Spanish, Fire, and EXTREME POWERPOINT!!!

Alabado sea Dios!  Today was a much better day!  I started the day in Philippians 4 where it talks about being full of joy and not worrying about things but praying about everything.  It’s not really about what happens during the day but my attitude and reaction.  By starting my day in the Word and placing my focus on God, I was able to see clearly His mini miracles.  My cell phone works now!  I don’t know why it decided to let me call out, but I can.  I only have four 50 minute classes and three 50 minute free periods a day (except Thursday when I get to play/teach Ultimate Frisbee for “optitivas” or electives), whereas some teachers only have one or two free periods a couple times a week.  Some of the international teachers live further away from shopping centers than I do.  I am really quite blessed with my location, what I’m teaching, and how God has provided thus far.

And because I was in a better mood, I found today’s training especially amusing… Claudio (the head of safety in the MS) put together a PowerPoint presentation for the Fire Extinguisher training today.  He was not actually giving the presentation—another guy was.  To paint a portrait with words of Claudio, think of the SNL “Two Wild and Crazy Guys” skit—slicked back hair, starched shirt, fashionable pants (yesterday they were very shiny), and he thinks he’s all that—I hope you get the picture.  So this PowerPoint, just like all his others, is an EXTREME POWERPOINT (just for you, Mary!).  All of the words are animated, all of the pictures are animated, all of the arrows pointing to the pictures are animated, and the best part is that the slides didn’t really amalgamate with what the other guy was talking about (from what I could understand!).  They did have a translator today, but she kind of forgot to translate what the presenter was saying.  My perception is that the translator knew what the guy was saying so she just assumed the rest of us non-Spanish-speaking people did too.  People would ask questions in Spanish, and the translator would just stand there looking at the presenter (I couldn’t blame her though; the guy was cute).  Anyways, back to Claudio: he would put the next slide up on the screen and then he would walk around with his cell phone and take pictures of us audience members.  He had to have taken at least 25 pictures, and I think many of them were of his animated PowerPoint slide!  That’s not even the best part.  After 1.5 hours of that, they herded us outside to the blacktop area where they had a bunch of dry powder extinguishers and a metal trough.  They then put wood in the trough, drenched it in gasoline and lit it.  Two staff members at a time were to rush up and put the fire out using the extinguishers.  Then the presenter guy lit a match, through it in the trough, and threw on it to get it going again for the next batch.  Two thoughts entered my mind during this fire and powder frenzy: “These guys should be using diesel, not gas” and “This would NEVER be allowed in the US!”  During this fire act, I relinquished my extinguisher to another International teacher who really wanted to put a fire out (maybe relates back to that whole boys-want-to-be-firemen-when-they-grow-up thing) and retreated to my room for a bit more planning before the end of the day.

Stay tuned for my next blog about my harrowing adventures of hauling a 5 gallon jug of water to my apartment from the corner OXXO store!