9/4/10 - Today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I did get to talk to him and enjoyed that. Saturday was the second to the last day that Suzanna and Sol were living in the cabin. We cleaned house, went to the river and cooked a nice supper for the going away get-together for our two friends. We made everything from scratch, like we have to do if we want anything different. The two year old and I made homemade cinnamon rolls for desert. The only problem was that the yeast was old so they didn’t rise hardly at all, however, they still tasted great. For supper we had lasagna made from a special family recipe, salad with handmade dressing, cinnamon rolls and ice-cream. It was all very good and the evening went great. Roberto and the rest of the kids pulled in around 7pm and they had a great evening as well. We visited and talked, then retired for the night.
Sunday morning Suzanna’s son came to pick them up. We help load up the truck and said our farewells. The kids were sad that they were losing a play mate, but Sol made up for it by getting the kids a dog. It was nice having people in the cabin along with me, but at the same time it was nice when they left also. I could now change, reorganize and make the cabin my own. When Jean and Joyce come I’ll have to start all over, but it will be nice to have people to help fill the time in the evenings. Although I’m sure I’ll miss the freedom that the solo life has offered; like eating whatever I feel like eating, only cleaning as needed and the overall simplicity that I have because I know how to make it. There is a certain hidden reliance and peace that comes with living in semi-solitude. In a three room cabin you find out about what makes you tick and how even in the little things, you have somehow been prepared to do whatever it is you have to do.
After Suzanna and Sol left, everything was about getting ready for school. We had to make lesson plans, make sure we had all of the material - everything. While we had been doing this before, there was a new sense of urgency knowing that school was now only a week away. We had to get over 6,000 copies made for us in Misahualli.
On Monday night the new fridge arrived. The next day we cleaned out the old one and carried it to my cabin. It was nice to have, but I didn’t have anything to put in it for several days. That week we sold our cacao beans (we ended up having 100lbs of good beans), went to Tena and stocked up on food for the week and I met the two boys: Nico and Inti, who are also going to be participating in the older kids program for school. The boys will live with us on the weekdays and then on the two days we don’t have school, they will be with their family. On the food side of things, I found that I didn’t buy enough fruit, bell peppers and milk. The milk is really creamy tasting, it is whole milk but it tastes like it should be whole+++ milk. It’s really good and if I keep drinking it at the rate I did, I will need about 4 or 5 liters for the week, just for drinking. For the Genki English program that I’m teaching I had to do some mock classes to make sure I understand what it was about and how to do everything. The first one I did on Wednesday didn’t go as great as hoped, but Charmai did one on Thursday for me to watch, then on Friday I had to do one on my own. The Friday class went a lot better and we felt that I had a grasp on what I was to be doing.
9/12, HAPPY GRANDPARENT'S DAY! I called/left messages my grandparent & great grandmother today. It was nice to talk to them for a few minutes. Sunday we had a church service at the house, the kids’ lesson was on… something, it was hard for me to figure out since it was all in Spanish, but it had something to do with the Apostle Paul, or that’s what I gathered. For the Adults, we read 1 Samuel, chapter 1. Then after we had read it, we discussed it and tried to find out who it applies to daily life. This is how most every Sunday morning will be. That night/evening I worked on building a goal (for handball and soccer) for my PE classes. While I was doing that, my mom called and told me that Zack had harvested an elk on his muzzle loader hunt in Colorado. During the call, Zack was able to get cell service again and I was able to talk to him for about 10 minutes. He was very excited and he said that he was having a great time.
Monday morning came early, very early. We have breakfast at 7:00am, so I try to get up by 6-6:30am. The first day of school went pretty good, but it wasn’t 100% smooth just for the fact that that it was brand new for everyone. We started later then we were supposed to, but at the end of the day we were on time. So I’m not sure what class we cut short. PE was my first class that I taught alone; I was going to be teaching them Team Handball. Since we have a lot of trees, we don’t have a very large area for playing, this makes us only about half of the needed length and 2/3 of the width. This made things more difficult to show and to play since we’re limited on our running space. We put our best foot forward and hopefully we can get the kids to catch on soon. After PE, I have a twenty minute break before I go see the younger kids to do Genki English. We have six kids in this class and they speak absolutely no English. So it feels a lot like a Blue’s Clues episode, a lot of hand motions, a lot of energy and a ton of silliness on my part. It does seem however that it is working, so all the immaturity is going to pay off. After Genki English, we have Center Time. This is the last part the school day for the younger kids on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Center Time is really just play time, but concentrated. We have four areas: cars/buildings/castle, house, drama and library. We do two areas a day, dividing the time between the two. During this time I play with the kids and make sure that they stay in the area. I have picked up most of my Spanish from this time, however limited that is. The first Center Time class was work for the first half, but then I stopped trying so hard and just let the kids play and it went a lot better. After school was over we sat down for our regular late lunch and sitting felt so good.
