Providence Hall Junior High
4/25/22- 4/29/22
The Day The Goat Intestine Got Left Out
Thank you for your patience with me getting the newsletter out this week. I am currently in Kentucky learning all about Special Education law and the time difference has sort of flipped me for a loop.
I know it has only been a week since we last saw each other, but man it feels like forever to me! I hope you and all the people you love were able to take some time this week to hit the pause button on everyday life and soak in all of the beauty a Utah Spring has to offer.
During the break, Dejen, one of our refugee foster sons, finally got his US citizenship, which has been in the works for eight long years.
Dejen came to the US from Eritrea when he was 14 and had been living in a different home for his first year in Utah. Dejen's prior home dynamic consisted of only two teenage kiddos, so to say the least the home was quieter than he was used to. This led him to request to go to a home with a bigger family and more kids, which was a request that the Summers house could easily fill.
For those of you who don't know much about refugee foster care, it is, to say the least, a unique experience. For the most part kiddos almost always come to you with a full loving family that they have left behind back in the country they came from, which means when we take in new kiddos we are just the bonus Utah parents.
After nine years of being foster parents, the stories of both heartbreak and joy I could and probably will share with you, are endless. However, with the recent passing of Easter, I thought it would be a fun time to share with you the story about the time the goat intestines were left out on the kitchen counter, and the aftermath of the experience.
Every weekend while Dejen was in our home, along with our other kids, we would have no less than 7 to 12 Eritrean teenage boys laughing, dancing, and cooking on a regular basis. On this particular weekend, cooking took on a whole new meaning. Dejen brought home a goat, an ENTIRE goat to cook and eat during the celebration of one of their holidays.
The weekend started as weekends often do. Kids were running around, cereal being inhaled, and the glorious noise of springs and squeals as the kids were bouncing dangerously high on the trampoline outside.
As the morning got going, Dejen and the other boys informed us they were heading to go get food for their celebration, which was nothing unusual for this group of kids. Approximately three to four hours later, the boys walked into the house with a black garbage bag that was carrying something large enough to raise several red flags of concern.
With great pride, the boys shared with us that they had purchased an ENTIRE goat to prepare for their celebration tomorrow. When I say an entire goat, I mean an ENTIRE goat. This was something I can say I was completely inexperienced and untrained in how to adequately assist with. Luckily for me, this was something that the boys had completely (well mostly) under control.
Around midnight, Mr. Summers and I could see that the preparation and cooking of the goat were nowhere near close to complete, so we decided to call it a night and go to bed for the evening.
This was a mistake of monumental proportions.
Upon waking up and opening our bedroom door, my nose was hit with a smell that can only be described as a giant stewpot of boiling sewer backup and teenage gym shoes, finished up with a pinch of rotting flesh. As I walked my way into the kitchen, my ears were met with an unfamiliar buzzing noise, which was immediately explained by the literal black cloud of flies that had taken over our kitchen and were unpacking all of their tiny, foul-smelling fly suitcases like unwelcome house guests.
As I slowly started to wake up enough to get my wits about me, I identified one of my large cooking bowls loosely covered on the counter and completely coated with flies. Upon closer inspection, I peered into a bowl and found it completely full of uncleaned goat intestines that had been left on the counter, in a home only cooled entirely with a swamp cooler, on a particularly warm April evening.
Friends, when I tell you that the task of removing the smell, along with the colony of bees and flies, even after removing the intestines, was a multiple-week process, I am not exaggerating in the least. There was, and to this day is, no training on what to do when your kiddos leave uncleaned goat intestines out on the counter. In that moment, I was as mad as a wet farm hen, crazily demanding an immediate family meeting about what could and what could NOT be cooked and left in the kitchen, along with a lesson about the importance of cleaning out intestines, (which for the record I had no experience with) and the non-negotiable requirement that such organs are put in a sealed bowl and then stored in a refrigerated area.
Fast forward eight years later, and what was once an infuriating event, is now a memory that when we sit down with adult Dejen, brings nothing but tears of joy and laughter into the room.
Four years before that, we had the joy of watching our sweet boy walk across the stage with a graduation certificate in hand.
Two years before that he received his driver's license, got a job, and bought his first car.
Two years before that he had our hearts.
Patriots, I hope that as you continue to grow through life you take any and all opportunities to get to know and help people that are different from you. If you are really lucky, you might even get a goat intestine experience of your own. I can promise you that there is as much to be learned from helping and loving others that are different from us, as there is from within the walls of our schools.
As always Patriots...
You are LOVED!!!
Save The Dates For The Rest Of The Year
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Stress Management Tip For End Of Year Success
Learning to manage your time effectively can help alleviate your stress and allow you to feel a sense of control over your situation.
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Did Your PH Enrollment Change For Next Year?
Told us your student wasn’t returning to attend PH for 22-23, but your plans have changed and now you want your student to return to PH instead?
Told us your student was returning to attend PH for 22-23, but your plans have changed and now your student will not be returning to PH?
If either of these applies to you anytime between now and the 22-23 school year starting, then you need to inform us of the change of enrollment plans by completing the proper form below.
Did your 22-23 enrollment plans change for a current PH student who will be in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th grade for the 22-23 school year? Click here to complete the Elementary Enrollment Intent Google Form to let us know of the change of plans.
· Did your 22-23 enrollment plans change for a current PH student who will be in 6th, 7th or 8th grade for the 22-23 school year? Click here to complete the Junior High Enrollment Intent Google Form to let us know of the change of plans.
· Did your 22-23 enrollment plans change for a current PH student who will be in 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade for the 22-23 school year? Click here to complete the High School Enrollment Intent Google Form to let us know of the change of plans.
Code Phrase For The Week
It is very important that our Patriots stay informed about the happenings of the school, so for those of you that have read this far, please email the code phrase to Mrs. Summers, from your student email account, for an opportunity to be put in a drawing for front of the lunch line pass, or a free dress down day!
PH Families, we have been having an increase of students being late to their first period because they choose to get breakfast right when the bell rings.
We are going to start closing breakfast 5 minutes earlier than normal at 7:40 am, to be able to give students enough time to get breakfast, eat it, and make it to class on time.
This adjustment will begin when we return from Spring Break, Tuesday, April 26.
NEW BREAKFAST HOURS ARE 7:15-7:40 AM