Bless You!

In all the nervousness of starting school and stress of trying to get the job details and my work permit figured out I lost focus a little bit.  I was busy getting to know folks and sprinting through a major learning curve.  Then, BOOM!  On the second day of school the Lord set me straight again.

A kid in my class sneezed and I said, "God bless you!"

It was a completely thoughtless thing that I said out of habit.  But the Lord told me that that was what my job was here.  He told me that my job was to bless these kids at this school.  I am an ambassador of the Lord Himself and it is the first time such light has entered these halls.

Now, that will get your attention real fast!  I had gotten so caught up in just getting the job that I had forgotten the significance of it.  I am probably the only light that many of these kids will ever encounter.

Many of the older ones ask me questions about what I believe.  I have to be very careful, by law, about how I answer their questions and talk about my faith.  But there is no law that can stop me from praying for the kids... even the yahoos!... and over these kids and their families.  There is no law that can stop me from blessing them.  There is no law that can stop my light from shining.

I could care less if these kids ever really speak much English.  I want them to see Jesus in me and that is precisely why He's put me there.  May I be a beacon of light in a dark place.

Please pray for me in this difficult task!  I need wisdom, perseverance, and discernment.

Breakfast with a View

We are well-rested and ready to start back to school today after 5 glorious days off.  

Ok... that's an exaggeration.  We are going back to school but with slightly less kicking and screaming than usual.  We had a really laid-back restful holiday.

Last weekend our friends took us out to breakfast at one of their favorite places.  It was a buffet full of local favorites, some a bit on the weird side, that were mostly delicious.  The view was beautiful and we had a great time.

The weather has changed fairly quickly here.  Now it is chilly and overcast most days.  We get lots of rain and I have to be extra to only hang my laundry out when I am home.  I have to be ready to drag it back inside in an instant when a rain shower pops up.

The sea is different every day.  Some days its as still as glass and other days you could surf out there!  Last week we had a storm come in that caused huge waves.  It is so interesting how different the same body of water can be.  I am hoping that the beautiful sea will help to keep me sane and make up for the lack of sun this winter.   We'll see!

Well Armed

This area is known to be a great place to hunt.  So there are several shops like this one around:

Although, I'm not sure you need a big ole' assault rifle to bring down a wild boar.

Yikes!

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Rotten Day

Well, today was a crappy day.  We drove two hours down the coast to the nearest shopping mall.  We had been planning this trip for  a week and were looking forward to it.

However, it was just one of those days where nothing went right.  Callie got herself in a snit over something silly and was miserable.  The kids were fighting.  Justin and I were miserable about having to follow through with discipline.  It was just a total bomb and we were all completely bummed because it should have been awesome.

It our first trip to real civilization since moving here 3 months ago.  The mall had a McDonald's and a Starbucks.  It had all of our favorite shops and a huge sports store.  It should have been a great day full of American food and window shopping.  But the day got worse and worse as it went on.  Plus, I think everyone in the city decided to visit the mall that day and it was crowded.

After we walked all around in a grumpy stupor, we bought Lucy's birthday present and a Starbucks, and headed back to our little town.  I guess these country mice should stay away from the city.  What a total fail of a day!

Oh well, at least tomorrow is a new day!

Sunday Sneak Peek: Game Time!

Our town has a professional soccer team in one of the lower leagues.   They aren't very good, but the tickets are dirt cheap and the games are fun.  Justin and Noah have been to a few others.  Since Callie and Lucy have absolutely no interest in soccer I've usually stayed home with them.  However, today's game was early enough that we could leave the girls at home by themselves and I could tag along with Justin and Noah.

Pre-game selfie!  Once the game starts, you can forget doing stuff like this.  Noah is way too hard core!  He watches the matches with all his might!

Of course, I love soccer.  But I have a hard time watching the game because the fans are so interesting!  Our local team is pretty terrible.  Yet, if you just watched the fans, you'd think we were in the world cup.  They chant and sing and cuss at the refs with gusto.  There's always a few guys with drums and horns.  We counted two other women in the stands and maybe a handful of kids.  This is a man's game.

Guys stand at the front of the crowd and lead different chants and cheers.  look at this old guy:

He was not happy with our section's mildness so he took it upon himself to oust the cheer-leader (on the right) and get the crowd going himself.  I was just impressed that he could climb up on the wall and then lead us without falling back down!  Good on him!

It was such a fun day with my guys!

Sloth-Like

Today is the first day of the four day sacrifice holiday.  We had yesterday off of school because it was holiday eve, and we have Monday and Tuesday off, too.  Because folks here are still so closely tied to their villages inland, pretty much everyone does their sacrifice there.  Also, the older relatives tend to still live in the villages.  The younger generations always go to visit the older family members.  With everyone gone, our neighborhood is a bit like a ghost town again.  I guess this is how it will be for holidays.

Hopefully, in the future we'll have some close friends and be able to go to the village with them.  But, truthfully, this year we were relieved to just completely veg-out!  This first month of school has been exhausting for all of us.

I got my errands done yesterday and groceries bought.  We haven't even gotten dressed today.  We've played games, watched a few too many movies, read books, and been complete sloths!  It has been glorious!!

Salary Celebration!

Yes, I know that Noah looks like a total weirdo in this picture.  But, it's the only one that I took, so it will have to do.  

I got my very first paycheck... well, an envelope of cash, actually.  So, after school last night I treated the family to dinner out.  It was so fun to celebrate our survival in a new town at a new school.  I let the kids order whatever they wanted, including canned drinks, which are unusually expensive here.  What a treat!!

Noah ordered the "everything" pide.  It's like a pizza without sauce.  Pide are a lot like pizza but they don't have tomato sauce.  Most places ladle on the butter instead.  Um... yum-O!

