Banana Man

This past weekend I took 6 teens, Sidney, 2 babies and another leader to the Revolve Tour up in Minneapolis. We left on Friday around 3:00 PM and got back on Saturday around 7:00 PM. I think I was in bed by 10:30 PM. I was completely exhausted!

It was a jam packed weekend full of artists and speakers...I left the event inspired to do more for the teens and try to help them out with some new ideas. I also enjoyed listening to Natalie Grant and Hawk Nelson wasn't bad either. They both have some pretty rocky songs but they were really good. There were some other bands there as well and the speaker, Chad Eastam is really funny and just a great speaker for teens. We stayed at the Hilton so our walk to the Target Center was a little long but not too bad.

Next year the event is in Des Moines so that complicated things a bit with the distance but there were quite a few people from Canada there so I am thinking we can make the drive.

On one of our walks back to the hotel, we walked through many blocks of people waiting to get into buildings, restaurants, waiting for buses, etc. Being in Rochester, I am used to diversity I think, so seeing all types of people is pretty common here. A lady that was walking behind me made a comment as we were walking past all these groups of people that were also sharing the sidewalk. She said, "My kids are really sheltered." A lady walking with her said, "that's a good thing." I almost turned around and slapped them. What!!!!! Are your kids never going to meet someone that doesn't look like them? Are you proud of the fact that your child only knows your culture? America is not about one race. America is not about one language...although many people still think it is. Walk into Lowe's or go buy any product in a store and you will see that English is not the only language anymore. Americans, get over the language issue too.

One thing that Rochester has is a group called The Diversity Council. This is one of the greatest organizations that I have met and they help open the eyes of people of all races. This isn't just about whites needing to accept other races. This is about everyone accepting everyone...all colors, all pay scales, all occupations...just plain everyone.

One activity that they do in the schools here is the following:
They have a bunch of bananas. Every child in the room gets to have a banana. They have to study this banana, give the banana a name, assign a job to this banana and just know every little thing about this banana. Seems pretty simple and you think...what is there to know about a banana, right? Everyone then puts all the bananas in the middle of the room. The bananas get mixed around just in case the child is watching his particular banana. Then, they are told to find their banana. How many do you think found their banana? Hmmmmmmm. They all find their banana. These kids look at their bananas so much, they know all the marks, all the brown spots, the top, the length...everything about this banana. Then, everyone shares about their banana and the kids don't end up sharing what their banana looks like, they share all the other details of their banana that they dreamed about. Although all the bananas look very similar on the outside, the kids all found their banana based on the intricate details of the fruit and shared with the class the dreams and fantasy that they had developed for this specific banana.

Micah wore his patch for his eye for the first time on Friday morning. He is supposed to wear it 3 times a week while we color, do puzzles and other things similar to that. Our mornings are usually full of activities like that so we tried it. I don't want to try it again :( He screamed, he cried and just kept saying over and over that he couldn't see. He probably really can't see. The patch is over his good eye and attaches to his glasses and goes completely around his eye so he truly can not see out of that eye. Well, the good eye has been doing all the work so when he covers it, he is still looking out of his glasses with his bad eye but since that eye hasn't had to really work on it's own, it just doesn't know what to do and everything is blurry...even with his glasses on. We will start the process again tomorrow and see if he will wear it a little longer. Yes, I even told him he would be a great pirate but he wants nothing to do with pirates. One of his patches that he has even looks like a pirate patch except I think it is blue. He doesn't like that patch either. So, this will be a process that I am sure won't end for awhile. As a mom, I want his eye to get better though so I have to be strong while he fights me when I ask him to wear his patch. My heart is breaking inside though as he sits there telling me that he can't see...did I mention that he says this over and over again?

Sid is the Student of the Week this week at school. We got everything ready to take today and she is pretty excited. She has been pretty moody lately though so that was one of the reasons I brought her with this past weekend...a little girl time for us.

Quinn is cutting some teeth so life here has some cranky moments. His hands are always in his mouth so another cue that things are a little sore. He still scoots and I can't believe that he will be 1 pretty soon. My little baby :)