Adventures

The Intern

Today I met 20-year-old El Refugio intern Kayla. She is tall, blonde, and outgoing. We got to spend some quality time together in the kitchen attempting to communicate with the cooks: Anhaelica and Anita. I took one year of Spanish in high school and decided to take French in college. I am proficiant in French and understand more in Spanish than I thought I would. But cooking vocabulary is a bit out of my league. Therefore, Kayla and I attempted to learn together a new set of vocabulary words. I understood more than Kayla and often translated the part I understood. Then I’d figure out what the cooks were saying and I’d get the job done.

During my hours in the kitchen with Kayla, I got to know her a bit better. She is the third child of four. She has an older sister named Katie, (23) an older brother named Joe, (22) and a younger sister named Kara (19). Kara just got married on May 10. Kayla is in a serious relationship with a man named Nick and expects to be engaged not long after she returns to Michigan. She got to Calacali last weekend. Kayla will be here until August 15 and is excited to spend her 21st birthday here on August 11. 

Kayla took a little Spanish in high school, but doesn’t know it well. With the Spanish tutoring that is provided for interns, she hopes to be able to have small conversations with Ecuadorians before she leaves. Kayla is one neat 20-year-old! She knows how to weld and to change her oil. She helps her dad with his work and didn’t go to college. Instead she spent two semesters with LIFT program in New York. She discovered a passion for ministry and can see herself living in CalaCali someday.
Kayla can be quiet, but when she says something it is important. She first visited El Refugio when she was 13. Her dad was helping build the “Discipleship House,” where I am staying, so her family took a vacation here. After her first time here, she was hooked. Before arriving here as an intern, her longest stay out of the U.S. was 16 days. This time she will be here for 2.5 months. Kayla really likes being outdoors and hiking. Yesterday she hiked around the ridge of the mountains and it took her under two hours.

I’m sure I’ll learn more about Kayla as the days go on, but for one I’ll leave you with one last tidbit about this girl. Kayla and her brother are very close. When he was here with LIFT in the spring, he left her two hiking surprises. He described where to find the treasure and then made her take a long hike to find it. In total, he left her two surprises and she gets to open one each month. I hope that someday my brother and I do something special like that. This small act seems to signify their close relationship. It sounds like they are as close as David and I.

The best

Today I am subbing for Mrs. Knutson, a teacher’s aide who focuses on helping students with math. I’ve met her before and she’s pretty wonderful. Today I got to work with a student named Natalie, who blessed my socks off. As soon as I entered the room, faces perked up and each one said something to the effect of, “Hi Miss Lunde!” I received lots of hugs and smiling faces.

As we walked down the hallway, Natalie told me. “I really just love you so much Miss Lunde. You are so nice and you care about us. You are patient and I want you to be our substitute teacher forever. Can’t you just tell Miss Kelsey to pretend to be sick? I love when you sub. You are great at Miss Kelsey and as Mrs. Knutson. You are great. I just love you.”

Well at this point if I had any reason to be sad, my day was immediately turned around. No need to be crabby ever when you have kids that say things like that to you early in the morning. Man, I just love being a sub! Throughout the last few months, I’ve been substituting a lot. I’m realizing that I have a passion for working with kids and each experience strengthens that passion. Sure, there are very difficult days, but the better days outweigh the hard ones. I know by being consistent and by helping students with homework, I am making a difference in their lives. Let the subbing continue!

 

Neighbors

Today I spent the day at the Berge household in Eagan, Minnesota. I met the Berges back in 2012 when I went on Inspiration Point Day Camp to Community of Joy church. Our host family was the Berges. Sara, the mother and I connected right away because of her patience, words of wisdom, and passion for seeking the Lord’s will. One evening we even stayed up past 1:30 am sharing stories and adventures. Since then my love for the Berges has only grown. John, Sara’s husband works at Target and leaves early in the mornings. Back in 2012, he challenged me to do Insanity, but only the 20 minute version. I survived, but just barely.

The boys, Tobias (5) and Samuel (2.5) are a real joy. Tobias has a lot of energy and likes to talk very loudly. He’s a very smart kid and is curious about the world around him. When we played soccer, he kept score. He didn’t cheat and give himself extra points or not count the points I scored. I expected a bit of that, but was pleasantly surprised when he kept the real score. Samuel is talking quite a bit now, although I can’t always understand what he is saying. His words are there, I just haven’t been around him enough to understand them.

