Language)... Who knows. It keeps the letterhead from getting old.

For our praying friends, thank you for your faithfulness. Please, as you think of us, keep our students in mind, those just starting, those learning English for the first time, for our message of God's love for them - and for the whole world.

Peace

Delynn is out training for her marathon that comes up the end of the month. She will be joining some staff and parents from school to walk the marathon (42.2 km/26.3 mi). I am so proud of her for sticking to a training schedule that will help her succeed! Today she is scheduled to walk for 5.5 hours - the marathon has to be completed in under 7 hours, so that will be going at a good pace. Go Delynn!

One of the things we love about the Dreiländereck is the way that things are taken care of. Now, we do have graffiti, but it runs the spectrum from useless tagging to really quite well executed works of art. Most of these types are seen from the train as we wiz through the cement jungle around train yards. In Weil a. Rh. the city fills the public spaces with flowers and plants, regularly rotating them out after they have reached their peak. In Basel, they decorate not only the land but the air too. The picture below is of the main tram terminals in front of the Basel Main Rail station. It was a delightful sight after returning home from our visit in the states.



I told you last week that we were going to a Schwingenfest. Well, I have a bit more background thanks to father internet. It is traditionally Swiss with its origins back to the 13th century. It was revived as a sport about 200 years ago to raise Swiss national conciousness during a time of French occupation. What I find fasinating is that the grand prize is a bull! Really, we saw it... They parade it around during the final match so that the opponents can see what they are fighting for. Another nice gesture is that the winner doesn't gloat about his victory but rather whips the sawdust off his adversary's back as they walk out of the ring. Hmmm, there is probably a lesson in there somewhere... For those of you info-junkies about odd facts - you know who you are... here is a link to find out more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwingen

When Delynn and I returned to Germany, we arrived just a few days before our 13th anniversary. Last year, we were in the midst of transition (getting work visas, moving in, signing up with the Rathaus, drivers licenses, etc. - it makes me tired just writing it...) so we didn't take much time to celebrate our anniversary. I know, poor us. Well, this year we found out that because we had already done all the transitioning last year that we had a few days before school in-service days started. We decided to go off for a couple of days to Baden-Baden to relax and just be us two.

Baden-Baden is found in the Schwarzwald about 2.5 hours north by train from Weil a. Rh. It is near the border with France and the french influence in architecture, wide boulevards, spacious parks and gardens is readily felt. Baden-Baden is a resort town, with natural hot mineral springs that have been a destination since Roman times. They actually have to cool down the water before introducing it into the pools and springs.

There are two main bath complexes in Baden-Baden. One is Friedrichsbad - a so called Roman-Irish bath. Friedrichsbad is attended completely "textile free" except for a towel. The second, pictured above, is the Caracalla Therma which is where we spent an incredible anniversary morning relaxing at the spa. Caracalla lets one bathe in a more modest way - with a bathing suit. The different pools were at various temperatures. Most were in the upper 80's to low 90's Fahrenheit. One grotto had two pools right together, the hot pool at 95+ and the cold pool at 62. It was quite invigorating to go back and forth between them. They had a eucalyptus steam room - what a unique experience. As one enters, the steam is so thick that you can barely see across the dimly lit room, all dark tile and beautiful marble. It reminded me of a Godfather movie where the mobsters sit in steam rooms for nefarious purposes.

The hot mineral springs are piped into the "Trinkhalle" (drinking hall) where for a 30 cents one can buy a cup to enjoy the hot mineral water. Doesn't Delynn look healthier already? Actually, all things considered, it was not too bad. We have been to Bath in England, which is also a Roman mineral spring spa and the water there was nasty with a capital "N"! They advised us there to hold our noses while drinking to make it more palatable. In Baden-Baden, it was good enough that I went back for a second cup (well, I did pay 30 cents for it...)

Here we are in front of the famous Baden-Baden casino. Apparently one needs a tie and jacket to gamble there. (Michael was inappropriately dressed...)

We took a path down to the suburb of Lichtental because there is an abby there. A couple of times it rained so hard that we had to stop and huddle under our single umbrella (but it was very romantic...). Once we reached the abby, everything was pretty much closed up, but we did get a rather nice picture of an abby courtyard wall. Along the path between Baden-Baden and Lichtental are rose and dalia gardens - they must grow well in rain...


Where's Waldo? We had an incredibly good time together in Baden-Baden. We came back to Weil ready for in-service and excited about the coming year. We do ask that as you think of us that you give a prayer for more students this year. Last year saw the transfer of families that made up about 30% of our student body. We do have some new students, but overall, it has been a big change. We are thankful for each student we have, they are all very special to us - and you will start seeing pictures of them soon! School starts Monday!

