i can't believe that my time here is literally so little! i have half of thursday left, and then friday, then i'm off!
wednesday was a fun day! school was just the basic day, teaching, teaching, teaching, and more teaching! after school, carlie and i had a little baking party! i wanted to bake a cake for each house at the Oasis as a little "going away" gift, so we took over the big kitchen, and began baking! we did two funfetti cakes, and two yellow cakes with chocolate icing. all the spoonfuls upon spoonfuls of batter that we ate, just made me want to bake things when i get home-so, who ever's there, get ready! it was so fun using that giant industrial kitchen and oven. here's a tip-you DON'T need the full 30 minutes on the cake when you're using an industrial sized oven. takes about 15. MAX. also, don't pull out the racks with just a towel either. the little blister on my finger is proof that theyre a taaaad hot. whoops.
after baking, we had devitionals in the salon, where Corbey spoke to the girls about the importance of reading God's Word. He challenged them all to read Philippians-and afterwards, I talked to some girls in my house, and we're going to even read it together after I leave!
after devotions, i delivered all my cakes. each one getting a "quee rrrriiiccoooo" or giant smile and giggle. i was pleased. :) i went to the gold house with their cake, and planned to stay for supper. we first devoured our pureed beans and cream, THEN moved on to the cake. holy cow. sooo delicious! they just really really loved it. we all had 1 and a half slices, which was just delightful for our beany stomachs. after the cake, i think everyone got a sugar rush, therefore, we all danced. they taught me about 4 pre-choreographed dances ( i don't learn quickly-it was hard) and then VIDEOED it all using my camera. totally ridiculous but soo fun!
today has been an interesting school day-the first one where i've had to be totally spontaneous. i got here a little extra early this morning so i could have a quiet time, and organize for the day, when i was beckoned to teach. one of the teachers was having an issue getting to work on time, and so i was to cover her class for about half an hour. that half an hour turned into 2 hours. also, her class, TEACHING.SPANISH. yes-even though they're native spanish speakers, they still need to learn grammar and writing, etc. don't worry, i don't have a clueeee what to teach them. after four classes of that, i thought that i was going to die. it almost became comical though because the girls knew that i didn't really know what i was doing, and so they helped me a long, or just told me that they would study on their own and i could go sit down. haha. thaaank you girls for your generosity.
the rest of the day has been kinda slow-since i couldn't take any of the younger girls for tutoring, i have just been organizing and slowing putting things together for packing tomorrow. i've made lists, and stuffed bags full of souveniers and books and notebooks.
i think i'm going to ask ya'll to pray for peace. i'm going to have a really hard time leaving this place in 48 hours. although its stressful, and can be exhausting at times, the girls really have just taken ahold of my heart, and i've grown so close to so many of them. i have a lot of fear for them, because every couple of months, they go back to court with their families and test the waters about whether they go home or not. MOST of the situations are not acceptable for them to go back to, but sometimes it happens. We're losing 3 sisters to their mother in November, so that means that if i come back anytime soon, I'll still miss seeing them-this really is goodbye for them. i pray that i'll be confident that the work i did here was all in the Lord's will and in His plan for me. That he guided my steps each and everyday, and that HE was in complete control always.
i'm so very excited to see where He takes me after this adventure. what kinds of things He leads me to, and where my next step on His path is. What a scary reality to totally not know your future, or have a clue of what you MIGHT do in 9 months!
see MOST of you in about 72 hours. sounds good, huh? :)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
hotel receptionist/belly dancer/waitress. what a life.
tuesday was probably the most eventful day i've had thus far this week!
tutoring and math class went as normal. patricia and i have started doing math speed drills for multiplication with them, and so far they're getting a little better. i'm hoping for ASTOUNDING results by Friday. maybe its possible?
after school, i had to teach bible study. for some reason i got really really really nervous. maybe it was the 7 faces staring back at me while i tried my hand at speaking about the Bible in such broken spanish. i don't know. i got really disappointed with myself because i relied so much on fluent Melanie to help me out with spanish, and didn't just gut through it like i should have. all in all, the girls seemed really receptive to what i had to say, and were responsive to the questions we asked and the stories we told. at the end of the lesson, i had them each write a small note to all of the girls that live in their houses, just to simply encourage them, and say something nice about them. i remember when we had to do this in school i always really appreciated the kind comments from my classroom. as they wrote theirs, Melanie and I wrote some to them as well, and you could tell that they really liked to hear the kind words (as much as they blushed). so, i guess after all the crap i gave myself about speaking poorly, the lesson really did go over well!
