This week has been very busy, productive, and fun. It seems like I’ve been here much longer than two and a half weeks.
I’ve spent most of my time this week at the school!! It’s been very fun, but a lot of work. It started last Saturday, when we went to help Val, the principal, organize the new resource room. For a school in a third world country, we are very blessed to have so many resources. I was very excited to be shown my room that afternoon. The building is brand new, so my room had nothing in it…just white walls, no screens on the windows, no door, and no furniture. By the end of the day, it had some furniture, a LOT of curriculum (old and new) and screens on the windows. They’re still working on a few of the rooms down the hall from me, so they will have a curtain hanging where the kids can’t go past.
I started my teacher training on Monday. This week has consisted of about an hour or so of praise/worship/prayer and going over policies in the mornings and time in our rooms in the afternoon. I’ve gotten a lot done on my room! I’ll post a picture at the end of the post. The remainder of the evenings have been spent figuring out curriculum and writing lesson plans.
[an update since I’ve written…my room’s finished now!! I’m very excited about it! School starts on Monday!] –I’ve written the last two posts in Word and have copied and pasted them into my blog. To those who have suggested that, I already am doing it but thanks for the idea! The internet here isn’t the most reliable and I have to go sit on my front steps to get a wireless signal. So if the weather’s bad (there’s been lots of rain), we’re running on generator power, or it’s nighttime with lots of bugs J, I can’t get online. They’ve also been updating something with the internet here, so it’s been down for the past day or so….. All that to say some of this may be a little outdated, but I don’t feel like writing a whole new post J.
There are about 5 or 6 Honduran teachers that also teach at my school. It’s been fun getting to know them this past week, and I look forward to working with them. They teach things like Honduran History, Spanish, and they teach a few kids in all Spanish curriculum. Several of them are learning English…and know about as much English as I know Spanish, so sometimes it’s a challenge to communicate. It’s good, though because we both understand what it’s like to be learning the language, so we don’t feel as bad if we mess it up, or if it takes a little while to think of how to say something.
I’m very excited about teaching on Monday! My class is going to be a lot of fun. By that, I mean that the kids in it are going to be fun (I also hope that they have fun being in my class…but that’s beside the point). Last night there was a party in the “bodega” which is the common area where they have functions at the ranch… anyways, the party was for the interns that have been here all summer b/c they left this morning. At the party, there was lots of music playing. On several occasions, I looked up at the stage and saw Kevin and Elli (2 of my students) dancing like no one was watching. Elli would even get down on the floor and start spinning like she was break dancing. At another time, I looked and saw Kevin, Elli, and Julio (my other student). Julio appeared to be tackling all the kids that came near him…all in fun of course…in a 9yr old boy sort of way. So we have Kevin who seems to be somewhat of a charmer, Elli the “dancer,” and Julio the “rough” one. Of course, all these statements are based on an hour or two of observation, but I have a feeling it’s kind of close to their personalities. It will be interesting to see how all these roles play out in the classroom. I’ll keep you updated J.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but we go into the city 1 to 2 times a week. The past two weeks, I’ve gone with some other teachers to an English speaking church that I like a lot. The church consists of a lot of missionaries from various organizations around Honduras, as well as other English speaking people that live and work around here, like in the embassy or teaching at other schools. It’s cool to hear about what the other missionaries are involved in here. One of the elders (I think he’s an elder) is involved with a ministry that helps the teenagers that are in the street and at the dump in Tegucigalpa. He said that he would take us (anyone interested from WGO) sometime to see what they do. I think that would be really interesting.
I’ve decided to include highs and lows of each week at the end of each post, so here they are: (I’ll start with the lows so we can end on a positive noteJ)
Lows-
-Finding several “critters” in and around my apartment. This includes a giant cockroach looking thing on our steps outside (about 3-4 inches long and 1 inch wide), a spider on my ceiling (he was about the size of a tealight candle…1-2 inches in diameter…legs included), big beetles crawling around everywhere (outside), and little tiny spiders in random places inside. The spider thing is particularly a bad thing b/c my roommate is terrified of spiders, so I’m in charge of killing them.
-I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the kids b/c of being so busy with getting ready for school to start on Monday.
Highs-
-School! - I got my room, curriculum, etc and have been decorating!
-School starts Monday!
-I got to talk to my parents on Sunday.
-I've gotten to spend a lot of time with all the people at the ranch!
Prayer Requests/Praises:
Praise that the transition has been going smoothly with only a small amount of homesickness.
Praise that I’ve gotten to know the teachers better.
Pray for this first week of school
Pray for 2 teachers who come in a few weeks, that their transition would go smoothly.
Pray for protection and spiritual strength for WGO. There have been several health problems and other instances on the ranch and in the leadership of WGO that we feel could be the enemy trying to interfere with what God’s doing and going to do with this ministry.
