Surprise!
The preschool teacher for Chacocente didn´t finish his schooling. He has to go back for one more year, so they need me to step in! As of this morning, instead of just helping out in different areas, I am The Teacher for 15 students, ages 2 to 7! They will be divided into two groups and I´ll have one in the morning, one in the afternoon, starting Monday. So it will be 3 hours with one group, lunch, three hours with the other.
I´m a little nervous because I don´t know Teacher Language in Spanish. That is, I can´t communicate the finer subleties of verbal classroom management in Spanish as I could in English.... yet. I will have help, and it won´t hurt them to learn some English! Things are very laid back here, the other teachers and I just sat around laughing and laughing today! So they won´t be expecting me to be perfect, and I´ll be of use, which is what I wanted!
Plus, I love teaching!
More little notes
Last night it was chilly. That is to say that with their open air architecture (there is always a pathway for air to travel from outside to bedroom, always!), I didn´t want a fan to blow, and I did want to pull up the single sheet that is all anyone uses for bedclothes.
On my bicycle ride today, I passed a horse drawn cart, a herd of cattle, and some chickens. There was also a chicken on the bus today.
Peace to all of you and thank you for supporting me from afar. It is very encouraging to read all your messages to me.
Love,
Rachael
Sunday, February 04, 2007
jan 20
another email, written on jan 20:
Hello Friends!
I haven´t had time to sort out my list of recipients so if any of you do not want to recieve weekly emails, or if you are a church that would rather have monthly updates, please let me know. Also, does anyone have Marjorie Ramp´s email address?
I have been busy every day this week with my 2 hour commute via bus and bike from my house to my work. we thought about getting an apartment nearby, but part of my reason for being here is to see how the lifestyle is, and that means living with a family. For example, today I learned how to hand wash my laundry. I used a cement scrubbing board tub thing and hung everything on the line. In the apartment we would have paid for someone else to wash our clothes.
Classes start on Jan 29. I have a meeting on Monday at 9 or 10 with Chacocente´s director and Chacocente´s school´s principal to I assume talk about what my role will be this year. Right now I think they want to use me to give one on one attention to students who need help, and to help with music and art. These kids have a lot of issues, some have been abused, some have survived malnutrition, most of them have lived in the dump. They are nevertheless not complainers, many are making leaps and bounds in their educations, they love to play, and they warm quickly to strangers like me! I taught some of the girls cat´s cradle. they had never played before.
I´m doing better with Spanish, every day i learn more. I can basically communicate whatever, and I´m getting used to the accent here where they drop s at the end of words. My host sister says I speak very well. I feel like I´ve known my friends here for much longer than a week and a half!!! My host family is wonderful and worth the commute. They took me to buy a guitar today for 50 dollars and peanut butter, not in the same store. i also went with them to get traditional food, including a cold chocolate drink.
In conclusion, I would like to say that on my bus commute I can stop and get an entire fresh pineapple for 30 cents.
Also, I keep being surprised I´m here. I´m totally living the adventure I would want for myself but might be too afraid to go through with. But when I have that thought, I then realize, whoa, I already did the scariest part. I´m here!
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Love,
Rachael
Hello Friends!
I haven´t had time to sort out my list of recipients so if any of you do not want to recieve weekly emails, or if you are a church that would rather have monthly updates, please let me know. Also, does anyone have Marjorie Ramp´s email address?
I have been busy every day this week with my 2 hour commute via bus and bike from my house to my work. we thought about getting an apartment nearby, but part of my reason for being here is to see how the lifestyle is, and that means living with a family. For example, today I learned how to hand wash my laundry. I used a cement scrubbing board tub thing and hung everything on the line. In the apartment we would have paid for someone else to wash our clothes.
Classes start on Jan 29. I have a meeting on Monday at 9 or 10 with Chacocente´s director and Chacocente´s school´s principal to I assume talk about what my role will be this year. Right now I think they want to use me to give one on one attention to students who need help, and to help with music and art. These kids have a lot of issues, some have been abused, some have survived malnutrition, most of them have lived in the dump. They are nevertheless not complainers, many are making leaps and bounds in their educations, they love to play, and they warm quickly to strangers like me! I taught some of the girls cat´s cradle. they had never played before.