after the bible study, we had GIRLS NIGHT! Melanie, Anna, Patricia, Janie, Carlie, Maggie and I all went to Antigua for supper together and a girls night out! We went to a restaurant called La Pena del Sol-this restaurant is owned by a Gringo, who moved to Guatemala after he retired, and opened a restaurant, all so that he could stand on stage each night and play his bongos. We got the pleasure of meeting him as he came around to each table and checked on our food and service. nice guy-real personality! after our STUFFED bellies of chicken, steak, salad, rice, and vegetables, we decided it would ABSOLUTELY be in our best interest to get dessert. luckily, Carlie, my dessert buddy was up for some triple chocolate brownie and ice cream, and let me tell you, it HIT.THE.SPOT. my stomach went to bed last night really happily.
i can't believe how quickly my time here is dwindling! i only have 2 more FULL days left at the Oasis. 3 if you count half of today, and then half of Saturday before I leave. In that time, I have to bake some cakes, write some notes, prep two grades for thier exams on monday, organize the library for my departure, wash all my clothes, and PACK. i've already started making lists of where i'm packing everything, and how to most conveniently stuff things in bags for immediate use once i get home!
i've really been able to see, especially in the last few days what the Lord has me here to learn. Not only so many times again and again patience-but also HIS PLAN. I know now that He is calling me to teach internationally. I have LOVED discovering this new culture, and really immersing myself in it. I am SO grateful for this experience. I've also learned what it means to be a teacher. This experience is going to help me so much with student teaching next year. I've learned heaps of new games and methods of teaching students, I've gotten the opportunity to work with the severely learning disabled all the way to the genius level smart ones! i'm so impressed more and more each day by all of these girls, and they continue to teach me new things each day as well!
today is school and cake baking! carlie and maggie are coming over to help me bake the 4 cakes-one for each house, that i'll deliver tonight! i can't imagine how excited they're going to be for a SURPRISE cake! :)
tutoring and math class went as normal. patricia and i have started doing math speed drills for multiplication with them, and so far they're getting a little better. i'm hoping for ASTOUNDING results by Friday. maybe its possible?
after school, i had to teach bible study. for some reason i got really really really nervous. maybe it was the 7 faces staring back at me while i tried my hand at speaking about the Bible in such broken spanish. i don't know. i got really disappointed with myself because i relied so much on fluent Melanie to help me out with spanish, and didn't just gut through it like i should have. all in all, the girls seemed really receptive to what i had to say, and were responsive to the questions we asked and the stories we told. at the end of the lesson, i had them each write a small note to all of the girls that live in their houses, just to simply encourage them, and say something nice about them. i remember when we had to do this in school i always really appreciated the kind comments from my classroom. as they wrote theirs, Melanie and I wrote some to them as well, and you could tell that they really liked to hear the kind words (as much as they blushed). so, i guess after all the crap i gave myself about speaking poorly, the lesson really did go over well!
after the bible study, we had GIRLS NIGHT! Melanie, Anna, Patricia, Janie, Carlie, Maggie and I all went to Antigua for supper together and a girls night out! We went to a restaurant called La Pena del Sol-this restaurant is owned by a Gringo, who moved to Guatemala after he retired, and opened a restaurant, all so that he could stand on stage each night and play his bongos. We got the pleasure of meeting him as he came around to each table and checked on our food and service. nice guy-real personality! after our STUFFED bellies of chicken, steak, salad, rice, and vegetables, we decided it would ABSOLUTELY be in our best interest to get dessert. luckily, Carlie, my dessert buddy was up for some triple chocolate brownie and ice cream, and let me tell you, it HIT.THE.SPOT. my stomach went to bed last night really happily.
i can't believe how quickly my time here is dwindling! i only have 2 more FULL days left at the Oasis. 3 if you count half of today, and then half of Saturday before I leave. In that time, I have to bake some cakes, write some notes, prep two grades for thier exams on monday, organize the library for my departure, wash all my clothes, and PACK. i've already started making lists of where i'm packing everything, and how to most conveniently stuff things in bags for immediate use once i get home!
i've really been able to see, especially in the last few days what the Lord has me here to learn. Not only so many times again and again patience-but also HIS PLAN. I know now that He is calling me to teach internationally. I have LOVED discovering this new culture, and really immersing myself in it. I am SO grateful for this experience. I've also learned what it means to be a teacher. This experience is going to help me so much with student teaching next year. I've learned heaps of new games and methods of teaching students, I've gotten the opportunity to work with the severely learning disabled all the way to the genius level smart ones! i'm so impressed more and more each day by all of these girls, and they continue to teach me new things each day as well!
today is school and cake baking! carlie and maggie are coming over to help me bake the 4 cakes-one for each house, that i'll deliver tonight! i can't imagine how excited they're going to be for a SURPRISE cake! :)
Monday, August 2, 2010
FOUR days????!!!
