This month, my team and I are doing something new:
Teaching!
No wait, that’s not new…but the students are new, and we love all of them; even the small children who don’t behave.
So yeah that’s different. Instead of teaching English to young adults, we are teaching all subjects (mostly English) to small children in a legit elementary school. And this means that there are actual teachers in the classroom! So really I am more like a teacher’s assistant this month. I’ve been given the task of assisting in a classroom full of 5 year olds who speak pretty impressive English considering it’s not their first language. I know what you’re thinking…
Cute! Fun! Exciting! How rewarding!
yes. all true. but also…
Loud! Messy! Chaotic! And Oh my gosh why don’t you listen?! I know you understand the English words that are coming out of my mouth!
It’s true though; the English these children know is pretty impressive. We have a handful of students from Malaysia, but most of our students are from Iraq and Nigeria. Their parents moved here to either teach or study at the nearby University. So not only are these children in a foreign country with a new language to learn, but they are also learning English on the side. It’s more than I was doing at 5 years of age that’s for sure.
We aren’t able to tell anyone about Jesus because it is illegal to convert from the Muslim faith here- as in you could be put to death (the people who convert, not me). However, it’s still been wonderful to love and pray for everyone at the school.
It’s been sweet:
My class has snack time every day, and I almost never bring a snack- mostly because I’m just not hungry at that point. Last week during snack time, one of my most disruptive students, Esma, walked over to my desk with a handful of chips. She presented them to me, “Here you go.” I smiled and shook my head, “No, no it’s okay.” She just looked at me matter-of-factly and shook her head, “But you do not have any food.” She then placed the snack on my desk and walked off. “Oh, well when you put it that way…” ha. It was so simple, so heartfelt, and so a lesson we can all learn from her. Since then, sharing snacks with Teacher Rachael has become a daily activity that all my students enjoy participating in…I enjoy participating in it too.
It’s been violent:
One of my students- I will not name names- smashed another one of my student’s face in with a toy. I heard, “Smash, smash, smash!” before I could do anything. It was a fight just to get her to apologize to the little girl she had hit. This same student likes to leave the class randomly, climb the bookshelf to the top to get soap, and basically just not listen to instructions. This same student also loves to dance, speaks beautiful English, and told me she loves me the other day- I was shocked because I feel like we are in a constant battle of do’s and don’ts. I love her too, but we are still working on things.
It’s been frustrating:
I get to teach English lessons every once in a while. One day last week i wrote on the white board the letter “b” and asked, “Who can tell me what letter this is?” Maya, who speaks the best English in the entire class, immediately shouted, “7!” Okay Maya, okay…
It’s been great making a new friend:
I work in Teacher Ina’s (sp?) classroom. She is wonderful! Any chance we get, we are talking. We talk about our families, friends, childhoods, beliefs, hopes, and even our education (more exciting than it sounds). She is absolutely incredible, and I always look forward to seeing her in the classroom.
Well, that’s about it on teaching for now. Here’s a quick little update on other things though.
Just An Interesting Update:
We are in a small town called Changlun. There are only about 3,000 people who live here (my high school wasn’t much smaller than this town).
It may be hard to believe, but I’m pretty sure that all 3,000 citizens know that the white girls are in town. This is not a tourist town, and we feel like we are back in India as we walk down the street with everyone we pass staring shamelessly with wide eyes and open mouths.
I kind of feel like I’m in a parade when we walk down the road in single file. We are just such a spectacle…I wish I had candy to hand out. That would be fun.
Being a spectacle without even trying can be a bit unfortunate here though. Basically, this is a very conservative part of the country, and not everyone is happy that we are here. Some restaurants will not serve us, and a couple of years ago they had to stop sending teams here because it was upsetting some of the community (even though we do not openly tell people we are here for Jesus, they pretty much know). We just have to be sensitive to the culture and the people; which is what we try to do everywhere anyway, so no big deal.
Other than that, I’m being challenged by God, but it isn’t stressing me out or making me anxious like it was before. It’s like He’s taking me back to the basics. I still have tons of questions. I’m still not sure I know what it is to depend on God- at least not in the way I want to know. I’m still looking at God as He looks at me asking me to surrender. It’s all good though, and I’m enjoying it I think. Anyway, that all is a blog in and of itself.
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day!
