When Life gives you pot holes...

...don't make lemonade but hold on tight, hope for the best and yell out "holy crap, that was a big one!"

Today was one of those days that I could look back on and think "what a crap day that was" and if I were anywhere else other than Bali, I probably would have done just that. I had a flat tire, I stepped in dog crap and I lost my favorite pair of very expensive sunglasses. None of that seemed to faze me though. Okay, maybe I was a little upset about my sunglasses... Here's how we handled the flat tire though, After lunch we drove to a friend of a friend's Cafe, told the waiter/bus boy, who is a local that I had a flat tire and could he help us out (if I would have done it myself it would have cost me double the price), he then took it to one of his friends, we drove off on my friend's scooter, looked around in a store for a bit, came out and stepped in dog poop, went back to our friend's Cafe about a half hour later and my scooter was park outside with a brand new tire. Now that's service, a brand new tire in a half hour and I didn't have to do a single thing and it only cost me 35,000 rupiah plus I gave our waiter friend 5,000 for helping me out, all together, that's less than $5. 

It's kind of hard to have a bad day when everything is so laid back and people genuinely want to do what they can to help you out. Bali just continues to amaze me...

Finding the pyromaniac...

I have this kid named Jason in one of my younger and beginner classes. He is 7 and a handful. Up until a couple weeks ago, I had kind of given up on him because he had been making very little progress. I had already sent him to extra help and trying to deal with him one on one when I have 8 other students to attend to was just frustrating. Recently, I decided to summon all of my patients in an attempt to make a difference with him and what do you know... I have seen a change in this kid! I had an "aha" moment when he came up to me during class the other day as the kids were labeling a body parts worksheet. Jason had labeled a few body parts wrong and so I pointed to his knees and asked him what they were. He proceeded to motion and sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes", I have played that song for them numerous times while learning about our body parts, and then he shouted "KNEES!" It was a pretty cute moment and it definitely made all the trouble he has given me worth while!

On a similar note, I have a group of 14 and 15 year olds that just have all the attitude in the world and up until a couple of weeks ago, I absolutely dreaded Tuesday and Thursday nights when I had to teach these kids. My dad's advice was to just give them some extra love, easier said than done. I didn't give them extra love, per say but I did change my attitude about them and as with Jason, I have noticed they are a little more at ease now. While they aren't my favorite class just yet, I don't dread Tuesday and Thursday nights anymore!

It's funny what can change if you just step back, take a look at what's going on and then decide to shift and make it different. One of my favorite quotes comes from the book Fierce Conversations,  I don't know the exact quote but it goes something like this: "Find out who the pyromaniac is instead of continuing to put out all the fires and the pyromaniac is often you." Love it, such a great quote....