Whirlwind of adventures

I can hardly remember when/what I last wrote even though I read my own blog right before making a new post. I think the confusion comes in when I talk to someone from the states and they say, "What did you do today?" and it is only 9am for me. Haha!

The other night I had my first meal that was almost unpalatable for me: baby shrimp with the heads and scales still on and rice (of course!). I tried to eat it like the others- just put the whole thing in your mouth and chew, but when I did, the little saw-like projectile on the top of the head poked my tongue! I then took my fork and spoon (we never eat with knives) and pulled off the head before placing the scaly tail in my mouth with a spoonful of rice. By the end of the meal, I had all these baby shrimp heads staring at my from my plate!

Yesterday, I observed a lot of the classes. I am finding that there is a HUGE need for classroom management training here. I think in every class I have been in, the teacher allows students to call out, interrupt and not pay attention. If you know my teaching style, you know that this is my number one pet peeve. I can't wait to teach them how to have control!

I also taught Valentina (Tina) her first conversational English lesson. She learned how to accurately say, "My name is Valentina, Her name is..., His name is...., Nice to meet you, I am a student, You are my teacher." The goal of the lesson was to get practice changing the verb tense of "to be." She did quite well. I look forward to working with her again.

After my observations yesterday, I shared/preached/talked to the high school Bible study group. I first showed up for the elementary kids, though. The high school leader had to hunt me down. I felt so bad because the elementary kids had a speaker already and here I was saying, "I'm the speaker today!" Oops!

But I finally got to the right place. God showed up! I shared the SHORT version of Mike Bickle's Power of a Focused Life. I told them the reason they were created, their purpose in life, is to have a relationship with Him. We went through the seven areas to have goals and then took time to have God speak to us about the goals He wants us to have spiritually. It was so good! :-)

After dinner (which we eat around 5:30pm here), Ate Judith (one of my roommates), Ate Roselle and I went to SM, the Super Mall. We rode in a jeepnee and they made me pay- I had to learn Tagalog and say it right there on the spot! At SM, they have a grocery store inside the mall. It's so weird to me! I bought toiletry items and a few groceries- like my own coffee. Everything is so cheap if you think in dollars! But if you think in pesos, it's not quite so cheap.

On the way home, I fell asleep. It was only around 8:30pm!

Yesterday, we got a new roommate, so now there are four of us: Nancy, Judith, Jing (she's really just visiting for 3 weeks from Singapore), and me. I love Nancy and Judith! I don't know Jing really yet, but I am sure I love her too! :-)

The cook here always gives us too much rice and tells us we have to eat it all. Nancy and I now have a joke that when there are leftovers, we look for dog to give it too. "There's so much rice! Where's a dog?!" :-)

Today, we had an emergency prayer meeting for one of the kids from here. His name is James. He is in the hospital with UTI and a high fever that has led to seizures. Please keep him in your prayers. For that matter, keep all the children in your prayers because many of them have been having diarrhea, and night terrors. (I'm fine and healthy, though!)

I finally got to have contact with my mom! She emailed me yesterday! :-) Then, today, I was talking to my dad on Skype and he called her from his cell phone. He put the cell on speaker, put it next to the computer and she and I were able to talk!!! :-) (She is at our other house in Mineola, 2 hours away.) It was SOOOO GOOOD to talk to her!

I also got to talk to Michelle, Jeremy, and Paige today on a conference call. That was hysterical. And before that, one of my students from last year called me on Skype. :-) It was a fun morning, but I got nothing done! Haha!

For the rest of today, I will take a nap, tutor a kid in math, spend time with Jesus, and work on the training seminars I will present on July 23rd.

For my teacher friends: To put my job description into Keller terms, I am the ESL teacher, Instructional Coach, and IST rolled into one.

By the way, I LOVE getting emails and comments!

PS I also share my "apartment" with birds, mosquitoes, spiders, cockroaches, and chirping lizards.