So in my Teaching Language Arts class, we had to write a folk tale, animal tale, or tall tale. Here is my wonderful creation. It should be in the form of a children's book, but I could only write it online so here it is. Enjoy!
The Knapsack Kangaroo
By: Briana Merante
Early each and every morning I trudged my 7-year-old little body down to breakfast where my oatmeal was waiting for me. Plain old oatmeal. Boring oatmeal. Each morning, after I ate my boring oatmeal, I would trudge back up the stairs to my boring, old room. My brown, boring old room. After I got changed into my boring, old clothes, I would trudge out my front door with my boring peanut butter and jelly sandwich, ride on the boring yellow school bus and walk in my VERY boring classroom. After a very boring day at school I would trudge back onto the boring yellow school bus, walk back into my boring brown room and do my VERY, VERY boring homework. I would do this every day. Every Monday. Every Tuesday. Every Wednesday. Every Thursday. Every Friday. And sometimes even on a Saturday. My life was so boring that when people would ask me what my name was, I would just reply, "I'm Boring Brett." My life was as boring as it could be until....
One day I found a red knapsack on the red bench at the park one sunny Sunday afternoon. "It's probably a boring knapsack," I said not knowing that my boring life was about to be turned upside down. I slowly and carefully started to un-buckle the knapsack. But suddenly I felt it move! Startled, I jumped back. Did I really want to know what was in the knapsack? "Well," I sighed, "my life does need something that is un-boring." I opened the sack. At first I didn't see anything, but suddenly a head popped up! I couldn't believe my eyes! It was a baby kangaroo! Did this kangaroo live in this knapsack? COULD a kangaroo live in a knapsack? It couldn't be possible, but I didn't care. This would be my kangaroo and my red knapsack. This sunny Sunday was a day that I was always going to remember. It was the day when my boring little life was boring no more.
I named my knapsack kangaroo Jasper because that was about as un-boring of a name as I could think of. I liked talking to Jasper, and at first, I thought he might just talk back, but of course animals don’t talk. Jasper lived in MY new red knapsack. I didn’t dare bring him to school. I knew better than that! Jasper seemed to disappear every morning, and he never let me know where he went. But as sure as the sun comes up every morning, after school I would find him waiting, in my new red knapsack, for me to return. I would take Jasper to the woods behind my house, and we would play tag. We would play in the streams, eat the berries off the trees and then climb the trees. Well, Jasper couldn’t climb trees, so I just did. We had many adventures in the caves, and Japer even found a secret passageway! Times were good, and I was happy. I didn’t tell anyone about my new friend because who would believe me? Jasper was my little secret, and I would keep it that way.
“Jasper? Jasper!” I called out one day after school. Where was my red knapsack? Where was Jasper? Neither was in sight. I looked in my closet, under my bed, behind the door, and inside my laundry hamper. Nothing. Jasper, my knapsack kangaroo, was nowhere to be found. Suddenly I spotted something that fluttered on my desk. It was a note! A note from Jasper. It read,
Boring young Brett, you are boring no more
A friend, all you needed, to get out the door
As friends it was fun to hop, run and play
But you need a real friend
I can’t always stay.
I hope through this riddle you’ll finally see
True friendship, real friendship will un-boring be.
~ Jasper
I put the letter down. Jasper was really gone! But what did that last line say? “True friendship, real friendship will un-boring be?” I was very confused so I just went to bed.
I got up the next morning, and there again was my boring oatmeal. I got dressed in my boring, brown room. I rode the boring yellow school bus and walked into my VERY boring classroom. At recess I decided to read a kangaroo book that I had checked out of our school library. I sat down against the playground wall to read when a shadow fell across my book. I looked up, and there was a boy from my class just looking at me. “What are you reading?” he asked. I told him it was a book about kangaroos. “Cool!” he said. “Can I look?” He sat down next to me, and I showed him all my favorite pictures. I showed him a picture of a kangaroo that looked just like Jasper, but I didn’t tell him about Jasper.
Each day my new friend (his name was Jamie) would ask if he could look at my kangaroo books with me. He even brought some of his own one day! I really like being friends with Jamie, and one day I suddenly remembered what Jasper’s note had said at the very end. “True friendship, real friendship will un-boring be.” Jasper was my friend. Was Jamie my friend now? Yes! I finally learned what Jasper had been trying to teach me! Jasper had shown me true friendship, and now Jamie had taken his place. “Look at this one,” Jamie said. I looked and smiled. Jamie was my friend, and life wasn’t as boring as it once was. I finished looking at his picture and went to look back at my book, but as I glanced up, I thought I saw a familiar kangaroo hopping in the distance. I looked again, and there was nothing. I was disappointed, but I smiled because I knew that I had found a very special, un-boring friend.
