June 28, day six ....?
Wow I´ve been here for almost a full week. Well, no that´s not true, 5 days actually becuase the 22 was nothing but travles. I didn´t technically get to Ecuador till the 23. Anyway, that´s bseide the point. Life is settling in rather more quickly than one might expect it to in an entirely new and different culture. I would attribute this largely to living with North Americans who I get along with well and also to the large amount of leisure we have had in these last few days. Bethany was right, the weekends are the busiest, full of kids clubs and youth groups, church services and soccer matches. Since the school week has started we have just been working there in the mornings and then have had completely free days and evenings. School here lets out at 12:40 and until today I wasn´t even there that long.
Tuesday was my first day teaching English in the primero clase (kindergarten) which is really more of a joint effort between Bethany and I at this point. I am more grateful for her being there with me than I can express. Then today I started out assisting the english teacher in the 4th, 6th, and 7th grade classes. Actually they´re really 3rd, 5th, and 6th since our kindergarten is first grade but that is of secondary impotance (did you see what I did there? secondary...). The kids are darling - though a little... how shall I put this? unruly at times. Quaterno is more than a LITTLE unruly, but it has some real sweeties in it too. Somehow the worst classes always seem to have the sweetest kids - or so my extended experience in teaching tells me.
For instance, the quaterno class today (4th grade) was totally crazy, all up out of there seats, all yelling my name at once wantnig me to check their work... but also several of the girls presented me with regalos - pictures they had drawn, it was very sweet. And even more one little boy started crying for some reason, I don´t know why, but he had buried his head in his arms in his desk and wouldn´t look up. I sat and patted his back for a while and when I finally got him to look at me I held out my arms for a hug and he just got up and plopped himself right down on my lap and proceeded to continue his silent tears nestled into my shoulder. This tender moment was slightly hindered, but really mostly enhanced once I saw their genuine interest, by many of his class mates coming over to see what was wrong and see if they could help. The two students who sat nearest the crying boy fended off the other students as best they could so that he wouldn´t be embarrased. It was all so very sweet.
Other than school Bethany and I are keeping ourselves relatively entertained. I think we like it at least, though I´m not sure everyone would. We´ve finsihed a couple books each already since I got here. We passed several hours in the last couple days reading The Magician´s Newfew from the Narnia Chronicles outloud to each other - my family may remeber my constant desire to have someone to read Narnia out loud with (yes, I know... Mamma Pam and all that) and now I have found that someone! And how grand it is. Today we read it to each other for over 4 hours I think because we were waiting for our beans to cook - today´s great experiement - which is taking far longer than we were expecting. Yesterday´s experiement was scones, and being that we were using a gas stove with no specific temperatures on it and being that we improvised a good part of the recipie out of our own heads, I´d say they turned out quite well! I was proud of us at least. Yesterdays adventures also included a trip to the mall - with some computer difficulties I won´t discuss here for poor Bethany´s sake, and a sucessful purchase of a pillow - we´d been switching off using one prior to that. The mall is nicer than any I´ve seen in the states with a huge television playing the france vs. italy game and free internet... sort of... I mean the free part is true, the internet part is the sort of... Things are expensive there in comparison to the slums but still quite cheap in comparison to the states. I think that might be a difficult re-adjustment for me when I get back, the cost of living here is very low comparitively.
And now my adoring fans (ha) I must leave you once again to your own pursuits because the beans might be done by now (Bethany´s at home watching their progress) and I promised to buy eggs and milk from the corner store. Wish me luck!
Tuesday was my first day teaching English in the primero clase (kindergarten) which is really more of a joint effort between Bethany and I at this point. I am more grateful for her being there with me than I can express. Then today I started out assisting the english teacher in the 4th, 6th, and 7th grade classes. Actually they´re really 3rd, 5th, and 6th since our kindergarten is first grade but that is of secondary impotance (did you see what I did there? secondary...). The kids are darling - though a little... how shall I put this? unruly at times. Quaterno is more than a LITTLE unruly, but it has some real sweeties in it too. Somehow the worst classes always seem to have the sweetest kids - or so my extended experience in teaching tells me.
For instance, the quaterno class today (4th grade) was totally crazy, all up out of there seats, all yelling my name at once wantnig me to check their work... but also several of the girls presented me with regalos - pictures they had drawn, it was very sweet. And even more one little boy started crying for some reason, I don´t know why, but he had buried his head in his arms in his desk and wouldn´t look up. I sat and patted his back for a while and when I finally got him to look at me I held out my arms for a hug and he just got up and plopped himself right down on my lap and proceeded to continue his silent tears nestled into my shoulder. This tender moment was slightly hindered, but really mostly enhanced once I saw their genuine interest, by many of his class mates coming over to see what was wrong and see if they could help. The two students who sat nearest the crying boy fended off the other students as best they could so that he wouldn´t be embarrased. It was all so very sweet.
Other than school Bethany and I are keeping ourselves relatively entertained. I think we like it at least, though I´m not sure everyone would. We´ve finsihed a couple books each already since I got here. We passed several hours in the last couple days reading The Magician´s Newfew from the Narnia Chronicles outloud to each other - my family may remeber my constant desire to have someone to read Narnia out loud with (yes, I know... Mamma Pam and all that) and now I have found that someone! And how grand it is. Today we read it to each other for over 4 hours I think because we were waiting for our beans to cook - today´s great experiement - which is taking far longer than we were expecting. Yesterday´s experiement was scones, and being that we were using a gas stove with no specific temperatures on it and being that we improvised a good part of the recipie out of our own heads, I´d say they turned out quite well! I was proud of us at least. Yesterdays adventures also included a trip to the mall - with some computer difficulties I won´t discuss here for poor Bethany´s sake, and a sucessful purchase of a pillow - we´d been switching off using one prior to that. The mall is nicer than any I´ve seen in the states with a huge television playing the france vs. italy game and free internet... sort of... I mean the free part is true, the internet part is the sort of... Things are expensive there in comparison to the slums but still quite cheap in comparison to the states. I think that might be a difficult re-adjustment for me when I get back, the cost of living here is very low comparitively.
And now my adoring fans (ha) I must leave you once again to your own pursuits because the beans might be done by now (Bethany´s at home watching their progress) and I promised to buy eggs and milk from the corner store. Wish me luck!
posted by Pamela Joy at 4:10 PM
3 Comments:
Awe, that is such a beautiful picture of you and that small child. So precious. Oh kids hey, never a dull moment with them!! I seriously can't believe you were swapping pillows, a pillow is essential for my comfort and sleep!! MMM i LOVE how you spend your time and adore reading! which books have you read?!
anyways i'm praying for you my dearest! I leave for mexico (TJ to build)tomorrow so this will be my last commment for a couple of weeks!! Love you lots!
Pamela,
I LOVE that I get to read about your adventures in your blog. And of course, I LOVE you. I am glad you have some free time. You have a lot of intense changes to deal with! What an adventure!
Dad
hello dear sister: I just wanted to say, you do know that you should soak the beans overnight in the future, right? Actually, i believe it goes, sort (take out any funny looking ones or stones), rinse, soak overnight, and then boil for possibly as much as an hour - but actually I think its a lot less. They're good with some tomatoes and onions cooked together with them, or even better with coconut 'milk' and onions, but that's harder. But maybe Bethany knows all this and you guys just forgot to soak them.
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