Pre-Clean Clean

Pre-clean clean

I like to pre-clean before my haus meri (maid) cleans. I know for a fact…I am not the only one who does. You know what I’m talking about right? I have a haus meri who comes once a week to wash dishes, hang up clothes, clean the bathroom and do whatever else we need done around the house. In return we pay her, build a relationship with her, practice our Tok Pisin, and don’t have to do the “nasty” stuff. But before she comes I always find myself wiping down the counter, stacking and rinsing the dishes, straightening the living room, etc.

It’s not all madness, really! My mindset is, I put away the things that are meaningful to me so they are out of her way. Okay, maybe it is a little crazy, but it makes sense to me. There are days where I have rinsed and stacked the dishes that I think to myself, “Well you might as well just wash it.”

Living in a place where everything is work, I do not feel bad about hiring someone to clean once a week, even though I could probably do it myself. Instead I will spend my time bleaching vegetables, deboning chicken, debugging lettuce, making homemade yogurt, sour cream, bread, tortillas, and ice cream. And in my spare time I will hang up clothes and step on big fat cockroaches!

The pre-clean is necessary for a good clean!

Drawing the World

A few days ago I looked at my classroom and decided, it was time to change the bulletin board. Unlike many teachers, I actually do not despise changing them. I have the opposite problem, I like it too much! My creativity just runs ramped and I tend to waste time doing it "just right".

Since our next unit is on where we live in the world, I decided to draw the earth and have little people holding hands in the middle of the earth. The words around the earth would say "Go into all the world". Great idea...however, drawing the earth is certainly not an easy task. I thought it through for a few days and when I finally found a circle I could us to trace, I got busy.

After tracing and cutting out my beautiful blue circle, I was faced with the task of forming the land. But...which view of the world would I do? Would I put North America in the middle? Would I put Australia and PNG in the middle?

All my life I have grown up seeing world maps in books, on walls, and in stores that feature North America as the "center of the world". But when I came to this side of the world, Australia and PNG were in the middle. This made me ponder. Why do we put North America in the middle?

Is it because we believe North America is superior to other continents? Do we do this because the majority of our students are from North and South America? Is this actually creating a nation of "North American" focused individuals? Or is that due to lessening of emphasis on geography, history, and world studies in our school systems today?

Despite all these thoughts I decided to put Australia, PNG, and Korea in the middle, seeing as all but two of my students are from this side of the world. Unlike my PNG kiddos, my America ones will have little problems knowing where they are from and the countries that lay in proximity.

Praise the Lord

In church this week we sang a song called "Let Everything That" by Matt Redman. As we sang each line:

Let everything that
Let everything that
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord

I began to think, if everyone doesn't know the Lord than how can they praise Him. That's the reason we are here, doing this job, so that all people will be able to praise God like they were created to.

May the rocks not have to cry out! May the Lord be praised by every nation on the earth!

Revelation 5:9-10, 13
"from every tribe and language and people and nation
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God
and they will reign on the earth"

and they will all say
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power
for ever and ever!"