sorry that i didn't blog last night, in the past few days, there hasn't been too much to catch you up on. sunday was a very relaxing/funny day. i didn't go to church, because i wanted to have energy to really spend quality time playing with the girls afterwards. little did i know that they were not coming home from church until SEVEN at night. therefore, i sat, all day long, waiting. the good news was, that it was a BEAUTIFUL day outside, so i made the most of it by playing outside most of the day. the bad news is, that because it was so sunny, i have now an entertainingly red face and chest and arms. thank you sun, for being close to the equator.
because of this sunburn, i got made fun of at work today by all my co-workers. thanks. love them too. today was semi-typical at work. i didn't have to tutor because the teacher of the Prepa class really wanted to spend time with the kids in class to prepare for their exam coming up. so, i just found handy jobs to do around the school for the different teachers. after lunchtime, carlie, anna and i walked over to the tienda and got some cokes to give us a little more energy. today was AGAIN a really beautiful day and the girls were so lucky to be able to be outside for most of it! we had a team from Florida that came up after school was out and played soccer with them (in place of practice-jackpot!) and hosted some arts and crafts. they also donated a new pair of shoes to each girl. i've never seen such picky guatemalans in my life. they were so selective about the pair of shoes that they picked. i guess they are girls, and do want to be fashionable.
after playtime and until dinner, it was Tutor Betsy time because I sat with 5 of the girls in my house and helped them with math after math after math.
tomorrow i am leading bible study for the older girls. i'm REALLY nervous about it. i've been praying about what i wanted to teach them for about a week now, and i couldn't think of anything until i talked to Carolyn yesterday. I decided on Proverbs 16:24- "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bone." I decided on this, because they live in a place with 40 girls all the time. ZERO distance or space from each other. And teenage girls are brutal. Talking behind each other's backs, being snappy, having attitudes, etc. I want them to remember how the Lord calls us to treat each other. Using pleasant words and encouraging words, to build each other up. I'm doing a little activity where we're going to talk about what kinds of things that we say about other girls, and how we judge them-how we can turn these things around and use them for good and to see the positive in others. Please pray for me tomorrow afternoon around 3:30. I'm super anxious that I won't do a good job, or my spanish will be really choppy, and hard to get the point across. I'm excited to see where their hearts are, and how they will react and respond to me. I just pray that it's not my words that speak, but truly the words of the Lord and His hopes and plans for this verse.
i can't believe that i only have four more days here! it seems like there is so much more that i have yet to enjoy and do with these girls! over the next few days, i'm going to be going out for a girl's night supper, baking four cakes, eating lots of beans, packing, washing clothes, and organizing my life! pray that i have the organization and energy for all these things, especially after working a full day's work!
so excited to see what the Lord has left to teach me here! i would think he's just about all "teached out" with me this summer! His word and will have been hard at work!
because of this sunburn, i got made fun of at work today by all my co-workers. thanks. love them too. today was semi-typical at work. i didn't have to tutor because the teacher of the Prepa class really wanted to spend time with the kids in class to prepare for their exam coming up. so, i just found handy jobs to do around the school for the different teachers. after lunchtime, carlie, anna and i walked over to the tienda and got some cokes to give us a little more energy. today was AGAIN a really beautiful day and the girls were so lucky to be able to be outside for most of it! we had a team from Florida that came up after school was out and played soccer with them (in place of practice-jackpot!) and hosted some arts and crafts. they also donated a new pair of shoes to each girl. i've never seen such picky guatemalans in my life. they were so selective about the pair of shoes that they picked. i guess they are girls, and do want to be fashionable.
after playtime and until dinner, it was Tutor Betsy time because I sat with 5 of the girls in my house and helped them with math after math after math.
tomorrow i am leading bible study for the older girls. i'm REALLY nervous about it. i've been praying about what i wanted to teach them for about a week now, and i couldn't think of anything until i talked to Carolyn yesterday. I decided on Proverbs 16:24- "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bone." I decided on this, because they live in a place with 40 girls all the time. ZERO distance or space from each other. And teenage girls are brutal. Talking behind each other's backs, being snappy, having attitudes, etc. I want them to remember how the Lord calls us to treat each other. Using pleasant words and encouraging words, to build each other up. I'm doing a little activity where we're going to talk about what kinds of things that we say about other girls, and how we judge them-how we can turn these things around and use them for good and to see the positive in others. Please pray for me tomorrow afternoon around 3:30. I'm super anxious that I won't do a good job, or my spanish will be really choppy, and hard to get the point across. I'm excited to see where their hearts are, and how they will react and respond to me. I just pray that it's not my words that speak, but truly the words of the Lord and His hopes and plans for this verse.
i can't believe that i only have four more days here! it seems like there is so much more that i have yet to enjoy and do with these girls! over the next few days, i'm going to be going out for a girl's night supper, baking four cakes, eating lots of beans, packing, washing clothes, and organizing my life! pray that i have the organization and energy for all these things, especially after working a full day's work!
so excited to see what the Lord has left to teach me here! i would think he's just about all "teached out" with me this summer! His word and will have been hard at work!
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