Pictured to the left in the green shirt is Annya Becerra, the Special Education/Resource teacher at Westmore (the kids' elementary school). She asked if I would sub for her on Friday, February 26 so she could go to Chile with her friend for a week. A day or two later, they were hit with an 8.8 earthquake, strong enough to change the length of a day (granted, by a miniscule amount) and moved cities by feet. We received word that she was okay, but, obviously, she didn't know how it would affect her ability to return to the United States. Any roads that she could use to get to the airport were damaged or destroyed. There was no electricity. Everything was on hold for a minimum of 72 hours. Facebook became an incredible communication tool. Through her updates and requests, we were able to coordinate substitutes so she could be at ease that her students and responsibilities were covered. I was able to fill in for quite a bit of the time which explains my absence from blogging for a while. My schedule would start early in the morning and have me in the classroom until 1:45 or 2, then run to the office until 3:30, then head back to teach clubs until 5:15. Some of those days were then followed by Young Women responsibilities or other family needs.
Annya returned on Wednesday, extraordinarily grateful to be home, but thankful for the blessings of being there and able to offer assistance to the people in need. (In the photo, she and her friend were able to get a water truck and go around, giving people the water they lacked.) I, in turn, received an answer to prayer in finding some additional much needed work.
I looked at my schedule this week and was pleasantly surprised to see that things are seemingly back to normal. I still hope for those opportunities to pick up the extra work here and there, but am also glad to slow things down.
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