6 + 6 = 12

Six weeks down and six weeks to go!
I am officially halfway through my time in Ecuador which is pretty unbelievable!

I am into our 5th week of school here at Alliance and the rhythm of day to day life is becoming routine and I am figuring everything out more and more.  Currently I am teaching Bible, Grammar, Writing, Handwriting, Math, Social Studies, and Science.  I am loving my classroom and all of my students.  It is great to continue to get to know them in an academic setting and as individual children.  Figuring out classroom management for the class as a whole as well as for individual students is always a challenge but is becoming more natural.  Combining that with a classroom full of English Language Learners and every day has its own unique vibe to it!

My daily schedule during the week typically looks like:
6:15 am - wake up (and hopefully the showers are working... 50/50 chance)
7:00 am - breakfast with the dorm
7:30 am - arrive to my classroom and take a deep breath before the day begins
7:40 am - students begin arriving and doing seat work (somewhat) independently
8:00 am - school officially begins and all students have arrived
teach, teach, teach
12:00 pm - lunch break (twice a week I have lunch duty for the elementary kids)
1:00 pm - back to the classroom
teach, teach, teach
3:15 pm - dismissal begins
3:30 pm - all students are dismissed or go wait in the atrium for their parents
4:00 pm - leave school and head back to the dorm to lesson plan until dinner (at 6pm)

With getting up early and going all day long, I usually hit the hay about 10 pm for some much needed sleep!

Beginning next week, I am full time teaching all day for three weeks.  It will continue to get busier but I am excited to take on the challenge.

Some highlights (and some low-lights) over the last few weeks of my life in Ecuador:
* one friday afternoon about 2 and a half weeks ago, my phone was stolen while I was at the local grocery store :( not a good experience at all... very stressful, emotional, and kind of made me feel like I was really alone here in this foreign country

* faculty/staff and family retreat for the day at Calacali (rural land owned by the school) - full of good conversation, people, and delicious food!

* visit from my professor, Dr. Egeland, from Wheaton College - he was here for 2 days and did some observations of my teaching and touring the school

* went to the Ecuadorian symphony (for free!) with some other teachers from the school

* Open House Saturday where all the parents and students came to school on a Saturday (kind of like back-to-school night)

* going to Mercado Artesenal, a local market, to buy more souvenirs

* Quito Bus Tour - a 4 hour tour of the city!  We stopped at La Basilica (a Gothic-style church) and climbed to the top of the church!

* attending La Fuente weekly - a great Spanish church where I am practicing my Spanish and learning a lot!


My apologies for the somewhat longer post but thanks for sticking through and reading it!
Hitting the halfway point in my time here is a very odd feeling!  Loving the people and places here but also missing all my wonderful family and friends back home.
I am so thankful for each one of you and your constant communication, encouragement, and support while I am here!

A few pictures for you:

Chao!!

The Clock

Time.  

At times it stands still, like a clock barely ticking as you hear each little tick... tock... of your watch.

At these moments I urge time to go faster, to get to the next moment, or day, or month.

Time.

At times it whizzes by like a flash before your eyes and the turning pages of a calendar.

At these moments I plead for time to slow down, to be able to take a breath and be present.

How does this constant thing that we call time seemingly go at different rates throughout our lives?

How can time both feel sluggish and speedy in the same moment?

By the constant measure of time I have been in Ecuador for 

5 weeks now... 

=35 days... 

=840 hours... 

=50,400 minutes... 

=3,024,000 seconds...

I feel as if yesterday I was walking off the plane into a whole new world full of mixed emotions.

Yet, at the same instant, I feel as if this is my new world and I have been here forever.

I know that my 7 remaining weeks here are going to both fly by faster than I can imagine and seem like an eternity.  

So in this moment, I take a breath.

Learning how to hold both my joy in my present place and my longings to be home is difficult.

My deep desire is to hold to both tightly but I know I must learn the appropriate grip to have on both.

It is in these moments that I know the one constant, far greater than our confines of time.

My Creator, my Father, my source of strength, identity, love.

It is He who I can cling to tighter than my present situations and tighter than my desires to be with friends, family, and the familiar.

It is He whom I desire to sit with in these moments outside of time.

I urge you to pause too.  

Take a breath. 

Sit in this moment with your Maker.  

Take in your surroundings.  

See His creation for you and give thanks.

Whether today you feel pulled in a million directions or you feel you have ample time to spare, soak this moment up.

~ Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;

     my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy  myself with things

     too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

     like a weaned child with its mother;

     like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord

     from this time forth and forevermore.

Veintiún Caras (Twenty-One Faces)

My day to day life has changed drastically since I last blogged!

As opposed to having twenty-one names (and books and desks and notebooks and pencils and crayons) before me, I now have twenty-one precious faces before me everyday.  Twenty-one children with whom I get the privilege to learn as I teach them.  As school began last Tuesday, September 3rd, we are already in the second week of school!  It is wonderful to put faces to the names that I have been reading, writing, and memorizing for the past few weeks.