Love to all

Quick update

As we prepare to go to Worship this morning, I thought that I would share a few words from our last week. Delynn and I spent our anniversary in the resort town of Baden-Baden. The architecture reminded us fondly of Paris - wrought iron balconies, flowers everywhere, cafés on the street, leisurely walks in green, fountained parks. It was a perfect celebration of 13 years.

We will provide more details and pictures but it may be delayed a few days as we get back into our work routines. One reality about life here is that it takes longer to accomplish the common everyday tasks of living. We are grateful for that but it takes time to organize. Today also, we are meeting up with friends to go to a traditional Swiss festival. Apparently, the highlight of the festival is to watch burly swiss farmers throw each other around a dirt ring wearing the equivalent of a sumo get-up over their clothes. Should be interesting... Those Swiss! We will be sure to post pictures of that too.

Love to all!

We have arrived home.

We finally landed at the Zürich airport at 1140 today, 30 July. This was almost four hours later than we had expected. When we first boarded the flight in Atlanta, we noted that it was unusually warm. Several mechanics, festooned with screwdrivers and flashlights, made their way to the cockpit and then left. After the clock ticked past our scheduled departure time we were told that our air-conditioning unit was konked out and that we needed to deplane into the relatively cooler airport for our wait. (Thank the Lord, it was cooler...). A part was found, the solution however did not work and a new plane was found for us. Thank goodness that we were in Atlanta - a huge Delta hub, from which a substitute could be found. The new plane had to go through security checks, pre-fight checks and the luggage had to be transloaded. We took off finally about 4 hours later than expected; the actual flight to Zürich was relatively uneventful.

Our friends were waiting for us when we finally touched down. Aubrey, a fellow teacher and her friend Stephanie (both from the Northwest) had arrived about 830 and had to wait with Diana until we finally arrived. Everything turned out well however and we finally got to our little apartment by 1500 (3pm) this afternoon.

As the clock passes 1830 locally, Delynn and I are finishing the last of our unpacking but we are pretty bushed. We will do our level best to keep going until about 8pm or so before turning in.

Love to all; thanks to everyone who made our stay back in the States so memorable. From cars loaned to beds slept in - we have a really special group of people supporting us. But...

It's good to be back home.

Kindergarten Graduation

We had a very special celebration at RIA this week - Kindergarten Graduation! Ms. Hillary graduated six students that eagerly wait for the coming of 1st grade next year. These six students represent six differant countries: England, America, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and Spain - and Ms. Hillary is Canadian, so that's seven. We held the graduation a little early as two of the students are leaving early, one on holiday and one moving to a new city in Switzerland (that would be the American student...) Due to the realities of expat communities living in foreign countries, about half of the kindergarten class will not be returning next year, but will be attending schools in other areas and countries.

This is a reality that has really touched our hearts. Transition; leaving; being the new kid; saying goodbye; saying hello to new families; new country, new language, new everything - that is something that makes these children unique. We have them but for a season, to love, to nurture, to share God's love, before we send them off again to a new place, a new home. Ms. Hillary is in transition also - she will be finishing up the school year just in time to have her first child. She and her husband (he's German, works in Switzerland), are so very excited to begin their family. As Ms. Hillary transitions from teaching to being a full-time mommy, we are also saying goodbye to a great Kindergarten teacher.

At Graduation, the students sang and did motions to one of their favorite songs: "Our God is a Great Big God!". Can you believe that they are all the same age?


The Kindergarten students each designed and made their graduation hats. There is such a huge amount of creativity in the class. They are giving Ms. Hillary a group hug in appreciation for her being their teacher. So sweet!
These two sisters (twins actually) are the pride of my library. They attended RIA for several years before transitioning to a German school. I think I have mentioned before the requirements on attending a German school if you are a resident. Anyway, the sisters' family still has library priviledges as their younger sister still attends RIA and they are voracious readers. They come in after school and check out books as quickly as they can read through them. I think their goal is to read every book in our library... Well, more power to them I say! Oh yeah, I don't think they even realize that I am taking this picture - they get so focused when they read that the world ceases to exist.

Indeed, we are learning here just how priceless each child is. As several of our long-time families are transitioning to other countries, we share many poignant moments as we work hard to say goodbye well. We are learning that time is much shorter than we would like to believe. We must hold on loosely, the students are a gift to teach for a time, only to send them on again - smarter, wiser, kinder, with God's truth in their heart that they are special and hopefully with fond memories of their time at Rhein International Academy.

Love all; serve all. Be generous.

P.S. This will likely be our last post of the year as Delynn and I frantically get ready to finish out the last week of school and get ready for the flight back to the States. We love you and look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Euro 2008 in Basel!