Today I met their neighbor Ru and his daughter Katana. Ru was curious why I was living in Wisconsin. He also is very good with a rock. By that I mean that he can throw it at a goose perched on his roof and not miss. This made the goose leave and Katana shouted, “Why are the geeses leaving?” Katana is a real beautiful 2-year-old with dark long hair, dark skin, brown eyes, and long eyelashes. Although she is two weeks older than Samuel, he talks more. But when Katana does talk, she says complete sentences that make a lot of sense. We played with chalk, warmed our hands by the chalk fire, and drew smores. We also had fun with bubbles and the soccer ball. I pulled her around in the wagon and spun her around until she got dizzy. Although I didn’t get to talk to this little precious girl very much, my time spent with her was wonderful. Now I have another reason to visit the Berges, just because of a simple play date with the neighbors.

Not interested

Today I met Kathleen who was one of my students in my applied engineering class. I asked how she got her name and Kathleen shared that she was named after her grandma. 

Kathleen is a sophomore who wasn’t really interested in taking this course. However, because she is only a sophomore, she didn’t have first pick with classes and therefore it was one of the only classes left. She didn’t really have another alternative. She’s made the best of the situation though and still does her best on her group projects.

As we waited to test her tricishay, (not sure how to spell that) she told me that she is a thrower in track. Despite this being only her third year, she competed in a meet in South Dakota last year and got first place. This took her to the junior national competition. She can throw the discus 115 feet and the shot about 40 feet. I’m sure she’d improve a lot if the famous Mr. White was her coach. I told her a bit about him and said if she ever needed some advice to give him a call.

Thoughtful

Today I met two women that said they were from New Mexico. I didn’t get to ask them a lot of questions because I took their order and made their drinks, but they surprised me with their kindness. The thing that caught me off guard is when they were trying to say Nakita’s name without messing it up. Once they got it, they asked my name. I told them it was Kaia.

“Kaia, we believe that people in coffee shops are real people not objects, so it is important for us to ask and use people’s names. So it’s nice to meet you, Kaia.”

Awe! I was so touched. They told me their names were Billie and Sam and then had to leave. Day made for sure!

Sioux connection

The Sioux lost on Thursday night to the Gopher hockey team. I was quite disappointed, but had no one to sympathize with me because of I live in Wisconsin. I was surprised to see a man wearing a UND Fighting Sioux sweatshirt at Backroads. This started a conversation about North Dakota. This couple, Tom and Pam, lived in Crookston, MN for quite a few years. Pam got her doctorate degree from UND. When they heard how I came to Hayward, they encouraged me to check out Holden Village (http://www.holdenvillage.org/about-us/). I spent some time researching on their website about summer opportunities in the Cascade Mountain range in Washington state. It would be beautiful to spend a summer there. Tom and Pam explained that to get a Holden, one must ride the ferry for 50 minutes and it is very secluded. It is a Luther ministry retreat center. They are looking for teachers for the school year to teach the families that live there year-round. Holden Village has been around for 50 years. It began as a mining for copper and gold community. Before Tom and Pam left, they gave me their business cards and told me to contact them with any questions that I had. They lived there for many years and have lots of connections.

After spending some time on the website, I realized they only have volunteer positions available for this summer, but I will consider it for another year. I was thankful that Tom wore a Sioux sweatshirt because that gave me the courage to start the conversation in the first place.

The Hair Dresser

Today I met Jade who works at Foxy Looks hair salon. She is very friendly, but I’ve never talked to her before. I was slow in making her airpot, so she had some time to kill. She heard I was a runner and gave me some advice from her daughter. She thinks my hips must be hurting because of my new shoes. She told me about her daughter that has will run the Boston Marathon this year, which I believe is next week. She told me that her daughter’s hips are hurting because of her new shoes. She went to a massage therapist and they worked on her feet. Now, she is running normally again. Jade also has two other grown children, one lives in town and one lives in a different state. Although Jade is not a runner, I appreciated her sharing her advice with me about running. I have a new friend each time she comes in to get her airpot.