Here's a glimpse of my students: 21 students
~ 15 EL (or ESL) students = English Learners (or English as a Second Language)

~ 15 Ecuadorian students
~ 3 Americans
~ 2 Korean students
~ 1 Chinese student

All of my students (except for two from the US) are fluent in Spanish and at times try to use Spanish in our classroom.  However, due to the structure of the school, the students are only allowed to speak Spanish during Spanish class (which they have daily) and they must speak English in the homeroom classroom and all Specials classes (Music, Art, P.E., Computers, Library).  The school has an Immersion style of teaching which forces the students to practice and use their English often to increase fluency.  Teaching a majority EL class poses its challenges yet is also teaching me so much about accommodations and language support for my students (and their families too).

Last week was mostly observations for me but this week I began teaching Bible everyday.  In the coming weeks I will continue to add one subject each week until I am full-time teaching for four weeks.  I am very excited about my remaining time here but know that it will include endless hours of lesson planning, countless cups of coffee, and bountiful amounts of joy (which makes it all worth it)!

A few verses that have been encouraging to me during my time here:
(Thanks to those of you who shared these with me before I left!)

Ephesians 3:16-19
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses all knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

These verses from Ephesians are not only my prayer for myself, but also for my students.  While I can teach them to read and write, to add and subtract, and to explore awesome science experiments, my deep desire is that they would be "rooted and established in love" and be able to "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" for them.  If I walk away from this experience and at least one student knows they are truly and unconditionally loved by their Maker, my heart will be pleased.

1 Corinthians 15:58
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

At the present time, my "work of the Lord" is in the classroom, impacting these students' lives.  If I do this faithfully everyday, my labor is not in vain.  However, as I have quickly learned after only 5 days of school, I must stand firm not on my own abilities, but instead I must stand firm by resting in Christ's strength.

As always, I ask, and thank you, for your prayers during my time here.  Prayers for strength, peace, and perseverance in planning and teaching, as well as safety and health are continual requests for me.
I would also love to lift you up in prayer as you are doing so for me.  Please let me know specifics of how I can be praying for you!

So much love!

Ecua-Kiss

I have officially survived two whole weeks in Quito!

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind and it feels like I have been here both for an eternity and for just a few days. I am becoming more accustomed to cultural norms and ways of living including, but not limited to:
flagging down taxis,
bartering at markets,
rarely having hot water,
Spanish sayings/phrases,
coffee being available 24/7,
rooftop views of the mountains and city,
all of the wonderful carbs - bread, rice, potatos,
paying MUCH less for most everything than in America,
and the Ecua-kiss (the way to greet people with a kiss on the cheek).

I am sure there are many more things that just seem so natural now that I cannot even think to include them here. Quito is a beautiful city with so much history that I have been slowly learning.

As school does not start until this upcoming Tuesday (September 3rd), my week days have been filled with teacher meetings, classroom preparation, and planning. I am definitely ready for the students to come and to get this whole student teaching adventure started! As I am living in the dorms, some of the high school boarding students have already moved in and things are starting to pick up here.

The weekends have been our free time to enjoy! Last weekend, my roommate and I went to Serano's, a scrumptious sandwich/coffee/gelato shop where we spent the afternoon talking and eating. We also were able to meet up with another friend and go to Mercado Artesenal, a local market not too far away. While everything is so cheap you get to learn the art of bartering (which I think is so fun!) and somehow money quickly leaves my hands in exchange for Ecuadorian mugs, alpaca blankets, turquoise rings, and coin purses. Last Sunday all of the new teachers at the school had a cookout at one of the family's houses in Tumbaco, Ecuador. They had a beautiful plot of land filled with avocado trees, an indoor swimming pool, and tennis and volleyball courts! We were living in luxury for the afternoon!

Yesterday I climbed Volcán Ilaló, a 10,450 foot volcano outside of Quito. It took us about 2 hours to summit before going down a valley and up another mountain and descending into a neighboring town. On the hike up, there are 12 crosses by the path and at the top there is a huge metal cross, overlooking the valley!  I went with my cooperating teacher (Tricia), her husband, and her two sons. After this adventure we went into downtown, historic Quito where we ate a late lunch, toured the city, walked the plazas, and went into a small art exhibit. Her Ecuadorian husband knows so much history and legends from Quito so it was as if I had a personal tour guide all day! 

This morning, Sunday, I successfully took 2 buses to get to La Fuente, a Spanish church, which I absolutely LOVED! I even followed along the sermon fairly well, which was a great success! As far as the rest of the afternoon goes, I will do some laundry, go slack-lining, and walk to a local cafe/bakery.

That's all for now, the next update will include a detailed description of how the first week of school went!

Thanks again for reading, and all your prayers are much appreciated!