I´m doing better with Spanish, every day i learn more. I can basically communicate whatever, and I´m getting used to the accent here where they drop s at the end of words. My host sister says I speak very well. I feel like I´ve known my friends here for much longer than a week and a half!!! My host family is wonderful and worth the commute. They took me to buy a guitar today for 50 dollars and peanut butter, not in the same store. i also went with them to get traditional food, including a cold chocolate drink.
In conclusion, I would like to say that on my bus commute I can stop and get an entire fresh pineapple for 30 cents.
Also, I keep being surprised I´m here. I´m totally living the adventure I would want for myself but might be too afraid to go through with. But when I have that thought, I then realize, whoa, I already did the scariest part. I´m here!
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Love,
Rachael
jan 13
Here´s most of an email I sent on Jan 13
It is Saturday, and Tuesday was my first night in Nicaragua. Ten minutes after I got to my host family´s house, the power went out for about half an hour, so I got a very confusing introduction to my new home. The sun had set hours ago (around 5 or 6 in the afternoon) so I didn´t see much on my way over. The house I live in belongs to a pastor´s family and is about 20 feet from their church, which is La Iglesia de Cristo, pentecostal. I have a host brother, Isaac, who is 19 I think, and his sister Jessica is 12. It turns out that Isaac and his dad both speak quite a bit of English, but I still feel immersed in Spanish.
My first day was spent with a visiting delegation of Methodist youth from the eastern U.S., chaperoned by my friends Ted and Mary Andersen who I know from my Oberlin years. It was great to see them. We visited Granada, which is one of the oldest cities, and then went up the nearby Volcano. My first sunset in Nicaragua was over the lake, seen from the top of the volcano. Gorgeous. The next day I went with them to the beach. Some of the families from Chacocente, the community where I´ll be working, came to the beach too, so I met a few of them.
There is another U.S. expat living in the same house with me and this family. He has been working as a teacher at Chacocente for the last four months, and was living with the same family that Charito (who started Chacocente) lives with. He moved in with my family four days before I did. He is from Vermont, a recent high school grad named Topher (short for Christopher). So yesterday he took me on the 2 hour bus commute from our host family´s home in Managua to the community of Chacocente. Because I don´t have a bike yet, we walked the dirt trail from the bus stop to the community and that took almost an hour to walk. I met some more of the families and several of the children. We made it back home before dark and met the Mission of Peace group at Pablo´s church for a worship service in two languages, to send the M.O.P. group off and say goodbye. It was a very powerful experience. The sermon was all about God empowering us to love one another and serve the poor. Pablo preached about asking God to send us. Here I am, Lord. Send me. It was very relevant to me, who has come here because I felt God sending me. It´s been difficult and scary to prepare and move here, and things are very intimidatingly different sometimes, but I have come because of the power of God´s love in my life, and that same love will be all the bravery and faith and peace I need. I felt overwhelmed by love and peace and support and joy!
I think I overprepared myself for the poverty I would encounter. I found myself not blinking an eye at the Chacocente families´lack of enough beds. Even the dogs and cats around here are heartbreakingly skinny. The kids run and play and laugh and chatter, but they don´t have shoes and only half of their school rooms have paved floors and roofs. I also overprepared myself for their hospitality, so that instead of rejoicing in it I expect it. So, I have a few attitude shifts to make. But thisis only my fourth day! I have lots of time.
I rely on your prayers for me. It means so much to me that many of you let me know I´m in your prayers. I am not comfortable here yet, I don´t know how to use the buses, or the money, and I have trouble understanding Spanish that I overhear or that is spoken from one local to another. I do very well when someone talks to me directly, though.
It is Saturday, and Tuesday was my first night in Nicaragua. Ten minutes after I got to my host family´s house, the power went out for about half an hour, so I got a very confusing introduction to my new home. The sun had set hours ago (around 5 or 6 in the afternoon) so I didn´t see much on my way over. The house I live in belongs to a pastor´s family and is about 20 feet from their church, which is La Iglesia de Cristo, pentecostal. I have a host brother, Isaac, who is 19 I think, and his sister Jessica is 12. It turns out that Isaac and his dad both speak quite a bit of English, but I still feel immersed in Spanish.
