Left Behind - My Last Weekend At Home

I have no clue when this Internet cafe will close. I really expected that I'd be kicked out at midnight, but people are still drinking tea, and there's a movie playing on a projection screen TV that most people working here want to see. So for now, an opportunity to catch up on the blogging. I've got everyone from cousins to college roommates complaining that I've yet to post much of anything here or on Facebook that actually has to do with Indonesia. Everyone here appears calm. A soft breeze assisted by an electric fan is blowing. Traffic has slowed to a crawl, and there's a small pile of trash burning beside the road. No wonder people come to the tropics to write. With plenty of tea, I might not be so far behind in three hours....

I could not have made the decision to try teaching English overseas without my involvement in the free English program at Beloved Community Church, located in Birmingham's Avondale neighborhood. I began showing up at Beloved every Sunday evening during graduate school practicum, when I needed just a few more hours to complete my requirements, and could not seem to get out of the habit of going to the English class when practicum was over. Or after graduation. Or, at any point, really, until I decided to move to Indonesia for 10 months. Nancy, Denyse, Kristi, Lillian, and all the other tutors are a great group of people, and have always been really patient with my arrival time (always hit or miss) and never missed the opportunity to offer an encouraging word about the goings on at Shelton State, and other sources of frustration. The church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC), considered ultra-liberal in Alabama, but they made clear to me, again and again, that their "creed" is simply being there for those who need them. They gave me somewhere to be on Sunday, as God blessed me with a two hour window of time each week when I could be assured of doing something constructive that really made a difference, and they did this at a time in my life when both these things were sorely needed. My last class with them was the last thing I did in Alabama before pointing the car toward Atlanta and a motel near the airport. Of course, they had a cake, like my coworkers at the library. And like everyone at the library, they will be remembered with much love and respect - wherever I end up.

I spent several planned one-on-one tutoring sessions with Liu Zhi, the gentleman from China in this photograph. He is a skilled construction tradesman who was a diver in the Chinese navy, and has learned too many trades to count. Getting to know him over my final weeks as an Alabamian made me glad he chose to settle in our state, and a lot less lonely, too, having already quit work for most purposes. He lets nothing stop him from making a life for his wife and teen-aged son, and while he doesn't like his limitations in English, he shows no fear where these limitations are concerned, and became a personal example for me in so many ways. If he studies, he will learn - and learn a lot faster than I'm going to master any Bahasa Indonesia. What a great student to have in my life for the two months it was possible!