They always think I'm exaggerating...

You know how in books when one event sets up an event later in the book, it's called foreshadowing?  Well, in real life it's called "God is in the future and He knows what He is doing".

Things I've told my friends:
1. I always have spare keys because I lose my keys alot. (I lost my keys for the weekend a few days later)
2. I rarely buy glass jars because I fall alot. (That day I wiped out in the street on the way home from the grocery store)
3. The primary reason I bought a phone is because I get lost alot.
Usually, they just smile and laugh and assume I'm exaggerating...

     Today, I took the wrong bus. If I knew more spanish, I would have known I was getting on the wrong bus, because a nice lady tried to explain it to me before I got on the bus, but...I don't speak that much spanish.
     Apparently, there is a #18-1 bus (the one I was looking for), and a #18-2 bus.  The #18-2 bus is supposed to go to a hospital right down the road, but it never comes up my street, or at least it doesn't during the afternoon, so I didn't know it even existed.  So tonight I hop on the #18 bus thinking I'm heading to the AgroMarket at the mall, but it never actually gets there.  In fact, it turns the other way.    
     The busses are kind of round-about anway, and I just figured that maybe it just went around and came in the other direction.  So there I am, standing on the bus and it just keeps not getting there, and not getting there...and eventually, I'm starting to realize that it's not going to the mall. Then I figure, well, busses go in a set route, I can just stay on it till we get home.  A few minutes later, the bus goes over a overpass.     
     Fortunately, there is only one overpass in Asuncion, and I happen to know that it's downtown.  I also start realize that all those people that got on the bus aren't getting off, and they are starting to glance at me with "why are you still here?" looks.  I also happen to know that some busses go out of town. Like, waaay out of town, and they don't always return till the next day, that or they go to the bus terminal and you have to get off. I don't know enough spanish to get stuck in either place. That would be bad.
     Finally, once we are way past anything I recognize, I decide to hop off near a taxi stand and call my friend. Thankfully, she answered and told me I could just catch another #18 and take it bad to the hospital that I can walk home from.
     Here comes the "boy, I'm glad God knows me so well" part.
     Flash back to two months ago, right after I get here: One of the teachers who lives here and is married to a Paraguayan man drove a few of us to get cheap cell phones in a place called "Mercado Quatro".  It's basically a big street market with lots of little stands outside and inside buildings. Think massive flea market. When we got back, Elizabeth remarked a few times that Mercado Quatro is kind of far away, especially by bus.
     Flash foward to 7:15 at night, now time.  I hop on an #18 heading the opposite direction I was going earlier and we are shaking along (it was a very old bus). Suddenly, I realize that we've turned and are heading away from school again!  Then I look out the window and realize that I'm either in a shack town or the closed up Mercado Quatro.  I immediately text Elizabeth, who immediately calls back and tells me to find somewhere to get off and she's sending her parents to get me. That's what you want to hear when you are in a shifty looking part of town...
Thankfully, her parents were able to come get me. Ironically, if they  had known exactly where I was, they could have told me a bus to hop on right there that would have taken me right to the school! Oh, well...

What sad, lost people eat for supper in a gas station

(and hope they don't get food poisoning from)

Plus, I get some brownie for lunch tomorrow! :)

     While I was sitting in the gas station, all I could think about was how God worked tonight to keep me safe.  First, if I had never been to Mercado Quatro then I would not have been able to recognize it in the dark.  Second, if Elizabeth's parents had not been able to come get me, the bus would have dropped me off eventually near the school, but in the dark, I would not have been able to recognize the familiar landmarks because it would have dropped me off behind the grocery store, not in front. Third, my initial money on my phone expired, and I was just able to get more last week without the phone I would have been stuck.
  Finally, I tend to get lost a lot. Like, a lot, a lot. Always have. As a result, I am used to figuring out how to solve the problem, and here I always carry money with me so I can either call someone or take a taxi to get home. I also was able to stay calm in the assurances that I knew I could contact someone, I knew the address of the school, and no matter what happened, I had a Father with me at all times.

Psalm 139:7, 11-12
⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall^[a] on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹² Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.


So that's my big story of the day, it was kind of fun, kind of exciting, and in the future, I think I'll stick with the #55 bus!

Prayer Requests:
Jacqui, our new roommate will be arriving here on Thursday!!!  Pray for her safe travel tomorrow and her acclimation to the new country.
The school will be getting a 5th grade teacher and a student teacher very soon, so please pray that their paperwork will go through quickly.
The school still needs a High School science teacher, please pray that God will bring the right person into the position in His time.

Lo Hicimos!

