Paid in love

Having my dad here is such a spirit lifter! It feels like I'm at home, which is both happy and sad. It's happy because I love being home and I love having part of my family here with me. It's sad because I wasn't missing home at all until I saw my dad, and now I do. I guess it's just part of what comes with seeing family. After a long day of school, plus staff meetings, it was nice to go to Emimalea and eat a nice dinner in a place I get to share with him. My kids love him! He brings them lollypops every day and they just adore "Miss Chelsea's dad". Of course his hilarious stories in chapel don't hurt. Everyone from Kinder to 12th grade love to hear about the giant pig in the road and how he threw up in his regulator.
Yesterday a woman came up to me that I met at the beginning of the year. The first week of school I talked to her about finding an english tutor for her daughter, a junior in high school. They're Korean, so she's trying to learn english better for some ESL test at the end of the year. After talking to her mom for about 20 minutes, I became the caretaker for this girl. As it ended up, she needed somone to tutor her daughter from 6-7 pm every night, and then just hang out with her until 9 pm. I honestly didn't know what to say to her, but decided that's what missionaries do, so I said yes. It should be interesting teaching english when I don't even know all the rules. It should be even more interesting hanging out with an exchange student from 6-9 every night, but who knows what will come out of it.
Sitting in staff meeting today, watching the Harry Wong video, I realized that I love teaching. I can't wait to see my kids in the morning, I love watching them understand new concepts during the day, and I look foreward to their goodbye hugs every afternoon. I love planning new and exciting things to do and ways to help them learn. It's really exciting to see other teachers copy things I do in class! Dina had me teach her De-Bug, and today I saw Joy sending her kids on a treasure hunt! I just feel like I matter here, and its a nice feeling to have. Unconditional love is a nice feeling. I know I'll have that from my family forever, but these kids don't have to love me, but they do. No matter what they do to get in trouble or if I give them extra recess or not, they always have hugs and "I love you teacher" for me. Today I recieved an apple, ham sandwhich, cheetos, and strawberry cookies. The life of the teacher is a blessed! Maybe not paid in money, but love and food is priceless!