Teaching and learning in Peru

So I did my coursework at Millersville. I did my student teaching. I did all my field placements. I graduated with a certification to teach. Yet, nothing can quite prepare you for your first year of teaching. I'm guessing those of you who are teachers know what I'm talking about and are probably chuckling to yourselves. Let me catch you up to speed on where I'm at personally, now that I've been teaching for two months.
I have gained a new appreciation and awareness of God's grace since March 3, the first day of school. Every day, it seems, I do things that I wish I would or could have done better. Every day there are frustrations. Every day, I realize again that I am not perfect! (Humbling thought). Every day, I realize that I am in a process and haven't arrived yet. (This is very aggravating for my perfectionistic tendencies.) Every morning, I need God's grace to start over afresh and anew and love my students all over again. Teaching so far has been the most intensely frustrating, fun and rewarding experience of my life, I think. Despite the frustrations, I love teaching and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. So this is a little bit of where I am at right now.
I have 33 students - 20 third graders and 13 fourth graders. They are great kids. My third graders are quite mischievous and energetic. They don't have a lot of self-control and are also great tattletales. But they can also be fun and really sweet. Fourth grade is very enthusiastic about learning English. They do well with the activities I plan and can usually understand what I'm saying when I'm speaking in English (which is most of the time, or at least I try to make it that way). They come from many different backgrounds - both Christian and non-Christian homes. They come from the country and from the city of Cusco itself (and anywhere in between). They come from a great variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of their parents can help them with their English homework. Others are barely literate themselves. There is a lot of family instability in this culture. I don't know all the family situations yet, but I do know that several of my students come from single-parent families. Others carry keys with them and are home alone after school, basically raising themselves. Still others have parents who are very involved. Some have difficulty in school. For others, school is easy. They all need love. Lots of it. And encouragement. That is not something that's frequently given to children by adults in this culture. So I try to give it as much as possible. Encouragement and hugs. Getting to know my students, praying for them, encouraging them, holding them when they're crying, seeing their faces every morning, watching their hands shoot up when they know the answer, seeing their enthusiasm...those are some of my favorite parts of my job.
And then there's the grunt work. Depending on the day and the class, I have either 45 minutes or an hour and a half to work with the students. And let me tell you, the time flies! Trying to collect homework, squeeze in spelling, keep everyone engaged and on task, teach, and everything else is definitely enough to fill up my time, no problem. I keep thinking I'd love to do this and that, but there never seems to be enough time to do so. Before I know it, class is over and we're only half way through where I wanted to be. I keep trying to figure out what is the most important and focus on it. But the lack of time to do all I'd love to do is frustrating, yes. I'm trying to figure out as well what I think about the curriculum the school's been using. Much of the time, it seems too hard. But I'm working with it and adapting it as well as I can, adding things to it and teaching things in different contexts sometimes. All of these things make teaching a continual balancing act for me in many ways.
But I'm learning...a lot. I'm learning a lot about God's truth. I am definitely a perfectionist, at least as far as my own self goes. So being imperfect and being in the process of learning is frustrating at times. Just this morning, as I spoke with God, He reminded me to listen to His truth and His voice, not any other voice or any other "truth". That was a powerful reminder. One I needed. I find that I tend to get discouraged with myself before getting encouraged with God. Really, it should be the other way around. No, I'm not perfect, but I'm loved anyway and empowered with God's power. Now that is something to be encouraged about! No matter what, I am still loved unconditionally and He has a purpose in my life.
And I'm learning how to work with my kids. Little by little, I'm getting ideas for fun things to do with them and how to best teach them. I've found that lots of review (to the point where I feel like I'm becoming redundant) is necessary and that going over something only once is a waste of time because they won't remember it.
So yes, I am often frustrated. But I am also often filled with joy and love for my kids as I am in the classroom. They're my kids. They're precious. And through them God is teaching me about His grace.
So that's a little bit of where I'm at right now personally. Blessings to each one of you. Thank you for your prayers! They are much appreciated.

Feliz Cumpleaños!