We did it!
We didn't do much, but we did do it!  We, the teachers of Asuncions Christian School put out multiple fires, with nothing but fire extinguishers, in the space of about 20 minutes. 
Granted the fires were in a metal fireplace, and there were two firefighters present, but we still did it. It was a lot of fun to do and watch, and I learned a handy phrase from one of the Spanish teachers (hence the title).
This handy little fire training followed a round of information and training sessions in procedures, accredidation and the like. During these meetings I was struck by just how different these teacher meetings were from the ones I attended as a student teacher.  For one, there weren't that many of us, and two, there were two sections of teachers.  One group was spread out across the room, and one was clustered in the back.  The back group was clustered together so that the meeting could be quietly translated for the spanish teachers as we went.  Occasionally, speakers would say things in both languages.  At one point I was thinking, "This is kind of neat! I mean, how many people do I know that have been to teachers meetings given in two languages?"
I also learned the word for key in spanish (clavos), which I intend to put to use shortly when I go get copies of my house key made tomorrow (those who know me well know how vitally important this task is). 
I'm having fun learning spanish, and the spanish teachers are a great source, as they are more than willing to trade some of their knowledge of spanish for my knowledge of english.  Many of the teachers cheerfully include those of use who don't speak spanish in their conversations and will try to help us understand what is being said. I'm really enjoying trying to get to know them. Plus, their spanish help is a little more useful than my students (though, I do know quite a few fruits and veggies in spanish now.  Try giving a less on plants we use for food when even your english speakers know the fruits and veggies primarily in spanish!)



Fruits you should know if you want to buy the yummy juice at the grocery store:



       frutilla

      ciruela
     durazno
    pera

Boogers

    Boogers...Kinder kids have a lot of boogers.  I mean a LOT of boogers.  And because they aren't so efficient at the whole "blow your own nose" thing (I even caught one putting the tissues back into the box after he wiped his nose)...those boogers tend to bug them a lot.  At any given time I can look at my kids and see at least one of them with a finger in their nose. My general circle refocusing goes like this "bottoms on floor, hands in laps, fingers out of noses." The boys kind of like having me help them blow their noses because they think it's funny when I tell them to "blow hard, harder, like you are trying to blow your brains out!"
     In less gooey news, this week is assessment week.  Which means I've spent my week writing tests to give my kids, and then cramming them in whenever I have a spare moment. Sometimes these assessments are nice to give, like when some kids blow through them and get all the answers right. Sometimes, not so much...One of my students is a little younger than the others and is still having to work at her English.  Mistake number one: giving the literacy test at the end of the day. Mistake number two: giving the test near an alphabet poster.  Basically for every question I asked about the letters and words she would stare at the poster like it was her life-line then pick a random letter.  It was both very sad, and very amusing to watch. A sample of her answers: "I'm going to say a word and I want you to tell me what the first sound you hear in the word is, okay?"..."Rabbit" "uhhhh, mmmm, (makes hard thinking face) Buh!" "Hat" "aaaahhhh...SSSS"...That's about how the whole test went. Fun day.
     Frustrations aside, I love teaching Kinder, even if they drive me nuts on a daily basis. I'm working on the tattling my kids love to do (uunnnhhh...TEEECHHEEERRR!), and I think it may actually be getting better! So that's good. Otherwise I was going to have to order "Franklin the Tattling Turtle" to read to my kids.  Unfortunatly, we did the main lesson on tattling the day my major "bearer of hourly updates" was out sick.  Not so great planning on my part. Buuuut...I think a daily refresher course on tattling versus reporting won't hurt, will it?
     I did get fingerprinted today.  That was fun! We had to go to the local INTERPOL to do it, so the whole car ride over I had spy music playing in my head. In Paraguay, INTERPOL has a fish tank.  It was full of piranahs genetically modified to look like goldfish. Or at least that's what my brain has decided.
   Very soon all the paperwork will be done so they can turn it in for my permanent recidency card called a cedula, and ninty days later I will officially be a resident of Paraguay!  This year they started making the cards permanent.  That means that when the US eventually throws me out for being too awesome to handle, I can trot on down to Paraguay to live. Aren't you jealous? ;)

   On a personally exciting, and particularly nerdy note, I am having fun growing a garden out of the produce I buy at the grocery store.  Potato eyes grow roots pretty much over night!  It's insane to watch! My class did discover that if you leave carrots in a cup of water long enough to try and "grow" them, they will rot.  And if you keep leaving them there because they smell too bad to put in the trash can in the morning and you keep forgetting to put them in the trash at the end of the day, they start to smell really, really bad...then they disolve. It's nasty. :)

Day 3: Medium white roots

Day 4: Long white roots

Day 5: Hairy white roots

I know you find that as riveting as I do. 

My roommate isn't as impressed, but she let's me keep growing plants on the kitchen counter, so I can't complain...

Pinapple, and a cutting of whatever that other thing is.

My grandmother would be proud.

So, that's my exciting news for the day. Feel free to leave comments, it makes me feel special and has the added bonus of convincing me to remember to write on my blog. (Come on people, I've got roomates to compete with here)  ;) Have a great week!


Prayer requests:  A student of mine recently missed a week of school to go on a mission trip with her parents.  Apparently while she was there she picked up some kind of rash and is now missing even more school.  She doesn't hurt and isnt' really itchy, and she probably isn't contagious, but apparently she has so many little red rash spots on her body and face that she's pretty swollen.  It could take a few to 10 days to go down, so she'll be missing more school.  Please pray for her quick recovery and that it isn't anything serious!

A little night music...

