Some Highlights

More updates from the past 2 weeks:

Coming back to school after vacation was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I actually missed my kids a lot over the break, and the week off gave my patience a chance to come back, and has given me just a more relaxed attitude overall. Highlights from the last 2 weeks:

1. Last Friday after the 7th/8th grade English club I got to teach my 8th grade girls the dance to "Soldier Boy". They were so thrilled. And it was so fun.

2. This isn't necessarily a good highlight, but last week in the middle of the week my 8th grade girls were hanging out with me during a Recreo, and started talking about how much they're going to miss me when I leave. I told them it's not even halfway through my time here yet, so they'd better not be thinking about that anytime soon. But, it still made me sad.

3. This week I got to be a tutor! The girl who lives across the street from me is in Tercero Medio (11th grade) She's a GREAT English student but had a quiz and so i helped her prepare. It was pretty awesome to work with someone who both is: a. proficient in English and b. really wants to learn more. We also might hang out sometime soon, which would be awesome.

3. Last night I performed in public for the first time in my life. About a month ago an English professor from the University here in the city came to one of our English teacher meetings and asked if anyone could prepare something for this Open Mic/Talent show they were having. I said I would, but honestly COMPLETELY forgot until Donte called me yesterday to see if I was still going. I had no plans, and decided, why not? So i took my Martin with me, and on a stage by myself performed "Someday you'll see" (one of my songs), and Bethany Dillon's "All I Need". It was a ton of fun, and I think went pretty well too. The other performers were all English students, and performances ranged from slow gospel songs to Simple Plan, to Black Sabbath. One group of students actually performed the popular dance/drama to the Lifehouse song "Everything", which was absolutely amazing, and made me so very happy.

4. Today I got to go help pick up trash with a group of young adults on Cerro de la Cruz at sunset. They do it every few weeks, and last week I met the guy who organizes it, so he gave me a call today. Terryl came too, and it was a ton of fun, both meeting some new people, climbing Cerro de la Cruz (getting to see the city from the top at NIGHT was incredible), and helping out the community.

I feel like I'm missing a lot of highlights, but that's all I can think of right now. Oh yeah, the English Olympics started in my classes this week...each class is a country in which the people speak mostly English, and the teams compete until mid-november. They earn points by: 1. Bringing in English things for the walls (which ALSO helps me decorate!), 2. Bringing in things to read in English, 3. Reciting something in English or having a conversation with me. There are only 2 rules in the competition. 1 is that it is in English. And 2 is that it is about their country. So far most of the kids seek really into it, so hopefully this will help stimulate their learning outside of class a bit.

Prayers for continued patience, energy, and enthusiasm would be very much appreciated. Also, I might start helping out with some workshops with the English University students, which would be very awesome, and so I really hope it can work out. Thanks to everyone for your continued love and support - please keep in touch!!!

~Steph~