It is bizarre to me that it's already day 12 of PFO and that I'll be on the plane home in 2 day's time. When I got here, 2 weeks felt like forever. Now it feels as though it's flown by. I'll miss the cool temperatures and the gorgeous hills. I'll miss being surrounded by people who know exactly what I'm feeling and going through. Mostly I'll just miss the people though. Just like when I left CAO, it's hard to realize that a lot of these people I may never see again. And even the ones that are close enough for me to visit, it'll still be months between visits.
This week, like last, has been full of information. We've talked about mentoring, child abuse prevention, ESL strategies, and moral purity. Moral purity was an interesting topic because we talked about how vulnerable we all are to temptation, particularly once we're overseas. Satan will be attacking us and it could be very easy to get caught up in sin when everything changes, you're very anonymous, your security and accountability is gone, and you're under immense stress from transition to a new culture. I'm going to have to be on my guard - knowing the areas that I'm most vulnerable and being aware of my failings and tendencies.
Also, on Monday we did the awful "Life Skills Simulation" which was three hours of role playing an emergency situation. It was an event that had actually happened to one of the PFO staff. We all had different roles in the school (I was the guidance counselor) and we had to play out a code red and pretend that the school was caught in the crossfire of a military coup. It was horrible. At first I felt silly, but the longer it went on, the more real it felt. At the end, the "US Embassy" came to evacuate us but we had to leave our non-American students and I started crying because all I was picturing was leaving my non-American 4th graders - something I honestly don't think I would be capable of doing without knowing that they were going to be taken care of. Now, I know that the likelihood of a military coup in Hungary is somewhere near 0% (as my adviser said, Hungary is politically boring now) that doesn't mean that there won't ever be some kind of rampage unrelated to politics. It was interesting in that it got me thinking about emergency situations regardless of the context. Doing God's work isn't safe. Just because I'm not being sent into a place of political unrest, doesn't mean that I'm guaranteed safety. But I am confident that this is what God is calling me to and despite the circumstances, I will rest in the knowledge that I'm in the center of His will.
Tonight is the talent show. I'm not participating (too shy for that) but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what some of the other people put together.
Thank you everyone for all of your support and encouragement. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you on Sunday when I get back! Love you!
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