_________________________________________________
- b -
17 April, 2009
My Time in Guatemala
I know this is very late coming, but I have been so busy, and I really wanted the time I had to reflect on my trip to be the best that it could be. So here is my reflection on Guatemala.
Before we left, I remember feeling that is was so unreal that we were going to be in Guatemala within 12 hours. I had no clue what to expect, and no clue how God was going to use me and impact me on this trip. I told myself that I was just going to be laid back and go along with whatever happened. I would be an open book for God to use, and I would rely on Him to work through me. Our team arrived in Guatemala with absolutely no trouble getting through customs, baggage checks, etc. Every piece of our luggage arrived safe and sound, and we met our drivers outside the Guatemalan airport to load up the baggage. They stacked our suitcases onto a little trailer hitch and we made the 30 minute drive to Casa (Casa Para Ninos Alelyuia). Now a lot of people think that Casa is an orphanage, but it is technically a children's home. Many of the children there DO have parents, they are just unable to live with them, or they were abandoned and are not able to be put up for adoption because their parents have not signed them over. I really wanted to bond with these children, but I didn't expect all the hard work that it took. There were many people on our trip that had been to Guatemala before, and they said that the children were really easy to communicate with, and, for the most part, knew English. Boy, did I feel differently. I have not taken a Spanish class in 4 years, and currently I am taking French, so my means of communication were very, very small. At the beginning of our trip, our team decided that we really wanted to focus on sharing the gospel with the older students and not just play with that babies all the time. So the first day we went out to the play yard and I just walked around hoping to meet someone. I was just walking and looking around, and I saw a little girl that was about 10 years old just leaning against one of the cars that was parked. I said hello, and I tried to ask her a few questions, but she just looked at me. She would speak in Spanish, and neither of us knew what the other was saying. It got a little better, but basically this was how it went ALL week. At least for me, it was really hard to communicate, but I had to trust that God would work through that. Language isn't a factor to Him! If He wants to speak to someone, He WILL speak to them. Well to make a long story short, I talked to this girl (her name is Marina) almost every day, and we became good friends. Sometimes we would just sit, and sometimes we would talk. She is a great girl, and she has such a sweet spirit and countenance about her.
Each morning we would wake up around 6 or 7 and shower, make breakfast and do our team devotions. This was really a great part of our day. We would get to bond as a team, read the Word and talk about what God was speaking to us while we were there. One day we talked about God's faithfulness in everything, one day we talked about being bold for Christ and not hiding behind the cameras, etc. One day we talked about letting God take control and just work through us while we were there. At first, many of us were frustrated because what could we do in a single week? People came and left all the time, and the kids were used to that. They were used to being let down, and it kind of felt like we were just going to be another group putting them through that again. But we had to trust that God would use us and even if we might not see the results, we would be obedient to Him and love on these kids and people that worked at Casa. After our morning devotions, we would clean up and work while the children were at school. The first day I went with a group and we picked up trash on one of the playgrounds. That was good until all the little boys came up and wanted us to play. We cleaned for a little while longer and then gave into them and just hung out. They were so cute and wanted us to do all these strange things. They gathered all the "Gringos" (that is their term for Americans) into a small group and made us sing the national anthem. It was really funny, and I guess they liked it! We got to know them, and it was a really good time just to hang out with them. I really bonded with a little boy there named Gabriel. I think he was 7 years old, but he was so sweet. He was very quiet, and he didn't know English but that was okay because he didn't even talk to me in Spanish. Before we left for Guatemala, I collected a bunch of t-shirts and jerseys to pass out to the kids, and I had a soccer jersey from my little brother so I gave one to Gabriel. He absolutely loved it. He wore it every single day, and it was so cute to see him happy. One day I brought out a whole stack of t-shirts to pass out to the boys and the minute that I walked through the gate, I was completely attacked and had no shirts left. Boys just grabbed them out of my hand and ran off. I went to tell their dorm mom that I had given them t-shirts and she asked me who I had given them to. I had NO idea what their names were, but she told me that only certain boys were allowed to have shirts. I guess these t-shirts were a privilege for them to have, and if they didn't have a good conduct grade then they weren't allowed to have one. Many of the boys had to give their shirts back to me, and finally all was settled. The boys loved them, and I felt horrible that I was not able to give one to all, but I did not make the rules!
