h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

-I know you're right.and I'm trying very hard to believe in God.
I've always loved people, His creation.I've said to myself:people can change,people should change, people must change before it is too late.
Then I tried to identify the forces that could do that.I said :education!!(I didn't think of religion by that time)
I was so enthusiastic, that I became a teacher.I wanted to be a part of the change myself.
When the communist regime was 'changed' by the 'original'Romanian democracy, I said that was God's hand offered my people a chance of redemption.
Now, I've been working for 20 years in the same school.Nothing has changed since I was a pupil in the old regime.
Then, last year,all the teachers in my school started a course about the inclusive school.the trainers were the same people that had been supervising us for many years and had been educated by the same communist regime.We were presented some films made in some high schools in England, whose pupils were 81% of non british origin:
chinese, pakistanese, indians,blacks.My best friend and I -an excellent teacher of biology who has also graduated from the academy of high poitical studies in bucharest-were speechless.
But, you see, the teachers in my school do not form a compact team. No. They are separated in small groups and each group has its leader.For the last 2 years a bitter fighting has been going on to push their leader into the Chair.6 of them have become principals and have been changed.each of them led the school in his own interest.
and each of them started his vendetta with the other 'gangs'.on february 15th, my friend was appointed principal until a contest was to take place in 6 month's time.And they dragged them through the mud.
we were assaulted by 'journalists'-their own husbsnds or brothers,working to the local papers and TV stations-threatened with death-our children terrorized at schools by our own colleagues.
my friend and I did not fight back.we thought the children and school were much more important than our persons and kept behaving as if nothing wrong was happening.
then,in september he decided not to run for the principal,since the others didn't want him.They knew my friend would make big changes.and they didn't like that. They wanted to keep their enourmous privileges.
I knew that what I had just seen on the screen about those high schools in London, would never be possible here.
Because the local communities are are as good as dead.the town halls are not interested in life school and the holy orthodox church is absent from the social life.
2 weeks ago a teacher who opposed the 'gang'attempted suicide in the classroom,before the classe started.for them, she was a crazy old fool.That women had left the Romanian parliament 14 years ago for the same reasons:corruption.
I'feel sorry for all the children in this awful school system who has spoiled my own kid,too.they don't understand that we should start building up characters, shaping up new human relationships, motivate children in assuming responsibilities.
If you ask me, the battle for a new type of education is lost.All I can do is light up a candle in the memory of what we could have becomebut never have been.I'm very sorry, I shouldn't be telling you all these.but
i feel you can understand my sorrow.
I could have left romania in 1991,when I visited france with a group of kids in my school.But I turned down their offer to teach englsh In alsace, and came back.
it's not the 200 euros a month pay that anger me.But the people's pettines, evilness and stupudity.
Now I know why you are a great nation and why we 'll never be one.
good night, carol x, I'll be missing you till the next time.

Alas, Cornel, people will not change. Or rather, there will always be those who turn eventually to God, and who get to know their Saviour. But the masses will not change. One only needs to look around oneself, and it is plainly evident that the whole world is in a deepening moral and spiritual crisis, and is groaning with the sadness and horror of world events. There is little that you can do, except pray, Cornel. Forget all the cults, and superstitions, and idolatry. The one God is the only answer. In this dispensation He is silent. But He is watching the world events unfolding, and when the time is perfectly right, He will act according to His will. And His timing is all-perfect.

As you surely know, the good always have to go down with the bad; the best with the least; the kindest with the cruelest... Each one of us suffers with our own problems, and with world events when we are caught up in them. But God is ever with us. He knows your sorrows and fears, Cornel. Turn to Him, and may your little family also turn to Him. As the evil in this world escalates, so the days of this present world are numbered. And we, as Christians, can be happy in the knowledge that God will one day send His Son to the air, to take away His Church-the Body of Christ. That is-all those who are believers, and who worship the Lamb.

Be brave, Cornel. God will never leave you. Speak to Him, and listen to His still, small voice.

Have you a Bible, Cornel? Can you get one if you haven't already got one? Are they accessible?

Please say hello to you wife from me. Take care, please.