Election Time

It's class election time at school.  Each class elected a candidate and then those candidates ran against each other to elect the primary. middle, and high school presidents.

This sign cracks me up:

This was from my fifth grade student, Ezo.  She is a really bright and energetic student.

Her sign is a nod to my favorite movie, Napoleon Dynamite.  It says, Vote for Ezo and all your dreams will come true!  She didn't win, but she gets points in my book for sense of humor!

Protector of the Peacock

Yesterday, I let you in on the hardest part of teaching.  But, I have quickly learned that there is another word that strikes fear in the hearts of every teacher...

DUTY!

UGH!  It's the worst.  We have to be in the classroom with the yahoos.  Should we really be required to supervise them otherwise?!

Let me back up and tell you about our amazing school.  One of the things that drew us, as parents, to our school is their more Western mindset when it comes to education.  The local way is to force kids to study and memorize as much information for as much time as humanly possible.

However, our school has a slightly more holistic philosophy.  They have all sorts of sports, arts, and other opportunities for students.  Our particular campus has an amazing ecology program, complete with all gardens and animals.  As parents visiting the school the animals seemed ideal.

Fast forward to now.  Now I'm not just a parent at the school, but I'm an employee, too.

The first week of school, I was dismayed to find my name down for DUTY in the front garden.  After about two seconds I realized that 1. Children like to chase animals and 2. I was the animals' only hope.  God bless the poor peacock.  The students were determined to chase that bird down and pluck it's beautiful plumes!

If you know me, you know that I am so friend to birds.  I hate them!  But, contrary to popular belief, I actually have a heart.  Accordingly, I took it upon myself to try to protect the dern bird from the torture.  So, all day long I was chasing kids who were chasing animals.

I can tell you one thing.  When peacocks get fed up and take flight, they are a force to be reckoned with.  An angry flying peacock is a great and terrifying sight!

It was as fun as you can imagine.

The worst part is that while I was playing St. Francis there was a fight on the basketball court.  By the time I showed up the fight was over and there was just a big group of boys gathered together.  Noah was in the group.  Since things looked like they had settled down, I decided to give him a break in his first week at a new school and turn a blind eye toward the boys.   Maybe next time I need to turn a blind eye to that pitiful peacock!

The Hardest Part of Teaching (Aka- What My Internet Course Didn't tell Me!)

Well, I've had real students for two weeks now.  I get to sit in the teacher's lounge and drink tea when I don't have a class.  Real live humans are supposed to listen to what I say.  I give homework.

I feel like a real live grown-up!

(Have you seen the movie, Catch Me If You Can?  Leonardo DiCaprio plays a guy impersonating a pilot.  That's how I feel.  I'm waiting for the guys in uniform to come get me and drag me away.  Wait, let's be honest... some days, I'm praying for them to come and drag me away!!  Ha!)

Although my experience in the education sector is ridiculously limited, I have already discovered the absolute, without a doubt, most difficult part of teaching.

It is not trying to pretend like you actually know what you are doing while a room full of monkeys acts like... well... monkeys!

It is not praying that you are actually spelling a word correctly as you are writing it on the board for the monkeys.

It is not keeping my impressive white (doctor's) coat clean and pressed.

It is not trying to restrain myself from laughing at the students when they say cheese instead of chess.

The indisputable hardest part of teaching is forcing yourself to stay in a room full of hormonally ripe children who don't really appreciate deodorant, don't have a clue what an Odor Eater is, and don't necessarily see the need for a daily bath.  Your every instinct tells you to run!

Save yourself!  FLEE THE STINKY HUMANS!

Yet, it is your job to stay in the room- windows closed up nice and tight to protect the stinkers from any illness-inducing breezes- and pretend that you are not about to pass out from the intense stench!

My, oh, my!  Middle schoolers have a special albeit odoriferous gift!

Pleasant View

My whackadoo students may be trying to kill me, but one glance out the window of our school and I decide that I can survive another day!

Um... yep, it's beautiful!

Sunday Sneak Peek: Pop!

Popcorn and a movie?  Yes, please!!

Sunday Sneak Peek: MudBoy

There are no words to express how I feel about this picture!  

I can only thank the Lord that my precious husband has taken over the laundry now that I'm working full time!!  Wish we could get Spray 'n Wash here!!

Dorothy Hamill Watch Out!

Our school prides itself on having a lot of opportunities for kids.  They have a bit of a Western philosophy of education.  As a part of that, every school has an ice skating rink.  Our rink isn't really ice.  It's some sort of super slick plastic that is very similar to ice without the upkeep, cold, and painful falls.  Sounds perfect!

Lucy has been so excited to go ice skating.  I ran into her class heading out to the rink on Friday.  It was my free period so I had to sneak in and watch them for a few minutes.

1 Down!

...35 weeks to go!

I finished my very first week of teaching!!  It was hard, and fun, and exhausting!

You can imagine that when I got home and walked out onto my balcony with a big 'ole Coke and some chocolate this rainbow spoke to my heart!!

The Lord is my strength.  He will never leave me of forsake me... even in the depths of middle school!  He keeps His promises!

And I have to throw this picture in, too.  This is Lucy and her buddy, Çinar.  He is in first grade and smaller than her.  His bike is too big for him so they always swap bikes.

He has this fancy, brand new bike that's not really ever been ridden.  Lucy's bike is straight from the ghetto.  You can't see it, but the front tire is white and the back tire is black.  It has a bent up wire basket on the front that Lucy wrote her name on with a Sharpie.  That bike has been well loved and wrecked often for several years.  So, I think Lucy got the better end of this bargain!  Ha ha!

They look so cute cruising through the neighborhood- the boy on the little pink bike and the girl on the big black one!