As I'm sitting here listening to the "evening concert" I'm once again surprised by the wide variety of music my neighbors seem to enjoy.
You see, someone in the neighborhood behind the school apparently is unaware that their radio has settings other than "very loud" and "very, very loud". Either that or they consider it a public service to supply the entire neighborhood with music. You only think I'm kidding.
On any given week night the music will be up so loud that sitting in my bedroom with my noisy fan on, the music is loud enough that it would almost seem as if someone in the next room is playing their music a little loudly. Typically the music turns off somewhere in the 11pm range.  On weekends, particularly, Saturday night, the music is loud enough to almost sing along to, and typically is still playing when I get up in the morning.
I could point out that the school is surrounded by almost three story concrete walls...
So far, I've heard everything from Adel to traditional Paraguayan music. Tonight they've thrown some new agey stuff in, followed by techno.
Of course, as I sit here typing this, I've suddenly realized that I can't hear music anymore, instead I can hear normal evening sounds.  Practically a first!

Paraguay is an interesting country to live in.  The culture is both surprisingly easy to get used to, and yet, there are somethings that are so different.
For example, and I know this seems small, but people really love their fireworks.  I mean, really love them.  They let them off when they win a soccer game, or when they lose, or whenever they just have some lying around.  They also make their own fireworks sometimes. As I live next to a neighborhood park with a soccer field, this means that at any given time I may be treated to the sound of miniture bombs going off.  The first night I heard them it really scared me.  It was late in the evening and all I could hear was what sounded like guns, shouting, and a (random) police siren.  I pretty much though there was a riot going on in the streets. Usually I ignore it, but yesterday they let off an usually loud round of them all at one time and it startled me so much I fell of the edge of the bed! Unfortunately, my new bed is a lot higher off the floor than my bed upstairs... :(  Needless to say, anybody with PTSD, probably should not visit me. 

Also, getting used to having to go to many different stores for what I need is hard to get used to.  There are some stores that have multiple items, and I found one yesterday, but typically, if you want clothes you go to one store, home things at another, and so on.  There is a mall, but it is expensive.  Hopefully a friend will be taking me and another girl to an area downtown with several cheaper clothing stores and other stores where things are actually affordable. I really need some shorts, it's getting hot faster than I expected (92 degrees in winter!)

It's also strange not to know my way around. I mean, I'm not that great a navigator at the best of times, but to have to plan out small trips a day in advance so I can ask someone what bus to take and where to get off is a little frustrating sometimes.  I'm learning pretty fast though, and I really like taking the busses.  I've run a few errands this week just so I could stretch my knowledge of the bus system and use them by myself.  Thankfully, I live just a few blocks down on the same street as the big social security hospital, so no matter how lost I get there are about ten busses that will get me within a ten minute walk of home! All I have to do is look for a bus with I.P.S. painted on the door and flag it down.  I like flaggin down busses, it makes me feel like someone in a movie flagging down a big taxi. Sometimes, the bus even ignores you (only very rarely though).
I also like using the key pad to get through the gate into the school, especially at night when I look over my shoulder. I feel very spy-like (cue spy music).

I'm really enjoying getting to eat lots of fresh foods, and I'm exploring a few new easy recipes (google is my friend). I made chicken and twice baked potatoes to rave reviews from my roommate and neighbor.

Rosemary Honey-mustard chicken

 

Speaking of neighbors, have I mentioned that I think mine are awesome? ;)   Now that I've moved downstairs, I'm across the hall from the teacher that I'm across the hall from in school too.  We pretty much have given up on properly knocking we go into each others space so much. It's fun.

I finally have roomate number one, and she's pretty great.  I think we are going to get along well.  Roommate number two and the reason we needed to move downstairs comes in two weeks.  I'm excited to get to know her, she seems like she's had some interesting teaching experiences, and she's from England!
Speaking of which, did I mention I moved downstairs? Because I did.  It's a change but I'm getting used to it.  The hardest parts are that 1. being on the bottom floor I don't feel like  I can keep my window curtains open all the time 2. It's tall, like really really tall.  I think that Paraguayans built the upstairs and giant Americans built the downstairs.  The bottom shelf of my kitchen cabinets is about where the top shelf of the ones upstairs were. I can barely touch the top shelf.  Lydia, my current roommate is my height, so that's a problem. We are trying to figure out how to shorten the kitchen a bit.  The other roommate is a little taller, so we can give her the upper shelves when she gets here. I can't wait!

So very high!

 

So thats's about it this time.  My big excitement this week is a birthday party during lunch and after on Friday, followed by family field night that evening.  Apparently parents here often do more than just cupcakes for birthdays, especially for my age kids. That will be a new experience, as well as family night, where each grade team has booths and games set up to raise money for the class PTA fund. Luckily we have great room parents who are pretty much taking care of it all! :)

 

Feel free to comment or send me messages on facebook, I love to hear from friends back home!

Also, I have a album of pictures of random daily life on facebook (it loads pictures faster than the blog.  Check it out!

 



 

Prayer Requests:

Pray for safe travels for Jacqui, our new roommate.

Pray that God would raise up a generation of leaders in the junior high and high school students.

Pray for me as I continue the adventure of teaching and managing a class of kinders for the first time!