In the air

I said goodbye to the school today...to teaching anyways. At the end of the year, the teachers are as burnt out as the students, except we have all the marking and averages to take home and work on, and the tedious meeting to look forward to. I walked into my (old) office today and was greeted by quite the sight: the schools newest students, women in their 30s and 40s, who will be coming to school three days a week during the summer holidays, to learn to read and write. It was so cute to see these women who have never read a newspaper, their own kids report card, a single bible verse, or a street sign, sitting at a table, with the strange feel of a pencil between their fingers, writing " 0 1 2 3 ..." on foolscap. It was...inspiring. As hard as it is for me to imagine the life of a person who can't read or write, it is so much harder to think of what goes through their heads when they decide, after 30 or 40 years of this life, to try and learn these skills. The courage! These women are mothers of students, or members of the church. Its amazing to me. They are amazing to me. I just want to hug them...Freddy's mom, Linder's mom, Stalin and Jorge's mom...amazing.