Monday, February 13th – That’s the day we were to begin our ministry here in Ecuador, helping out at T.W. Anderson school. It’s a Christian school, started by missionaries 70 years ago, where they teach Kindergartners through 12th graders in both Spanish and English.
6:40 a.m. – That’s the time we were told the school bus would pick up up to take us to the school.
6:20 a.m. – That’s when we were supposed to eat breakfast.
6:35 a.m. – That’s when we were actually served breakfast.
6:50 a.m. – That’s when we actually made it to the corner to meet the bus. And there was no bus.
Yes, we were 10 minutes late, so we probably missed the bus. But then again, this is South America, so maybe the bus was late too? We might as well wait and see. . .
That’s what we did. My team of 6 girls stood on that street corner, in the rain no less (good thing we all had rain jackets!) for 40 minutes. No bus came. Finally we walked back to the house where we are staying for the month and asked our hosts what to do. They said they would drive us to the school at 9:30. Excellent! We’d be a few hours late, but at least we’d make it to our first day of ministry!
10:20 a.m. – We made it to the school! Upon arriving, we found out that the bus driver hadn’t actually known he was supposed to pick us up that morning. So we hadn’t missed the bus after all, it just never came! That made us feel a bit better about how the morning had gone.
(I actually had really enjoyed those extra couple of hours, as it gave me time to do some extra Bible reading and praying, which left me feeling more prepared to do ministry that day than I had at 6:30 that morning.)
11:00 a.m. After a tour of the school we began our ministry day!
So, what is my team’s ministry this month? What are we doing at T.W. Anderson School? Well, all sorts of things. The first thing we were asked when we arrived what what each team member had a college degree in. The school administration wanted to know this to get an idea of how each person could best help out at the school this month. Through these thing we will be sharing the love of Christ with the staff and students.
One of my teammates was studying dance before she decided to do the World Race, so she will be choreographing the end of the year recital for the school. When she’s not doing that she’s been asked to teach dance during P.E. classes.
One teammate is a personal trainer at home so she also gets to teach P.E. classes.
One teammate has a degree in social work and knows quite a bit of Spanish, so her job for the month is tutoring some highschoolers who need help with their English.
One teammate has a degree in marketing so she is re-doing the school website and teaching some marketing classes for the highschoolers.
Another teammate and myself both started degrees in Elementary Education, but never finished them. The principal decided that this qualified us to teach English to the elementary kids. One of us would be assigned to teaching English lessons to the upper elementary kids and the other would spend every day helping the kindergarten teacher and teaching basic English phrases and grammar to the kindergartners. As soon as we heard that my teammate said,
“Alyssa needs to be the one in the kindergarten classroom, she’ll be great in there!”
So, that’s where I am for the month! I’m the kindergarten teacher’s assistant, and I love it!
The first day I just did whatever the kindergarten teacher asked me to do. It’s hard work teaching 21 5&6 year-olds for 7 hours everyday so I was glad I could be a blessing to her in this way.
Then day two began. . .
Tuesday, February 14th – Valentine’s Day and our second day of ministry at T.W. Anderson
6:20 a.m. – We eat breakfast!
6:40 a.m. – We are at the corner waiting for the bus!
7:00 a.m. – The school bus arrives (yes, it was late) and we hop on!
8:00 a.m. – I’m in the kindergarten classroom. The teacher and I wish each other a Happy Valentine’s Day and she gives me a piece of chocolate from the stash her husband gave her that morning. She says she’d like to make valentines to give to the kids and I offer to help. So that’s what I do for the morning. While the teacher teaches I sit in the back of the class cutting out 21 foam hearts, foam T’s, foam Q’s and foam M’s. Then I glue them all together, making 21 valentines that say “TQM”. (that stands for “Te Quiero Mucho”, which means “I love you lots” in Spanish.)
1:30 – Lunch is over and the valentines for the kids are done so the teacher asks me to do and English lesson with the kids. I was thinking she meant for about 20 minutes, so I said “sure!”
I really should have asked her how long she wanted the lesson to be, because it turns out she expected me to teach for an hour! So after we finished my planned lesson – singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and going over the names of the body parts English, and playing “Simon Says” – some improvisation was required. We talked about the names of fruits and vegetables in English. We went over the colors. We went over numbers. I lost the attention of half the class. We talked about the colors of each fruit and vegetable. I tried to think of something else to do. We talked about the names of things in the classroom. I was wondering what else we could possibly go over. Eventually the lesson ended. I went home that day knowing I needed more of a plan for the rest of the month.
One thing I learned during that long English lesson was, while the kids know quite a few English words, they know almost none of the alphabet in English. So I decided that that is what I will teach them this month. I got a stack of white paper from the school office and that evening I started making worksheets, one for each letter. The next time the teacher asked me to do an English lesson with the kids I was prepared.
I made 21 copies of the “A” “B” “C” worksheets. I passed out the “A” worksheets and talked with the kids about the sounds the letter “A” makes and what words start with “A”. The worksheet kept the kids’ attention for 30 minutes, and they seemed to enjoy it!
So, that’s what I’m doing this month, waking up early, riding the school bus to school, then helping out in the kindergarten classroom and teaching the alphabet. I love it, and I pray that God will continue to show me how I can be a blessing to those I am working with this month.
On another note, just wanted to let you know that I am now FULLY FUNDED!! Thank you so, so much to everyone who donated so that I am able do the World Race! I am so happy God has given me the opportunity to do this!