Okay, well I have to go write a lesson plan right now, but I will finish later! Keep checking back for updates!
- b -
Before we left, I remember feeling that is was so unreal that we were going to be in Guatemala within 12 hours. I had no clue what to expect, and no clue how God was going to use me and impact me on this trip. I told myself that I was just going to be laid back and go along with whatever happened. I would be an open book for God to use, and I would rely on Him to work through me. Our team arrived in Guatemala with absolutely no trouble getting through customs, baggage checks, etc. Every piece of our luggage arrived safe and sound, and we met our drivers outside the Guatemalan airport to load up the baggage. They stacked our suitcases onto a little trailer hitch and we made the 30 minute drive to Casa (Casa Para Ninos Alelyuia). Now a lot of people think that Casa is an orphanage, but it is technically a children's home. Many of the children there DO have parents, they are just unable to live with them, or they were abandoned and are not able to be put up for adoption because their parents have not signed them over. I really wanted to bond with these children, but I didn't expect all the hard work that it took. There were many people on our trip that had been to Guatemala before, and they said that the children were really easy to communicate with, and, for the most part, knew English. Boy, did I feel differently. I have not taken a Spanish class in 4 years, and currently I am taking French, so my means of communication were very, very small. At the beginning of our trip, our team decided that we really wanted to focus on sharing the gospel with the older students and not just play with that babies all the time. So the first day we went out to the play yard and I just walked around hoping to meet someone. I was just walking and looking around, and I saw a little girl that was about 10 years old just leaning against one of the cars that was parked. I said hello, and I tried to ask her a few questions, but she just looked at me. She would speak in Spanish, and neither of us knew what the other was saying. It got a little better, but basically this was how it went ALL week. At least for me, it was really hard to communicate, but I had to trust that God would work through that. Language isn't a factor to Him! If He wants to speak to someone, He WILL speak to them. Well to make a long story short, I talked to this girl (her name is Marina) almost every day, and we became good friends. Sometimes we would just sit, and sometimes we would talk. She is a great girl, and she has such a sweet spirit and countenance about her.
Each morning we would wake up around 6 or 7 and shower, make breakfast and do our team devotions. This was really a great part of our day. We would get to bond as a team, read the Word and talk about what God was speaking to us while we were there. One day we talked about God's faithfulness in everything, one day we talked about being bold for Christ and not hiding behind the cameras, etc. One day we talked about letting God take control and just work through us while we were there. At first, many of us were frustrated because what could we do in a single week? People came and left all the time, and the kids were used to that. They were used to being let down, and it kind of felt like we were just going to be another group putting them through that again. But we had to trust that God would use us and even if we might not see the results, we would be obedient to Him and love on these kids and people that worked at Casa. After our morning devotions, we would clean up and work while the children were at school. The first day I went with a group and we picked up trash on one of the playgrounds. That was good until all the little boys came up and wanted us to play. We cleaned for a little while longer and then gave into them and just hung out. They were so cute and wanted us to do all these strange things. They gathered all the "Gringos" (that is their term for Americans) into a small group and made us sing the national anthem. It was really funny, and I guess they liked it! We got to know them, and it was a really good time just to hang out with them. I really bonded with a little boy there named Gabriel. I think he was 7 years old, but he was so sweet. He was very quiet, and he didn't know English but that was okay because he didn't even talk to me in Spanish. Before we left for Guatemala, I collected a bunch of t-shirts and jerseys to pass out to the kids, and I had a soccer jersey from my little brother so I gave one to Gabriel. He absolutely loved it. He wore it every single day, and it was so cute to see him happy. One day I brought out a whole stack of t-shirts to pass out to the boys and the minute that I walked through the gate, I was completely attacked and had no shirts left. Boys just grabbed them out of my hand and ran off. I went to tell their dorm mom that I had given them t-shirts and she asked me who I had given them to. I had NO idea what their names were, but she told me that only certain boys were allowed to have shirts. I guess these t-shirts were a privilege for them to have, and if they didn't have a good conduct grade then they weren't allowed to have one. Many of the boys had to give their shirts back to me, and finally all was settled. The boys loved them, and I felt horrible that I was not able to give one to all, but I did not make the rules!