My first day was spent with a visiting delegation of Methodist youth from the eastern U.S., chaperoned by my friends Ted and Mary Andersen who I know from my Oberlin years. It was great to see them. We visited Granada, which is one of the oldest cities, and then went up the nearby Volcano. My first sunset in Nicaragua was over the lake, seen from the top of the volcano. Gorgeous. The next day I went with them to the beach. Some of the families from Chacocente, the community where I´ll be working, came to the beach too, so I met a few of them.
There is another U.S. expat living in the same house with me and this family. He has been working as a teacher at Chacocente for the last four months, and was living with the same family that Charito (who started Chacocente) lives with. He moved in with my family four days before I did. He is from Vermont, a recent high school grad named Topher (short for Christopher). So yesterday he took me on the 2 hour bus commute from our host family´s home in Managua to the community of Chacocente. Because I don´t have a bike yet, we walked the dirt trail from the bus stop to the community and that took almost an hour to walk. I met some more of the families and several of the children. We made it back home before dark and met the Mission of Peace group at Pablo´s church for a worship service in two languages, to send the M.O.P. group off and say goodbye. It was a very powerful experience. The sermon was all about God empowering us to love one another and serve the poor. Pablo preached about asking God to send us. Here I am, Lord. Send me. It was very relevant to me, who has come here because I felt God sending me. It´s been difficult and scary to prepare and move here, and things are very intimidatingly different sometimes, but I have come because of the power of God´s love in my life, and that same love will be all the bravery and faith and peace I need. I felt overwhelmed by love and peace and support and joy!
I think I overprepared myself for the poverty I would encounter. I found myself not blinking an eye at the Chacocente families´lack of enough beds. Even the dogs and cats around here are heartbreakingly skinny. The kids run and play and laugh and chatter, but they don´t have shoes and only half of their school rooms have paved floors and roofs. I also overprepared myself for their hospitality, so that instead of rejoicing in it I expect it. So, I have a few attitude shifts to make. But thisis only my fourth day! I have lots of time.
I rely on your prayers for me. It means so much to me that many of you let me know I´m in your prayers. I am not comfortable here yet, I don´t know how to use the buses, or the money, and I have trouble understanding Spanish that I overhear or that is spoken from one local to another. I do very well when someone talks to me directly, though.
Chacocente Christian School
I am teaching in a Christian school after all. There are about 50 students and it is a primary school, preschool to 6th grade. First grade has almost 20 students and by 6th grade it has tapered off to 2 or 3, so that fifth and sixth grades are combined for a total of 6 students. Half the school has been built and they are currently finishing the other half, although classes have been offered for around 3 years by now. Construction happens during school time, so the other day a table was moved out of the cafeteria so that welding sparks wouldn´t fall on students while they ate. Right now they are finishing the walls, smoothing concretish stuff over the cinder blocks. My preschool class meets in a little makeshift room in what used to be the house of the family who farmed the land that is now Chacocente.
Here are pictures of: the pits that are Chacocente´s mini dump (rather than trucking out their trash), Melvin and someone else working on the walls, a fifth grader named David standing in the hallway between the finished half and unfinished half of the school, another room whose walls have been finished, my preschooler Eva watching Nelson work on a bike tire (might be mine actually!), another of my students, named Adrianna, with her foot on a wheelbarrow of cement, her father JuanCarlos, a group of students and teachers in a totally finished room (the man is Xavier, the school´s director), the cafeteria (see the pile of wood on the ground with a grate on top? that´s the stove), Tatiana (preschool) with Adison (1st grade), and a view of the whole school with my friend Nancy (another volunteer, from Texas) in the foreground.
Nicaragua 3: Volcan Mombotombo
On my very first day in Nicaragua, Wednesday January 10th, I hitchhiked with my Mission of Peace friends to Granada and Mombotombo. Here are some lovely pictures of the view over one of the extinct craters. The islands you see were formed by the lava flowing down and spattering. Now it´s all jungly.
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