(and you reply "Bien, y vos?")
How is your corner of the world, wherever that may be? Here in Paraguay, it's
good. The weather is a little bipolar
(literally), but I'm enjoying almost every minute of it, except the getting out of my warm bed bits...We went from 90's one
week to low 50's and rainy the next. Supposedly
it's going back to the 90's in a day or so.
This is good news because my Kinder class is joining with the ESL
teacher's ninth grade special needs class to grow a garden. I am so excited!!!
My kids are a little miffed that they can't play "The Witch of
Colors" through the garden area (a confusing game I have yet to figure
out, despite the fact that they play it everyday), but they are definitely intrigued
about helping Senor Rosalino (the campus gardener) put some seeds in all that
tempting dirt!
Observing and drawing plants on the playground (there are lots)
This is the way we plant a seed...
Gentle, gentle!
Life isn't terribly exciting at the moment. I get to work
for devotions at 6:40 and from 7:00 to 3:15pm I have kids in my classroom. I've started tutoring after school for two
siblings who have parents that speak very little English. Basically I am helping with homework and
reviewing the day's lessons with them.
It isn't terribly hard, but it is providing an additional income that
will make it easier to pay for Master's classes and hopefully allow me to do
some real traveling during school breaks!
Lesson planning for my class is an interesting challenge. One of my students goes to tutoring school
after school every day, so he's already mastered some of the basics that we are
covering. Another student is somewhat
younger than the others and her English is still emerging. Trying to balance group work to address the
needs of all my students is hard sometimes.
Also, since I am still needing to work from teacher's books most of the
time, I have to adapt the lessons to meet the resources I have available in
Paraguay. Honestly, I am thankful that
there are several teacher's manuals for each subject avaliable and I can pick
and choose from each one as I please! Some of the older ones have less
"fancy lessons" that I can update to meet the needs of my students.
Silly faces! We know the parts of our faces (and the five senses)!
Why does he have ears on his neck?
"Because he need to listen well"
What a work wall looks like when you only have eight students.
It's only about five feet long, but I still had to spread them out!
(And those are legal sized pieces of paper!)
It is a little strange sometimes, because a few of the
teaching materials are what I remember learning from as a kindergartener. My phonics and writing books are exactly the
same, even the workbooks! I imagine it's a bit like becoming a teacher in a
school that you used to attend.
Mostly I am enjoying having afternoons to myself to work or
read and go on outings with my neighbors. We often walk places, like the mall,
rather than take the bus, which makes trips a little longer and allows for more
conversation. A ten minute walk to the
grocery store is much shorter when you have someone to talk to on the way!
I am really enjoying the community at ACA, the school. The teachers are very supportive of each
other and the administration, being made up of former (and for the moment, current)
teachers, is very supportive of the teachers.
I really enjoy spending time with the teachers and it makes being in a
new country, living alone in an apartment much less lonely.
It's a little unnerving how fast I've settled in. Good, but unnerving. Our welcome packet detailed the stages of
culture shock, and I've been through it before, but it's like I either haven't
started really going through it yet, or I went through it really fast. I'm definitely thankful I haven't had
problems yet, but it's still a little disconcerting. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how
the coming changes affect me? Soon, very
soon, I'll have a roommate and if I get two I'll be moving downstairs to a new
apartment. I can't wait to meet my
roommate, we've all been waiting and praying for her!
Either way, I'm adjusting really well so far. I'm doing my best to learn spanish, and it's not going to badly. Those two years of high school spanish that I thought I hadn't learned anything from seem to be coming back in little bits and pieces. Plus, my neighbor Elizabeth is really nice and willing to translate any word I ask her. She also helps me learn useful phrases for general life, like the numbers (just knowing 1-10 isn't that useful when most things cost at least 2,000 Gs), and how to order food and buy items.
I'm also having fun cooking, with what little skill I have. I've found that empanadas, Katie-style, are very good. They are easy to make, if a little time consuming, and I can make a bunch on Saturday night and then just grab them in them morning to take for lunch. Plus, I can fill them with whatever veggies and meat I end up buying at the market. I don't know how the general U.S. hasn't discovered them yet! Forget cupcakes, do empanadas!
Mango curry filling
(weird, but not bad...it would have helped to have all the ingredients in the recipe)
About two weeks of lunch (I am thankful for my freezer!)
Life in Paraguay #4: When you have a shower head heater, lower water pressure means hotter water. When the water coming through is cold, you might as well give up dreams of a hot shower and say thank you for lukewarm. When the water in the tank is warm to begin with, hot can translate into scalding very fast, so watch out!
Prayer requests:
Pray for my roommate, she'll be traveling here this weekend! Pray for safe travel and quick assimilation, so she can jump right into teaching Jr. High math!
Pray that the school will find the teachers God has for it, so administrators and teachers don't have to do double duty to cover the classes.
Pray for my patience with the students and my own inexperience.
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