This week has been a crazy week, busy but great. The kids have been up and down. Sometimes I feel frustrated because they all love to talk sooooo much it's hard to get them to stop and listen. I've tried rewards, I've tried consequences. I've tried being firm. So right now at school I am trying to learn a balance between what I need to accept from them as a cultural thing, and what I should expect from them in a school atmosphere. One of the Honduran teachers who teaches Bible talked to me though and told me that he wanted to tell me that my kids said they really like me. Apparently I'm very sweet and kind, even when I feel like I'm being mean. So this was encouraging to me and because I think that with this culture building relationships with the children is very important.
Another thing I had the chance to do this week was lead worship for teacher devotions on friday. I can really see how God is using my experience this summer as the worship director to help provide for the needs of the North American community. Erin and I chose to sing the song The more I seek you, which I mentioned in one of my previous posts. It was really great to just take the time to truly seek God and remember what I was there for. It seemed to go pretty well and I'm excited for us to do it again and also to help out with Worship Night for the NA community.
I also wanted to share with all of you a prayer that has hit close to me. I found it in the book "Ruthless Trust" by Brennan Manning:
Abba Father, Into your hands I commit my body mind and spirit and this entire day, morning, afternoon evening and night. Whatever you want of me, I want of me. Falling into you and trusting you in the midst of my life life.Into your heart I entrust my heart, feeble, distracted, insecure, and uncertain. Abba Father, I abandon myself to you in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Also, this week I had a very random experience. One night we were hanging out at our house and the doorbell rings. It was raining. It was dark and about 7:00 at night.
So I go out to find a neighbor woman and her two children. She only spoke spanish and since I'm the only one in our house who speaks very much spanish I had to talk to her. She told me she was looking for a tutor for her children. So this is what happens when you are living in a neighborhood where everyone knows where the white teacher girls live. =) So, I am not going to be tutoring a fourth grade girl in math. It's a little indescript right now because the mother told me she just wanted to be able to send the girl over whenever she needed help. But being the American I am, I told her that I would probably need to make a schedule because I wouldn't always be available. She said she would call and got our phone number. So she called back five minutes later. And then two days later to check up the price which I said I would ask the school how much they usually charge. The second time she called she wanted to send the girl to our house right at the moment. It kind of was funny, just because that would never happen in the US. Imagine someone coming to your house just because they know you're a teacher and then randomly calling and asking if they can send his or her child over right then.
Also, this weekend I got my first taste of going out of the city. We went to the PanAmerican Festival. It was basically a cultural festival of almost any Central American country and Caribbean country you could think of. We got to watch them dance and ate some very excellent food. I had a granita (the espresso americano (honduran starbucks) version of a frappe), a coke, and three tacos. I spent about 4 dollars. which was awesome. =) There was also some weird bungee jumping activity and booths to look at. The dancing was funny to watch. They had traditional dances as well as more modern ones, some of which felt mildly inappropriate to watch. =) My fifth graders are learning a traditional Honduran dance in music right now. Some of us teachers might get the opportunity to learn it as well, which could be really fun. The only thing I'm not sure about is that someone said they would probably make us perform in front of the school, which is not all that appealing. =)
Anyways, I played some frisbee today. It was EXTREMELY hot out today and I drank down to bottles of water after only like half an hour and was exhausted. However it was a lot of fun. So the rest of my day will consist of catching up on lesson plans, which I some how still manage to leave till Sunday night. My Saturdays just float away and as it turns out graduating from college does not rid you of your propensity towards procrastination. =) Some things never change.
Another thing I had the chance to do this week was lead worship for teacher devotions on friday. I can really see how God is using my experience this summer as the worship director to help provide for the needs of the North American community. Erin and I chose to sing the song The more I seek you, which I mentioned in one of my previous posts. It was really great to just take the time to truly seek God and remember what I was there for. It seemed to go pretty well and I'm excited for us to do it again and also to help out with Worship Night for the NA community.
I also wanted to share with all of you a prayer that has hit close to me. I found it in the book "Ruthless Trust" by Brennan Manning:
Abba Father, Into your hands I commit my body mind and spirit and this entire day, morning, afternoon evening and night. Whatever you want of me, I want of me. Falling into you and trusting you in the midst of my life life.Into your heart I entrust my heart, feeble, distracted, insecure, and uncertain. Abba Father, I abandon myself to you in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Also, this week I had a very random experience. One night we were hanging out at our house and the doorbell rings. It was raining. It was dark and about 7:00 at night.
So I go out to find a neighbor woman and her two children. She only spoke spanish and since I'm the only one in our house who speaks very much spanish I had to talk to her. She told me she was looking for a tutor for her children. So this is what happens when you are living in a neighborhood where everyone knows where the white teacher girls live. =) So, I am not going to be tutoring a fourth grade girl in math. It's a little indescript right now because the mother told me she just wanted to be able to send the girl over whenever she needed help. But being the American I am, I told her that I would probably need to make a schedule because I wouldn't always be available. She said she would call and got our phone number. So she called back five minutes later. And then two days later to check up the price which I said I would ask the school how much they usually charge. The second time she called she wanted to send the girl to our house right at the moment. It kind of was funny, just because that would never happen in the US. Imagine someone coming to your house just because they know you're a teacher and then randomly calling and asking if they can send his or her child over right then.
Also, this weekend I got my first taste of going out of the city. We went to the PanAmerican Festival. It was basically a cultural festival of almost any Central American country and Caribbean country you could think of. We got to watch them dance and ate some very excellent food. I had a granita (the espresso americano (honduran starbucks) version of a frappe), a coke, and three tacos. I spent about 4 dollars. which was awesome. =) There was also some weird bungee jumping activity and booths to look at. The dancing was funny to watch. They had traditional dances as well as more modern ones, some of which felt mildly inappropriate to watch. =) My fifth graders are learning a traditional Honduran dance in music right now. Some of us teachers might get the opportunity to learn it as well, which could be really fun. The only thing I'm not sure about is that someone said they would probably make us perform in front of the school, which is not all that appealing. =)
Anyways, I played some frisbee today. It was EXTREMELY hot out today and I drank down to bottles of water after only like half an hour and was exhausted. However it was a lot of fun. So the rest of my day will consist of catching up on lesson plans, which I some how still manage to leave till Sunday night. My Saturdays just float away and as it turns out graduating from college does not rid you of your propensity towards procrastination. =) Some things never change.
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