The Enemy Hit Hard but I Came up Fighting!

They say that if you are doing the Chief’s (Lord’s) Work, the enemy will try to take you out.  I must be doing something the enemy doesn’t like.  I was struck with perorbital cellulites and had to take an emergency flight to the Bethel hospital where I was treated 6 days with IV antibiotics. I was released from solitary confinement of room 154 just before Christmas and made it to Anchorage to be with my kids! I made the best of my imprisonment as I had one visitor in which to discuss the Chief’s bigger plans. My nurses and tech’s would come into my hospital room just to take a respite from everything going on in other rooms on my ward.  It must be a room of peace!  One nurse, “Mr. Mark”, invited me to celebrate Christmas with him, since he had to work on Dec. 25.  I graciously declined and told him I needed to leave to spend Christmas with my family.  My night nurse was a tall, intimidating, older man who flipped on all the lights to change my IV’s and put eye drops in.  The first time he ripped off the surgical tape that took some skin, I exclaimed, “Whoa! Nice wax job!  I think you missed your calling, JC. Do you have any more tape?…I didn’t have time to shave my legs before I came here!”  We had a good nurse-patient relationship after that.  I even saw him crack a smile the next night and had him chuckling by the end of the week.  The chief had me write a different kind of thank you note that the nursing staff will be laughing about for a while!

Dear JC,

          Our relationship needs to end.  I am leaving.  You hurt me. LOL  Thank you for helping me “see clearly”.  And tell “Mr. Mark” that I cannot accept his offer to spend Christmas with him.  Although it was a nice gesture.

But a lady has to do what a lady has to do!

                                                                             Room 154, Shelly

  

A few days after I got out of the hospital my 4 wheeler was stolen in Kalskag and hasn’t been recovered.  I am going back to Kalskag with no transportation and a few miles from work in sub-zero temps.  Hmmm, I wonder how the Chief will provide for me when I get back? 

There is nothing in my life that is circumstantial or happenstance.  The Chief has every aspect of my life in His control.  Big things like potentially fatal illnesses and stolen 4 wheelers to little things like making a nurse smile on a hard day.  What would happen if you believed the same thing?  Would there be any room for disappointment?

Kalskag Debutant

Hiding away in Kalskag sounded like it was a sure-proof plan.  I guess the Chief had other ideas and hiding was not one of them.  I walk into the lunch room every Friday and hear,  “Shelly!  Shelly’s here!  Sit by me, Shelly. No, sit by me!” The children’s riotous sound of screaming echos in the gym.  The lunch duties roll their eyes and try to maintain order as the children are jumping up from their seats to hug me.

One Tuesday afternoon while the children were lined up to go home, a third grader hollers to me down the hall, “Shelly, you’re famous.”  I ignore her pretending like she doesn’t exist. I did not want THAT statement to get any attention!  I’m here to hide.

The next afternoon as the children were lined up to go home, the girl says it again, this time chimed in with other children, “Yea, Shelly, you’re famous.  Everyone likes you!”  I turned to her and the others and said, “Its nice to be liked.”  By Friday word apparently had spread because I walked into the lunch room to eat and got mobbed by 40+ kids screaming, “Shelly’s here!  She’s our Pop Star!” 

 
I think I’ll be eating in my room by myself on Friday’s.

Coats for Kalskag Part 2

Halloween 2012: 118 Coats given away and lots of candy!  People were so thankful for their new coats, hats, snow pants and gloves!!

Trash

As I was walking Curly, the black poma-poodle, around Lower Kalskag I noticed garbage laying around on the ground.  I thought it would be nice to have the village clean before the snow comes so it won’t be such a big job after breakup in the spring.  I bribed several kids with pizza if they would fill up one garbage bag with trash.  So Friday night there were about a dozen older children willing to pick up trash and eat pizza.  We made the pizza dough then as it was rising I gave each a garbage bag.  Trash was picked up all around the playground, school, homes, the post office and bingo hall.  Fourteen trash bags were collected and a dozen kids ate pepperoni and cheese pizza!  They had a blast!

Socks, Socks, Socks

The Chief whispered to some ladies in Atlanta, Georgia that the children in the Upper Kalskag elementary school could use some socks.  They collected 72 new socks and sent them out in a flat rate box.  I divided them up according to class and size.  I distributed the socks to the teachers one Wednesday morning.  The Chief arranged to have the superintendent of the Kuspuk public schools to be in Kalskag on the morning I gave the bags to the teachers.  The teachers gave a short geography lesson on Atlanta, a writing lesson on thank you notes, a math lesson on dividing up the pairs to students and adding all the socks together.  There are creative teachers in Kalskag!  The superintendent and the principal were impressed!  The children were ecstatic about new white socks!

 

Coats for Kalskag Part 1

My daughter and son-in-law had a brain storm idea about gathering coats for the children in Kalskag.  They came up with the idea of “Coats for Kalskag” and put a plan together.  A large school, a couple of churches, and some businesses in Wasilla began to collect used coats for the people in the village.  We will distribute about 100 coats at the church on Halloween.  “Coats and Candy” we will call it.  My Wasilla church is mailing them out to my Village Church in several large totes.  To be continued….

 

The Home Visit

I am required to visit homes of the children I teach.  Friday, I went to one boy’s home to meet with his parents.  It was a good visit.  Another student in the class lives across the street.  She had been absent due to illness so I thought since I was in the neighborhood I would drop off her papers and newsletter to her mother. I also had a short survey I needed to take for the office.  I knocked on the door and I heard a muffled, “Come in!”  I slowly opened the door saying loudly, “Hello! It’s Shelly, your daughter’s (I named her) teacher.”  The father greeted me and I introduced myself, shaking his hand, since I had not met him yet.  I told him I was glad to hear his daughter was feeling better and handed him a pile of papers.  I went on to ask him if I could ask him 4 questions for a short survey.  He complied.  I completed my four and a half minute visit and turned to go.  He spoke up and said I may have the wrong child.  What?!!!  He told me that the girl I was looking for lived next door.  Oh NO!!! I got the wrong house?!  I apologized profusely and tried to back away slowly groping for the door handle, hoping this gentlemen would not call the troopers. He handed me the child’s papers.  The Chief’s voice spoke to me clearly through my invisible earphone and told me to properly introduce myself.  I turned around held my head up high and hand out to him again and announced, “Hello, let me formally introduce myself.  I am Shelly, the new white teacher who doesn’t know where the children in her class live!  This is my way of meeting the neighbors in my new village! I am honored to meet you, sir!”  If he told me his name, I would not have remembered it!  He began to chuckle and I graciously backed out of the house, thanking him for his hospitality.  Fortunately, no troopers showed up on my doorstep.  I am sure I was the talk of the village all weekend!  After I told a couple native ladies my story, they figured out whose house I went to and they agreed.  The white woman would be the talk of the village all weekend!