It was so nice of the Swiss to host a major european football tournament to commemorate our birthdays this month. For those of you who may not follow soccer over here (or as they call it: REAL football...) this is the year of the European Masters 2008 tournament (EM 2008) which is being hosted by Switzerland and Austria. Sixteen european national teams are competing for the title. It is a bit unusual (and deeply saddening) to our British friends that England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales ALL failed to make the cut. Switzerland and Austria are both fielding teams but they are not expected to make it into the quarterfinals. We shall see.

Basel is one of the host cities for EM 2008, so Delynn and I ventured over Saturday to get a feel for the city as it prepared for opening day. Basel hosted the very first game - Switzerland vs. the Czech Republic. I read somewhere that 100,000 people were expected to come to the game. The stadium in Basel only holds 42,500, so where do you think the rest of the folks were? Yup, walking up and down the streets with their team colors on. We enjoyed being in the midst of the pre-game festivities because before the first game, everyone is still in the running and can win. The Czech and Swiss fans enjoyed pointing at each other and singing their fight songs (none of which we could understand...) There is a phrase that we heard repeatedly: Hopp Schwiiz! which is a dialect version of Hop Suisse! (Can you hear the difference?) This phrase means "Go Switzerland!" and is the direct equivalent of USA! USA! heard at so many international sporting events.

A sea of red and white. You might notice a couple of Czech fans with red, white and blue national colors.
The normally reserved Swiss get a little crazy for football... Notice the Matterhorn hat - I think it is homemade. Don't you love the umbrellas?

This is the Freiestrasse in Basel, a pedestrian street full of shops and uh, lots of people. They put up the awnings for EM 2008, but they don't keep out the rain. Even though it seems like a lot of people, this is a pretty manageable crowd (unless you get claustrophobic)...

I was never quite sure why the Schweiiz fans would be wearing Viking horned caps. Hmmm. Probably just because men like to think they are vikings. Go figure. Some adventurous person climbed up on the fountain statue and put a Swiss flag in the knight's hand.
Delynn and I were definately not wearing the right colors! Opps, what a cultural faux-pas. It is still a little cool and wet for late spring but we are enjoying every minute of the adventure of living here in our little corner of Germany. Speaking of Germany, they play tonight and are one of the favored teams to take the EM 2008 title. We will be back in the States before the champion is crowned. It is just a little over two weeks until we fly out and we have so much to do. We look forward to seeing as many as possible next month. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts. We are still looking to find a automobile to borrow if possible while we are back in the Portland-Vancouver area. Please let us know if you have a vehicle for use. It means a lot to us.

We pray for God's rich blessings for all during the coming week. Live generously; Love surprisingly; be a blessing to someone.

Eek! It's June!

It is now officially June - as I flip over the calendar, I realize that we fly in a bit more than three weeks. Yikes! Two and a half weeks of school, an additional couple of days of teacher in-service to close things down for the summer and BAM - we will be on a plane back to PDX. Please pray for our final hectic weeks and for our good-byes. We will be saying farewell to several teachers and families that are transitioning away from RIA this summer. This is a poignant time each year - we have poured our lives into the students and they have flourished in the loving, godly environment here. To know that some will not return in the Fall is tough, but it is part of the path we choose when living and teaching overseas.

Today (Sunday) we had the opportunity to travel up to our sister church in Freiburg. Our vicar (there is something very British about that word...) invited members of ACB to travel up with him to Freiburg as he is giving the message to their congregation. It makes for a long day, but as we have mentioned before, with shops closed on Sundays, a wonderful space is created to enjoy building and watering relationships. In the busyness of our lives back in the States, I recall very few Sundays when we didn't end up going shopping at some point. Not to say that we aren't just as busy here, but somehow we manage to structure our week so that the shopping gets done in six days rather than seven.

Saturday evening we celebrated "International Night" with our school family. Nearly every family was represented. They came bringing foods from their native land, wearing traditional garb (Swedish to Scottish kilts to Indian) and enjoying their students' talents. In reality, at our school, anytime two or more families come together, the event becomes "international"... The showcase of the evening was a play written by our director, Miss Del Rio, which combined three well-known folk tales: Chicken Little, the Bremen Town Musicians and Little Red Riding Hood as they were told in other countries around the world. Michael had the privilege of playing the wolf in a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. Basically it was me in drag with a tale sticking out the back of the flannel nightgown. (Did I mention that it was really hot?) We had a grand time.

Here are the Pre-school and Kindergarten classes singing out with all of their heart!

These three sisters sang a Lebanese mother's song. The girls are Lebanese-American living in Switzerland. They are sweet!

Mr. Walz was playing the part of a Wolf in a Chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. I also had a gray wig to complete the disguise.

A teacher and student playing a beautiful rendition of "Faithful One"

We are very much looking forward to summer break - to coming back to the NW to catch up with family and friends. But in so many ways, Weil am Rhein has become our home and we are sure to miss it. We wish you all grace and peace in the coming week.