Best wishes,

Carole

I had a terrible car accident in the summer of 1996.the police said one of a million would have survived.But neither me, nor my wife-who had beed driving- was injured.not even the slightest bruise,or a scratch.Nothing.I had fastened her seat belt 30 seconds before the car jumped out of the bridge,broke a tree,hit the bank of the river and sank into the water.5-6 seconds.no more.the engine was still running while the car was taking water.imagine hundreds of people watching the scene-no one helped.they just couldn't believe we got out untouched.my mother in law,who'd been sitting at the back, showed everybody the copy of a bible she always carried in her purse.
i fixed the car.it took me 5 months and a pile of money.6 months later, we had another car accident.on the bridge in our town.a german who hadn't seen the traffic sign the police had put into a tree,ran into us.3 days after the second accident,on the Easter eve night,all the family went to church.I stayed in and improvised a shrine on the floor. I had bought a book about jesus's wounds and and the torture he had been suffered.It had His real face on the front cover and the face on the shroud on the back cover. recomposed by the nasa experts after the shroud of turin I had been reading it at least 10 time.So I placed the book between 4 candles,prayed to Him and then I focused on His eyes.I was beginnning to sweat,my heart was beating crazily,and suddenly there was nothing around me but His face, His beautiful wide eyes winked, as if he was alive as if He had been talking to me.It repeated several time.It wasn't an impression.I saw his eyes move , and I rather felt the messdage:'I'm alive'.
I had been reading hundreds of books about all religions.
but I'm sure that was the first moment in my life I started to fully believe in god.And I know it wasn't an accident.

Dear Cornel,

I am so happy that you and your wife were saved from such accidents.

Cornel, when God doesn't seem to be doing anything for you, just bear in mind that He doesn't work in theatricals! He works in the small things "Despise not the day of small things...". He works in love, and in nature, and in forgiveness, and in the rainbow. He is in the storm, and in the setting sun. He is in the raging waters, and in the quiet field.

Do take care-all of you. Give the Lord all your needs and sadnesses. He will listen. And bless you.

Goodnight to you and your family.

Carole :~)

I won't be speaking about me tonight.the world should stop for a minute and think of Diana and pray for her soul.she could have done so much for the sick and poor and misfortunate.she may have embodied each of us's need of a fairy tale and a princess to make 3 wishes come true.she was our midsummer night's dream and it took so little time,so litlle time...good night ,carol,there's a lesson to learn in everyone's destiny.alas, these peple seem to have been skipping classes in the last 2000 years or so.

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Post: 7

Posted 6 Days Ago by bloodsweatandtears
Hy,carol,I haven't entered the bloq for quite a while.I've been so busy
with my work lately and have had to give up things I enjoy so much.I've been missing my reading and writing.
-when I visited france 15 years ago,the kids I went with performed a 2 hours show of french and romanian poetry (translated in french).I meant it as a candid plead for love of life and common sense and absurdity of war.I had been working for months with each of my pupils, trying to explain the 14 year old children what Prevert,jacques brel,eminescu and blaga had meant in their poems.there were 4 performances,one held in strasbourg, at the European Parliament.I didn't expect such a success,but never mind that.the point is that a french teacher offered me a book containing all jacques brel's songs and poems.I've been reading out of it every night ever since. I've even translated some of them in romanian and english.
-I still meet some of those kids now and then.They haven't forgotten me nor all we experienced durind that journey.they have got married,have their own kids. Only when I see them I realise how profesionally Cronus has been doing his job.
-do you speak french, carol ? do you like french poetry? have you read any of jacques brel's poems and songs ?would you have a look on my translations to see if they're any good ? who knows, you might even use them in your classes...
-I hope you and your family are all fine and in good health.May God protect and be with you all.

HY,carole,I've been waiting for a sign from your part.It doesn't seem like you at all,I hope you're all right,you and your family.
-It's very late now here in romania,and I've been watching a movie about'the doors'on a romanian tv channels.I used to listen to their music when I was a student In Bucharest.kind of lsd music. I was watching those superb youngters drinking,smoking,getting high,killing themselves softly,wasting their most beautiful years,lost in confusion,i think i understand them perfectly.It hurts so deep.they were used, misguided.woodstock was a political necessity.i remember we envied the youth in western countries for being there and free.had I been there at that time, I might have led the same kind of life they did.the fact is i care.I care about every single human being whose life is wasted.but every man manages his own life in the business of living accordind to his interests and skills and education.Some go bankrupt.if only we knew how much we need love and education,we w'd be humbler.this is the end...how I loved that song.good night ,carole,wherever you may be.