| Lord of the Flies and My Friend Melanie |
Well, do I have a story for you.
Last night I enjoyed a lovely conversation with Melanie.
At one point in the conversation (the type of point where you don't want to interupt) I heard loud hollering from the courtyard. I peered out the kitchen blinds to see about 30 students yelling and gathering around someone holding a huge flaming torch. The flame filled about a square foot of space!
Knowing that this wasn't a good time to interupt Melanie and viewing her as my priority - I jammed my finger in my ear and squished the phone tighter against my other ear and continued listening. When the conversation moved on I told Melanie what I had seen and then looked out the window again.
The students, less of them now. Were gathered around a small fire in the middle of the courtyard. Now, there is no firepit in the courtyard, so up until this point there have been no fires. "Sounds like Lord of the Flies" Melanie said, and asked me if I needed to go. We both agreed that I should go check it out and shut them down.
It is at this point that I bemoan my husband's absence. He usually does the Res Life work - the discipline type stuff. Anyways, last night he was at a friend's so I was on my own.
Melanie's last words were "You go girl". And I marched outside in my sweats and moccassins.
Important piece of info that I forgot to mention: the courtyard faces a seniors apartment complex from whose residents we sometimes receive complaints also important is that fact that it is 11:30! It is supposed to be quiet after 10!
Okay, so I march outside. They see me coming and start saying things like, "Oh here comes Aimee the responsible one" or "Uh Oh it's an Odegard". One guy has a video camera and he turns it towards me. Gee, I didn't feel like being taped, but I also didn't feel like be taped saying, "Shut that thing off right now". So I just acted a little annoyed but let him tape.
"What's going on" I said. "What's this?" I said pointing at the burning pile on the ground. "It's a Fraack shirt" they laughed.
So you'll need some background to understand. Our student body is divided into discipleship groups. The Fraacks (named for their leaders, the Friedrichs and the Kaacks) are a particularly well bonded group that recently had t-shirts made. The t-shirts boast their toughness and solidarity. Anyways, there is a member of this group who isn't as into being a Fraack as the others. So a couple Fraack members prank him. They moved the contents of his whole room down to the co-ed lounge and set it up just like they had been in his room. In retaliation (and a lot of fun) he decided to burn his Fraack shirt as a sign that he wanted in to a different group. Some of this I found out last night and some was pieced together this morning with help from other staff.
So back to last night. I reminded the students that it was way past 10, that they were being very noisy, and that the seniors complex was right across from us. They put out the fire and I asked who would clean the pile up in the morning. Matt - the wanna-be-ex-Fraack said he would. They all went back inside.
I went back inside and immediately phoned Melanie to fill her in.
When Lance came home I told him how our students had gone batty and were wired and crazy -- I told him the story. We laughed. The mess (which is small) still needs to be cleaned up, but I'll make sure it happens.
So that's the story of last night. Hope you enjoyed it.
Aimee
ps. We're heading to a big worship conference in Edmonton today for the weekend. About 60 of us from CLBI are volunteering. It will be a really good and really busy weekend. I need to pack and bake some granola bars for energy. I'll be back to the blogging world on Monday. |
|
|
|
|
|
posted by Aimee at