Okay, well I have to go write a lesson plan right now, but I will finish later! Keep checking back for updates!
- b -
07 April, 2009
Sneak Peak :)
Here is a little sneak peak from my mission trip to Guatemala! I have been sooo busy with school, so I haven't been able to fully update, but here is a little video from the church service we went to at the children's home that first Sunday morning at Casa. It was a lot nicer than I expected!! Enjoy!
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- b -
20 March, 2009
Prayer Please!
I just wanted to let everyone on here know that my team & I are going to be leaving for Guatemala in 25 hours! This preparation time has come to a halt, and I am so thankful for everything that God has been teaching me these last few months and weeks especially. The Lord is really going to do a great thing this coming week, and one thing that I wish for is to witness a miracle, and I know MY God can do that! I have collected a bunch of American T-shirts and hats, etc. for the children and adults down there, and I really hope that I get to see them receive these gifts from my family, friends and I, because I know how much it will mean to them, and they will all look just precious. These clothes could not be put to better use.
I ask you to pray that our flight will arrive safely in Atlanta, GA and Guatemala City going to and from our destination. I pray that we are able to be witnesses for Christ on the way to Guatemala and on the way back. I ask you to pray that we can be bold for Christ in both word & deed while we are traveling, and that God will grant us safety and ease when getting across the border(s). I pray that God will work in the heart of these children and adults while we are there and also in my team members' hearts as well. I cannot wait to return with pictures and stories. Until then...
- b -
Romans 10:14 (New International Version)
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
I ask you to pray that our flight will arrive safely in Atlanta, GA and Guatemala City going to and from our destination. I pray that we are able to be witnesses for Christ on the way to Guatemala and on the way back. I ask you to pray that we can be bold for Christ in both word & deed while we are traveling, and that God will grant us safety and ease when getting across the border(s). I pray that God will work in the heart of these children and adults while we are there and also in my team members' hearts as well. I cannot wait to return with pictures and stories. Until then...
- b -
Romans 10:14 (New International Version)
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
09 March, 2009
En46le
IJM - Reality of Human Trafficking from International Justice Mission on Vimeo.
46 was inspired by the desire to do something worthwhile and creative. It is an effort to make a difference in the fight to improve the lives of children worldwide. We are in the process of developing additional programs like the en46le & lov46le projects. Our commitment is to give 4 the benefit of these 6 areas of need: abuse, poverty, disease, birth defects, education and nutrition/physical fitness.
If you would like to get involved by simply ordering a T-shirt, go to www.46nyc.com. 100% of the proceeds go to helping people all across the world that suffer from these 6 areas of need mentioned above. Join the fight with me!
- 6 -
02 March, 2009
The Boys' First Time in Real Snow*
Colby & Otis have seen snow before, but nothing like this! It was so cute to see them hopping and running around (to the best of their ability). I just had to share this video. Enjoy!
- b -
28 February, 2009
I Feel Like I Can Accomplish The World
This past week has been CRAZY. I have had everything to do and no time to do it. I have been working about 25 hrs. a week on top of being a full time college student, and until payday, I didn't see how it was paying off. :) I've been working + completing training while trying to stay on top of my studies as well. I've been working on education projects, lessons, and learning a new language (French). I didn't realize how hard it would be, but I guess after my first test that is on Monday, we'll see how I am really doing! I've been a teammate and girlfriend and Alex's basketball fan. I admit that I cannot attend all games and events, but I am doing the best I can. I've tried to maintain friendships both here and back home. I've tried to balance relationships with my mom, dad, brother, sister and extended relatives while finding time to go to the grocery, do laundry, dry cleaners and tanning bed :). I've been the mommy to two little puppies that probably suffer the worst of all. I never get to see them, but that is going to change. I've barely had time to eat, let alone decide what I am going to eat. I haven't had time to even stop and check if my car needs an oil change. I haven't even gotten one since I've had the car. My room is partially clean, and it's a struggle finding time to really clean it like I should. BUT I have 2 days off this weekend, and I feel like I can accomplish the world. I just pray that I do not take the time that I should be preparing my heart and mind to go to Guatemala with all these "trivial" things in life. God really is doing great things in my life, and my church here is great. I know I need to slow down, but I don't really have that choice. I am tired, stressed and worn out, and I just cannot wait for school to be over. Until then, I covet your prayers. Thank you, and now I am off with things to do. :)
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