Not so annoyed....at the computer

Well, where was I? About the free talk, which means I ramble on about whatever it is the students want to hear, and Bible discussion that will be taking place this evening - I'm thinking that it will be on the interesting side of not. Yesterday morning I was supposed to meet with the director of the school and a lady from the local church that helps with translating (all students are welcome, so students with 1-week of English may be there) at 10. And I missed my tram. The nearest stop is only about a minute walk from my front door. Leaving 15 seconds earlier would have put me in the sweltering odious company of my fellow tram 4 passengers. I thought it would be a good idea to try and run after the fleeing tram. That didn't work to well. As slow as those things seem to move when you are riding one, they are actually a bit faster than I can gallop. 9:25 and how was I going to get to the office by 10? I remembered the first time Nina had taken me on a swing by the office, we took another tram, number 5. So I figured I'd give that a whirl. In another two minutes up pulled my ride and I hopped on. Now I wasn't exactly sure when to get off, but kept looking for landmarks. When it looked about right, I alighted. My mistake was that I thought I got off one step later than I thought I did. So I walked further. And further. When I reached the city limits a half hour later, I figured somewhere along the way I'd messed up. Back tracking along the rails showed me that I had exited the bus only maybe ten feet from where I needed to turn. Now I know that side of the town a little better. But I was an hour late for the 10 meeting, and in my most uncomfortable pair of shoes to boot. I suppose this paragraph was a long winded approach to say I was an hour late for my meeting, but hey it was a bit humorous, no?

When I arrived, both ladies were sitting chatting about what I don't remember. But when I walked in the topic changed to how the two hours are run. Pretty much they handed the reins over to me and said (with a Mr. Lunt accent), "It's up to you, boss." After poking around for a few more minutes I gathered some information. Most of the upper level students attend the first Friday evening meeting, and then never come again. Alarm bell number one. They both think that it would be great to read a small section of the Bible and then talk about it, but what usually happens is that a verse is read in English, translated into Russian and that is it. Reading the Bible on its own can be interesting, even powerful, but to me this doesn't seem quite the appropriate application for a bunch of newbies both of English and the Bible. Alarm bell number two. Okay, so what is usually read? Well, we usually read some Proverbs. Or Ecclesiastes. Ding, ding, ding!!! Hello people! Anybody home?! It's a bit hard for me to understand what's happening in these esoteric high-falutin' Greek (ah, Hebrew probably) verses. This is the nice gentle introduction to the Bible as a relevant, interesting guide book for life. For you Bible thumpers out there, don't get me wrong, the material contained in the two aforementioned books is very interesting and mentally stimulating (Ben Carson, for example, is said to read the book of Proverbs once each month, a chapter a day), but not appropriate in my opinion on two levels. One: even the advanced students would have difficulty with a good amount of the vocabulary - how is a discussion expected to follow? Two: with a non-linear, almost verse by verse narrative it is hard to fit all the pieces together in a unified whole, like a story. This is my situation. I am allowed to do whatever I want, but it should largely be reading the Bible because my translating lady feels a bit rusty and isn't sure she'd be able to translate non-Biblical material.