A Lion's Roar Cannot be Ignored

I just had a fantastic day. I started a new class with the students at Eagles Rising today - Self Discovery. It is time to do group activities and artistic expressions in exploring emotions, how to manage emotions, discovering more about their God-given personalities, etc. I think its going to be a lot of fun.

To get the ball rolling today we just started with the good 'ol "if you were an animal what animal would you be and why". Except that they had 10 minutes to either draw, prepare a skit, or write about it. What came out of this time was amazing.
One girl said she would be a lizard because if you chop its tail off it keeps going and for her people may try to cut her down or chop part of her off in life, but she will keep going.

One of the guys wrote an amazing poem about a lion's roar. I can't give it justice here, it was so well written, but here is the jist....He would be a lion because a lion's roar cannot be ignored. A lion's roar breaks through any racial group. It can be heard over all the lying, stealing, raping, and murders. It breaks through every attempt at reconciliation and re-structuring of the nation (speaking of South Africa). A lion's roar cannot be ignored.
Wow, it was powerful.

Of course, the most humorous was one of the guys who decided he would be a mouse so he could scour through my house and see what all I had around without being known. Ha ha. Young people, they think their so funny :)

Is Anybody Reading This?

So just today I was complaining to a friend about how no one ever comments on my blog. It makes it hard to find motivation to write because I don't know if anyone actually reads this thing. I made a comparison to my friend, Paige, and said how I am most envious of her blog because she gets so many comments all the time.
Then, I pop on here today and what do I find...a comment. Yeah, a comment. And a few marks of "funny" & "interesting". I now officially know that in the past two weeks at least 3 people have read this blog. Thanks to all three of you :)

Such motivation warrants some random ramblings....
I made a mistake paying my rent this month. It is another example of how I still have to transition to the different pace and ways of life here. Sometimes now I've gotten comfortable and I forget to keep my guard up always watching for something I might not be aware of.
When I moved here and got the car I quickly learned that people seldom accept cash here for large purchases. It simply is not safe to have that much cash around all the time. As a result it is common practice to pay payments in directly to the bank.
Moving into the house I currently live in, I learned that rent is also paid in directly to the bank. I also discovered (at least for where I live now) that rent is paid by the last day of the previous month. For example, my rent for May was due on April 30. I usually try to pay a bit early but due to my being sick for the past little while, I found myself trying to pay rent on Friday, the 30th. At which point I realized I had gotten to comfortable with the whole rent paying issue and not paid enough attention. The bank my landlord uses closes at 3:30pm every day. 3:30???? How do you get business done that way. My American brain leaps in and tells me how this is a ridiculous way of doing business. 3:30, Monday - Friday, just does not compute with me. But none the less, I showed up at 3:40 on Friday, wanting to make sure not to be later than 4:00 since it was a Friday (that is how it works in America, anyway.) A bank should, in my American thinking, stay open until 6pm, at least, on Monday - Thursday so people can go after work. Although, again in my American way of thinking, a bank may close at 4:00 or so on Friday to make up for the late hours the other days of the week. Apparently this is not the way of thinking in South Africa. I'm sure the banks here know the best hours for accommodating good business here in this culture, but I was not prepared for said hours. And now.....I have to be there upon opening Monday morning to deposit my rent and pray a prayer that maybe a one time late rent is not the end of the world in South Africa.