It's Friday Y'All, and I'm Simply Thankful for the Teachers I Get to Work With Every Summer. They Are the Best.

They are without electricity. There are trees and wires down everywhere, and they drive to William's mom's house to sit outside on lawn chairs so they can run Ubuntu Academy, our two week, adapted online literacy lab for immigrant and refugee youth.

Meanwhile, my 1-year old MacBook Pro fizzles and the screen needs to be replaced, so I have to run to campus for the day to get it worked on and to retrieve a loner. I love the one they gave me.

And I am thinking of Tuesday's lesson plans, when a crew of kids and I collaborated on an As In poem (thank you, Kwame Alexander...your gifts are endless).

Here's to the Friday, the last day of 6 weeks of literacy labs and CWP's ability to sustain the excellent work we've kept going for the last 7 years. It definitely was different, but 100% successful, and I'm proud of my exhausted, committed, and dedicated teaching crew. They make every second of the efforts worth it.

Grateful

/grate-full/

to be accepting of what you have

appreciative,not to be greedy

As in,

It was night-time, and I wanted a snack

and my sister brought me a bowl of ice cream

with M & M’s and caramel sauce, 

and said, “This is for you,”

My stomach was happy.

As in, 

Eid Mubarak, when everyone has a smile,

and kids are running around with candy

on the streets of Sudan, and 

parents hand it out with prayers.

As in,

sleeping in to 11 a.m. during the summer

when a tropical storm brings winds through the trees

and the temperature drops by 20 degrees

As in, 

seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, and tasting,

the flowers on a sunny, spring day

when butterflies chase the snowflakes away

As in,

being good with others

eating, dancing, singing, laughing,

talking, and enjoying life.

As in,

being able to find peace within,

and not through others.