Tuesday, was a lot simpler for me; all I am in charge of is Computer/Study, the boy’s grammar and the video at the end of the day. I still help with math in the mornings, and then I’ll fire up the computers and get ready to help the girls with homework and reading while the other two work on their typing. After thirty minutes of this, the girls switch places. When the boys are done with Spanish Class, they come to Computer and the girls do Spanish. After recess, everyone has Grammar class. Three of the boys go with me and work on their lesson pages. After that, everyone go to the living room to watch a Life movie, which is put on by the BBC. Tuesday was a lot slower pace than Monday, but I was still glad to sit down for lunch. That evening, I found some more soccer balls that could be aired up to help with PE the next day. After I had prepared for the next day, I went to the main house to make sure that I had everything ready for the next day. When I got back to my cabin, I gave myself a haircut, I hadn’t had one in about two months and I was tired of messing with it. I was pleased with how it turned out, but after I had finished I remembered that we didn’t have any running water. So I had to walk down to the river about 9:30pm to take a bath (remember, it is dark around 6ish). About half-way there my flashlight quit working, and had to finish the trek in the dark. Surprisingly, I didn’t run into too many trees or fall down. When I arrived down to the river and finished washing off, I found that the bulb in the flashlight had just fallen out of place, after a couple of minutes I was able to fix and walked home in artificial light.
The next morning was the first time anyone had seen my new haircut, and they saw it with mixed reviews. All the kids thought it was too short and I was told that I looked like I just left basic training. However, it’s nice to feel air passing though my hair again and its longer then I used to have it cut. I might keep it this way for a while or I might let it grow out, I’m not sure as of yet but I have time to think about it. That day of school went a lot smoother since we already had an idea of what we were going. However, it poured during PE so we had to do it inside. Since we could not play handball in the living room, we had to do other things, such as jump rope, sit ups, crab races and things of that nature. Genki went well, and Center Time was a lot of fun. The kids seemed to enjoy it, and we didn’t really have any problems with it. I was able to talk to my mom that night for about 2 hours, but we didn’t get off the phone till after 1AM, even though I was really tired for the next day, it was good talking with her.
Thursday morning came way too early, but duty called and I had to answer by getting out of bed, drinking some coffee and going to help make breakfast. Luckily for me, it was a Thursday and therefore, a bit easier. The day went off without a hitch and I was able to talk to Tess Clancy and my Mom again that afternoon as Tess was driving with Mom. We had a teacher meeting that day as well, all went good and I found out the we were going to be having another teacher who was going t be helping us for two weeks while she tried to learn better Spanish in Misahualli. We went to the river for a couple of hours and went home and watched a movie.
Friday ended out our school week, in History we had a mock archeological dig in our dirt pile and tried to see what we could tell about ourselves from what we had dug up. On Fridays instead of PE, we do a project around the grounds. We had commissioned a pull-up bar be made a couple days before, so we dug the holes, leveled the bar and then poured the concrete. The kids were excited to have it put up and couldn’t wait till it had cured. I was really glad that we were done with the song that we were doing in Genki English, because I was starting to run out of ideas for that particular song. We watched, "The Lion King" that night while the parents went on their date night. My Dad called me, telling me about their hunting trip and how everything went, sounded like they had a lot of fun. I hadn’t talked to him in a while so that was nice. I was able to get on the internet that night and found out that Skype worked, however ineffectively, it did work. It was nice to see the family. I wasn’t feeling very good that night and slept late into the next morning. I still felt sick when I woke up: felt like I had a fever, achy and with a sore throat. The kids wanted to go to the river so I went with them. The cool water made me feel better but by the time that I got back to the cabin I just wanted to sleep the day away. I was invited to eat dinner with everyone that night, the kids saw that I wasn’t feeling good so they brought me some ibuprofen and played cards with me till supper was ready. I found out that two other people were feeling bad as well. Roberto, barbequed and we had homemade rolls. We also had Oreo ice-cream and watched, "Bride and Prejudice ", an Indian modern spoof on the book. It was pretty good, but it started to rain heavily halfway through the movie so it was hard to hear what was going on. After the movie was over, I felt a lot better, as did everyone else who was sick. It seems that it was just a 24 hour bug. I slept heavily that night and woke up refreshed in the morning.
Sunday morning was low key around the cabin, I mainly just swept and mopped, washed dishes from the day before since I wasn’t up to it prior, fixed an over tightened sink pipe which was leaking and washed clothes. Bible study was on 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Had a great time visiting and learning with Roberto and Charmai. The day was warm even though it was cloudy and mostly dark. Made lesson plans for the upcoming week and spent the remainder of the day resting.
GOD is still doing amazing things here. I appreciate your prayers and updates that I get through email or facebook. I am still having to borrow "internet" from Roberto and hope to be able to get my own soon. It is hard to reply and usually have to write everything then copy/paste it quickly before service is gone. I even send things but never see it in my outbox as that it made it. Please pray for continued health and safety. Teaching is fun and very enjoyable but it is still different that what I am used to doing since it is all "planned out" prior and more scheduled. I was used to teaching then free time. Pray that I will make an impact on these kids lives, that not only will they learn "academically" but grow spiritually as well. That I will be a light to them and they will shine even more as they grow closer to GOD and that we will all make a difference in other's lives because of HIM.
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