So how do they celebrate birthdays in Peru?
Glad you asked. Let me tell you how I celebrated mine. The day began like any other. Wake up at 5, eat breakfast, get ready for school. But from there, it was a little different. I walked in the door at school just in time to see Wendy scurry around the corner, looking guilty. I walked in to the office to use the copier, just in time to see Damaris leave the office, looking guilty. And since everyone else was busy looking guilty, I got to use the copier without standing in line! (The copier is quite a popular place to be at PROMESA at about 7:15 in the morning). Pretty soon, I found out the reason why everyone was looking guilty. They were all waiting around the corner with cupcakes, drink, and other fun surprises. I felt very blessed by each one of my coworkers. They blessed me with a beautiful bag from Cusco that works very nicely as a teacher bag and is a lot easier to take with me on combis (public transportation...that's another blog entry for another day) than my backpack!
As soon as I left the school building to go upstairs to do something, I ran in to Isaac, one of my third graders, who greeted me with a big hug and "Feliz cumpleaños!".
mid-section and many more greetings of "Feliz cumpleaños profe! (teacher)". Kids definitely have a way of making one feel loved... We began the day, as we do every Wednesday morning, with a group devotional time with all the grades. Before going upstairs, Ron called me up front and everyone sang to me (Yes, they have "Happy Birthday" in Spanish). As I was goingI came downstairs again only to have many more enthusiastic sets of little arms thrown around my back to my seat, I got mobbed by most of the third and fourth graders. When I say mobbed, I mean as in I couldn't walk and I was trying not to fall over and squish anybody. Literally.
The day proceeded uneventfully until just before recess/snack time, when Chrisnna, one of my fourth graders, started complaining of a stomachache. So I took her to the office to give her some Pepto-Bismol. On our way back up to fourth grade (after being mobbed again in the hallway en route to find the keys for the office), Alejandra (from third grade) called down to me from the railing at the top of the stairs. "Profe, come to our room!" For a few minutes I became a human tug of war rope as Chrisnna pulled on one arm and Alejandra on the other. Fourth grade eventually won (first come, first serve), but only with the promise that I would be right over to third grade. The fourth grade room doesn't have a door yet, so as I stepped through the curtain that serves as a makeshift door, I was promptly showered with confetti from all directions and shouts of "Feliz cumpleaños!". Again, I was surrounded by fourth graders. Have I mentioned that kids have a way of making one feel very loved? A package was thrust in my hand and immediately the entire fourth grade began chanting "Que lo abre! Que lo abre! Que lo abre! (Open it!)" Inside, I found a ch'ullo (a traditional hat with ear flaps from Cusco, which is actually becoming popular worldwide
) My kids continue to amaze, surprise and bless me. The girls in both grades were way into writing notes to me, so I have lots of little notes on Peruvian notebook paper decorated in gel pens (quite a popular item among the girls in both of my classes) and colored pencils. I have to say...I love my kids. So then I went in to third grade and they all sang to me too and gave me hugs and encouraging words (and more notes). It's been a while since I've gotten that many hugs and felt that loved all in one day!
Side note: then I went back to fourth grade and found out that Chrisnna's "stomachache" was really an excuse to get me to go down to the office...)
After school, I went home for lunch. Lomo saltado....probably my favorite food here. I had invited my friend Juana and my host mom, Mama Zenaida for lunch. Including my friend Marga (who works in our house), my roommates and I, we were 6. I walked in the door and was greeted by my roommate Carrie thrusting a crazy balloon hat on my head. Apparently, one of her friends is from Switzerland and there is a Swiss tradition that single girls celebrating 25 years of life must wear a crazy hat. I happen to live with Carrie, who, for several months of her life, got paid to make balloon animals. So...I got a beautiful balloon hat, complete with a flower! :)
I felt very blessed at lunch by my roommates and my friends. We had fun fellowshipping together and enjoying each other's company. (In the pictures, Mama Zenaida, is in the black, Juana in pink and Marga is wearing blue, in case anyone's curious). I definitely feel like I am surrounded by family here and am very loved.
And after lunch, there came the cake. Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing (yes, we have enough American peanut butter that we can splurge on things such as peanut butter icing at the moment). Very rich, but even yummier! And I was sung to again.
There's this Peruvian tradition involving birthday cakes. After one blows out one's birthday candles, everyone starts chanting "Que muerda la torta! Que muerda la torta! (Bite the cake! Bite the cake!)" If you're unfortunate enough to have anyone behind you, you might get your face shoved in the cake in the process. But if you're lucky, it's a simple process of taking a bite out of the cake with your mouth. Then you get the piece you bit and the cake is cut up and served to everyone. As you can see from the picture, I obviously need more practice. But the cake was ceremoniously bit, cut, served and enjoyed by all.
After lunch, Juana stayed a while and we ended up talking and playing Dutch Blitz with Carrie and Shannon till Juana had to leave to catch the bus back to Huacarpay.
My friend Hilda (Juana's sister) called me later that night, promising to call again on Friday night to set up a time that we could get together today. So this morning I met her and we went downtown for the day. We just had fun walking around, looking at the

Qorikancha museum (I love the fact that I can get in for free with my residence card!) and climbing up the giant statue of Inka Pachakutec that gives you a great view of the city of Cusco. Before we went to get lunch, we stopped at Pukllay Kancha (Quechua for play place) where there is a giant slide that makes you feel like a kid no matter what your age. Great stress reliever and laugh inducer! I have decided that if I ever miss sledding while I am here, I will pay the $0.35 or so entrance fee and slide down the slide a few times. It's really a lot of fun! The last time, Hilda and I went down back to back our arms twisted together, and had quite the laugh when we tipped over and got tangled up at the bottom, laughing too hard to get ourselves untangled for quite a while.
The other great part of my birthday was hearing from many of you over the course of the last few weeks. I felt very blessed by each one of you and greatly enjoyed going to the post office and checking the mailbox there. I have cards hanging on the side of my desk in my room and have filled up the entire side of the desk. Thank you to everyone who helped to make my birthday special. I felt more special, loved, blessed, missed, appreciated and welcomed by people (both here and there) this week than I have in a while.
I seriously think this was one of my favorite birthdays so far. Muchas gracias!
Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Many thanks to all who remembered my birthday in various ways over the last few weeks - packages, cards, emails, thoughts, prayers... I've greatly enjoyed going to the post office lately! It seems that the box always has something fun in it right now. :) Same for my email inbox.
I felt very loved and appreciated by each one of you. Thank you for helping to make my birthday so special. I don't have time at the moment to post an update about my day, but I will do so hopefully this weekend and I'm working on responding to emails. Blessings to each one of you!