The couple

Today I talked to Jan and Don, two regulars at Backroads. Jan often reads books, while Don focuses his energy on the paper. Don was married before and has six children from that marriage. This is Jan’s first marriage. Despite being married before the couple has been married for nearly 30 years.

Jan is from a small town in South Dakota, which is about 60 miles from Sioux Falls. Don is originally from the Cities area. They lived there before moving up to Hayward. The two have had two men from North Dakota living with them for a while, so we have a connection. The two men are from Devils Lake, which is about 85 minutes away from Cooperstown.

Until today, I didn’t know that Don had been on the Birkie board. Today he explained he was on it for 15 years before he was not reelected. He has skied in many other countries and has been a part of the World Loppet two times. This means he has skied in the Birkie, plus five other countries two separate times. He has even skied a race that is 90km long, two separate times.

Don and Jan sure are a fun older couple! I hope they share more about their lives with me soon!

The greatest break ever

Today I worked at Backroads. Yesterday I left my car at work with clothes for today and ran the 3.7 miles home. Today, I ran to work and arrived with a good 30 minutes before my shift. Therefore, I didn’t want to take a full break, since I had just under a 7 hour shift. I took a 15 minute break and had the best break so far! I was planning on updating the Birkie Twitter and Facebook pages, but instead saw a young girl sitting by herself listening to her iPod. I asked if I could sit with her, she said yes. This began the start of an awesome friendship and I really hope to keep in touch with this sweet girl.

Her name is Taylor and she is a 3rd grader. She loves math and reading. She is from St. Michael, MN and is up in Hayward for the weekend, staying at her cabin with her family. Her parents are science teachers in St. Michael. Her father’s name is Paul and her mother’s is Valerie. Taylor has a younger brother who is a kindergartener named Lane. When I met Taylor Rae, Lane was sitting by himself listening to his music, clearly uninterested in our conversation. After a few minutes of talking to Taylor, I invited him to join us. Unfortunately, soon he declined. A few minutes later, he took me up on the offer and decided to join the conversation. I wanted him to feel important as well.

When Lane joined in, we were talking about unique names. I told Taylor the names of my siblings and how when I was little I disliked my name. No one else shared my name and it made me feel sad. Lane shared similar feelings. Taylor says at school, she knows lots of Taylors. Her last name starts with a J, so she often goes by “TJ.” I made Taylor guess how to spell my name, she was close when she guessed KIA. I told both Taylor and Lane how to spell my name in French. “Ka-ah-e-ah” is how it is pronounced. They laughed when they repeated it, which made me smile.

Taylor is a cute blonde girl with an amazing brain. She recommended some 3rd grade books to me and I plan on taking her up on her offer. She reads mostly on her Kindle Fire, but gets carsick if she reads while she rides in a car. Therefore, she has discovered she loves audiobooks, just like me. Taylor desires to learn and is excited to compete in her school math and reading competition, which is coming up soon. When her family comes to the cabin, they all bring lots of books to read and a few movies. They relax and don’t have a lot planned. Occasionally, they come into Backroads.

Near the end of my 15 minutes, I realized I needed to get back to work. Despite the fact, that her parents were sitting a few feet away, they thanked me for talking to their daughter. Later, they asked if I was a teacher. I smiled and said no, but I’m subbing. I explained I do not have an education degree, but am considering going back to school to get a teaching license. Valerie shared that she did the same thing. She has been a teacher for 13 years and explained things are so much easier online now. They recommended it. After hearing of my French background, they suggested looking up leading trips for the summer. Paul led a trip to Florida a few years ago with students. Valerie said I can combine my passion for traveling with young people. She also shared that a friend teaches in the summers in Switzerland. I don’t have plans for this summer besides a few weddings and a birthday party with my grandma. We share a birthday and I haven’t been with her on her birthday for more than a few hours, since I began at camp in 2009. I’m looking forward to a birthday with her! So I’ve got some research to do the rest of this weekend. Paul got my email address and said he’d be sending me some information.

Seriously, talking to a 9-year-old girl and 6-year-old boy about life on my break was so much fun. Plus, I made some contacts and have some other options for the sum sum. Great person of the day! Yes!