a wednesday in the life of an intern

Most days are busy. But usually we can count on Wednesdays to pretty much top any other day of the week. (Except during Project 61, but that's an entirely other story!)

8:00 am -- Sarah and I leave the house where we're staying (I am highly medicated as I've been sidelined with a sinus infection the past 2 days).

8:15 am -- Pick-up intern checks from the Shackleford's house

8:35 am -- Pick-up the other Sarah and Rachel from where they're staying

9:05 am -- Arrive 5 minutes late. Misjudged the time again!

9:10 am -- Greet Julie and show her every nook and cranny of the church since it's her first day. I like to give the new intern tours because I show them every corner. I didn't feel really at home here until I had explored every closet, so I make sure everyone has that opportunity right off the bat. And, this way, when I say "the very back closet with the tables," they know what I mean.

9:20 am -- Meeting with Nate and the other interns who weren't there yesterday to get caught up on everything we missed. Simultaneously attempt to help Caitlin with Excel but fail miserably as I don't understand Macs.

9:35 am -- Inspect my classroom, "Class Champion." Joe decorated it for me yesterday. The best part is a Rudolph bear head hanging above the white board with a medal around its neck.

9:37 am -- Help Rachel clean the kitchen.

9:50 am -- Talk to Julie and Rachel about lesson plans for the day and what exactly a day at getAHEAD (our tutoring program) looks like. Try to share teaching tips, but can't really remember any.

10:10 am -- Major getAHEAD meeting with all the interns. Miriam stayed up til 3 typing up 7 pages of notes in a really small font so everyone would know what to do. We now undergo a crash course in the care and keeping of getAHEAD.

11:50 am -- The really fun part of the training--restraining a child safely. Much screaming as we push each other around and much amusement as Chase (kinda short) attempts to restrain Tyler (quite tall).

12:15 pm -- Lunch. Sandwiches, quite naturally. I have American and ham on cheap wheat bread with just a touch of mustard, my normal sandwich unattainable because of our current lack of Doritos.

12:30 pm -- Various last minute jobs to prepare for getAHEAD.

1:05 pm -- Leave to pick-up kids. Only a very vague idea of where they might possibly live.

1:30 pm -- I'm in the neighborhood, of that I'm quite sure. But I'm entirely unsure of where the kids might be. Six phone calls and a few unsuccessful doors later, I have to head back to teach class.

2:10 pm -- getAHEAD should have been going for 10 minutes now, but there are no kids in my classroom. Contrary to intern popular belief, that only happened once last summer. Usually I have at least one. I am bewildered but trusting God as I've been praying all day for the kids that He would bring today. He knows what He's doing.

2:20 pm -- Rachel and I go to the nearby McClure park to hand out more flyers for getAHEAD. There's a lot of people there, and we get quite a bit of interest. We'll see if any of it pans out.

3:00 pm -- Back to the church for Skills Time. Rachel teaches how to be a good friend and a good student. I make friends with a girl named Larissa, rekindle my friendship with Sondra, and haven't stopped being Makaela's friend since the wedding. Rachel makes Joe and I act out good student vs. bad student. I am cast as the good student. I feel my skills in the audition tended more towards the bad student, but Rachel changes it at the last minute. Joe does have that impish grin better suited to mischief.

3:30 pm -- Individual Time with Qwe-Qwe and then Sondra as Rachel has to drive a suspended child home. We read a poetry book (Qwe-Qwe loves poetry) and work on spelling words using alphabet cards.

4:00 pm -- Floor Time. Nate talks about the attributes of God, starting out with immutability. Graham as Kermit makes a triumphant puppet debut. My legs go solidly asleep as I have two 8 to 9 year olds in my lap and another leaning her elbow on a part of my knee that managed to be exposed.

4:30 pm -- The kids leave for home. We clean up our classrooms, do our write ups about the kids we individually "mentored" (a classier word than "tutor" according to our beloved director, Miriam Boone (that was weird.)), and then Caitlin, Rachel and I have a tea party with the uneaten snacks in my classroom. Other interns join as Miriam reads Seymour and Opal out loud. We decide to make story time a Wednesday tradition. Various jobs and brainstorming.

5:30 pm -- Dinner time. Chili with all the toppings. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.

6:00 pm -- Jerusha, Ayana and I go back to where I was earlier so Jerusha can show me where the kids live. The house of the "beaded kids" looks empty, but we leave a flyer anyway and I make a mental note to try later and then to ask Makaela where they're living. The other kids are excited to see us and want to come with us right then and there. We explain that it already happened for today, but I'll be back for them the next day.

7:00 pm -- Mission Memorization during adult Future Grace study/prayer meeting. Miriam and Hannah and I teach the kids 1 Timothy 4:12, Chris leads some songs, Joe talks to the kids about setting examples even though they're young. Much hugging of Rinnah, Annie, Amy, and Alicia. (Rinnah gives some of the greatest hugs ever, even though she's 7.)

8:30 pm -- A little more final clean up while talking to people from the church. Many of the interns play basketball in the parking lot. I'm not dressed right, am still kind of sick, and frankly just don't want to join in tonight. I talk to Dan and Rachel instead

9:15 pm -- Six interns reconvene at Starbucks to do some reading. It's gonna be due soon! As predicted, not much really gets done as we get sidetracked by talking about the day and then about...well...it all came back to God. And it was good.

11:00 pm -- A wind comes up and blows some notes out of Caitlin's journal. "My RA notes! I'm never going to be a good RA now!" She takes off running as the notes land on the roof. We try to tell her where they landed, but she seems determined to get them anyway. Realizing this, the Sarahs and I take off after her, finding her on the other side of the building looking for a ladder. She is about halfway through shimmying up a drain pipe when someone asks, "But how will you get down?" Realizing the rationality of the question, she comes back down. We stand there for a moment, pondering what to do. Just then, another gust and some papers blow off the roof near us. We all laugh, knowing exactly what they are. I call that the worship laugh, when God just works out something so perfectly that you can't help but laugh. His care is perfect and minute.

12:00 pm -- Back "home." Mind too full to fall asleep. I listen to the Killers and blog instead.

(Note: all times wildly approximate. You think I actually looked at a clock that many times in one day? Seriously now, people.)