Hi folks, it’s Alex!

As I write this we’re in recess in the English-teaching school where we’ve been
helping the English teachers. I’ve been with Rick and Michelle helping the lone
English teacher responible for 1st through 4th grade English every day, it’s a
lot of fun. The kids only get a couple of 15-minute recesses each day and
there’s no playground, so they constantly have pent-up energy in the classroom
(especially the boys!). The kids are quite bright though, and pick up the
concept of multiple languages pretty young and learn words fast. They’re also
very affectionate very fast, even though half the time we can’t understand each
other. Despite their endless wildness, I’m going to be sad to leave this school
in a few days. But what comes next is exciting!

After this week, we leave our host and go to Panama City for something
Adventures in Missions calls “Unsung Heroes” for the rest of our stay in Panama.
During UH, instead of having a ministry contact approved by AIM host us and be
served by us, we’re on our own for lodging, and our work is quite different.
We’ll be searching over the city for new possible organizations to partner with
AIM and be hosts for future World Race teams.

I’ll write more about the local culture and day-to-day experience here in Panama
real soon, but for now I think recess is about to end, which means it’s back to
teaching 2nd graders about toucans flying, frogs jumping and hippos swimming!