Aloha, I’m kind of blanking on an introduction so we’ll get right down to business…
Job 1-Colegio Cristiano Presbiteriano
This week has been going well at school. I guess I’ve only been once but yesterday was great. Our new vocabulary is pats of the body and there are lots of activities to do with that. And once I think of something I basically do the same things with each grade and just go more into depth with the older kids, and that seems to work well, with minimal preparation. Last week I started a new detention policy with the 2nd and 3rd graders. At the beginning of class I write all their names on the board, every time they are disruptive they get a tic mark and for every mark they receive one minute of detention either during recess or after school. One boy, Mauricio, in 3rd grade had 20 minutes of detention yesterday. Another student, Heydi, only had it for 2 minutes but chose to stay after because she had nothing to do at home. Mauricio I don’t think really wants to go home either. He lost both of his parents and now lives with his 80 year-old grandmother and his alcoholic grandfather. I need continued wisdom to know how to discipline, not out of anger but really doing it because in the long run that will be what is best for them.
Another thing that has been a frustrating learning experience at this job is the manner in which North American support has been given. In other words foreign mission teams have been driving me crazy. When mission teams come down and offer their assistance Matthew readily accepts but little direction or thought is given to how they could actually best serve the students. Often they come unannounced and don’t realize that although giving gifts to the students is good it usually just creates chaos and takes away from the atmosphere of learning and order that the teachers are struggling to maintain. One week a group came at the end of recess and they had Beanie Babies and crayons for each student and they wanted to go into each classroom to pass them out. They came with no warning and no Spanish skills I was then the chosen translator to go in with them to each class and quickly tell the teachers what was going, after this generosity was bestowed they left and the school had to figure out how to get students to listen when they had new toys to play with. I need to learn to be patient and to figure out how to give direction to these groups without discouraging further involvement (although sometimes I start to think that maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing).
Job 2-More practice for my Spanish
My routine working with the older girls in English has been going well. They have a strong enough foundation that I am able to tell them to write sentences at home and then in class we can correct them and work on new verb tenses. The most difficult thing is that they get ahead of themselves and write more complicated sentences than they know how and I get distracted and start jumping ahead myself.
Job 3- Yup I got a new one, and this one pays
So yesterday when I was walking in to my apartment I waved to my neighbor and she asked me if I was a teacher. I told her I was and she asked if I did after school tutoring. She has a four year-old daughter and one that is younger and wanted them to have some sort of schooling (I think so she can have a break). So once I give her a schedule of when would be best for me, they are going to come over three times a week and do some sort of activity (in English). I don’t think they are Christians but I think we will just end up doing Sunday school lessons and crafts, because I really don’t know what else we would do.
Sala Evangelio
Well speaking of Sunday school, I have started to help out with that on Sunday mornings. I guess every other week I am going to be quizzing the kids on their memory verses and assigning them new ones and then keeping them in their seats while the other lady in charge teaches the lesson. I’ve also been helping with the singing at church too. I guess Cristina is kind of in charge but neither of us have very strong accompaniment skills (I guess my 5 weeks of guitar didn’t really pay off). So anyways the girl who used to do it recorded the accompaniment on the keyboard. So Cristina and I pick out the songs and then practice singing them a few times, mostly for pronunciation, and then we press play and hold the microphone as we sing along to the words on the overhead. Does this remind you of anything? Well it reminds me of karaoke, which is totally fine because you probably all know about my mad karaoke skills. Actually I have to try to not go into it with that mindset or I’ll just laugh the entire time.
Maybe a little background on the congregation would be beneficial. It is very small, maybe 40 people. There are seven North Americans, one lady from New Zealand (I think), and the rest are Nicaraguans. The lady Doña Helen, from New Zealand , is a widow in her late 60’s and mostly she works with prostitutes. So her ministry is to share with them Christ’s love and then to provide some sort of education for them so that they can find reputable work without having to fall back into their old lifestyle. Some of them went to beauty school and just started a little beauty shop and others make jewelry or sew. So many of these ladies go to Sala Evangelio, at least two families consist of these ladies and their ex-pimps who they are now married to and starting God-fearing families. It is amazing to hear of their pasts but see the amazing work God has done in their lives.
The missionaries who started this Sala Evangelio are Grant and Kandy Ferrer and they also have a correspondence Bible school. People sign up and start a series of workbooks that take them through the Bible, every lesson has a quiz and when each book is finished the student turns in the quiz and receives a new book. Once one finishes all the books they get a certificate of completion. I just started the series yesterday. It has been good because reading in Spanish slows me down enough so that I actually think about what I am reading, which is something that I often forget to do when I am reading in English.
And lastly…
This is a little embarrassing but I ate at TGI Fridays twice this weekend.
Love, Joy
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