Safety 101

Fourth grade, in one of their Spanish classes today, was learning about safety and accident prevention. Miss Nancy, the fourth grade teacher, sent them out in groups of about 3 to share with the other grades for a few minutes what they were learning. Andre, Sara and Katy came in to our third grade math class to share some very important and practical tips, such as "Don't run in the hallways" and "Don't slide down the banisters" (a very important one at PROMESA, considering the number of steps and banisters we have!).
My favorite one, however, was Andre's lesson on street crossing. In all seriousness and with a sense of maturity coming from being in fourth grade, he told the third graders: "Before you cross the street you should look both ways. Otherwise a car could come and hit you. Y eso no es muy agradable! (and that's not a very pleasant thing!)"
It was all I could do to contain myself...

The adventure of fourth grade vaccinations

Yesterday was a day met with great trepidation by the students of PROMESA because, like kids everywhere, they generally hate shots. And the health department of San Jeronimo was scheduled to come yesterday and give mandatory hepatitis B vaccinations to all students who hadn't had them. Unfortunately for me, the fourth grade vaccinations just happened to be during English class, which fell during the last two periods of the day. Translation: the kids had all day to think about their impending vaccinations and let their stress level rise accordingly. Before English class, that was the hot topic of conversation and speculation. And then, just as we started saying the date, the nurse popped her head in and cheerfully announced that she was here to give vaccinations. Any concentration they had had for English class evaporated like water on a hot summer pavement.
The announcement was met with a mixture of tears, indifference, trepidation and bravery. I'm not really sure how much anyone really was concentrating on English, even though they were answering questions. The sight of their classmates coming back into the room holding cotton balls to vaccinated arms was just too enticing, nerve-wracking, and fascinatingly scary. And then, just that quickly, it was over. Finally, I thought, time to do some serious English class work!
This proved to be, however, nothing more than a fleeting dream. The level of relief in the wake of the vaccinations was seemingly just as great as the level of stress in the anticipation of them. Oh my goodness, I don't think I have ever heard that much laughter for that long in a classroom before in my life! They couldn't control themselves and even had me laughing.
I thought I'd impart a little humor into your life by sharing a few of the laugh moments...

Me: Okay, guys, I could understand before the vaccinations why you were all distracted and couldn't concentrate. But now they're over and you're still talking. I don't understand!
Magna: (raises her hand and when I call on her says, in all seriousness) Should I explain it to you?
At this point I lost it!

Andre: I think when they gave us the shot for hepatitis, they gave us a laughing shot too without us even realizing it!
And I lost it again...

For whatever reason, Ada Sol decided to drip a few drops of glue into Josua's hair. Josua raised his hand to ask for permission to go wash it out. As he was leaving, he commented "I'm going gray!", since the glue made his hair a whitish color.

Sometimes, I realized yesterday, you have a choice. You can be grumpy and frustrated, hanging on to your precious plans, and miss out on the joy or you can laugh along with everyone else and then work to get them under control and do part of what needs to be done. I think I can guess what Jesus would choose...

Munani yachay runasimita

I want to learn Quechua. Munani yachay runasimita. That's been my line the last few months. I'd love to learn enough to understand Pastor Celestino's messages without my friend Juana having to translate everything. I'd love to be able to have a conversation in it, in which I don't sound like a two year old trying to string together words without really knowing what I'm doing. I'd love to actually understand it.
God showed me the other day that He has given me this tremendous blessing in learning Quechua. Quechua classes (after being here a little while) interested me when I got here, but other missionaries told me that maybe it would be better to concentrate on Spanish for a while and then work on Quechua. But I still wanted to learn Quechua. I was a little disappointed that that didn't seem like it was going to work out.
Okay, so I'm officially not taking classes. But unofficially...
My Quechua vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds (which is not that impressive because it wasn't that big to start with). I've been learning Quechua in the best way - from the people who God has placed around me. And I've realized that that is a tremendous blessing! Not only am I learning words, but I'm also making memories and building relationships in the process.
Like the other day when our friend Uri came over. The original purpose of his visit was to learn English, but he ended up teaching me instead. End result...I learned three words and the meaning of a suffix (Quechua is a patching together of one word and a bazillion suffixes, creating crazy long words). And I built a memory and my vocabulary.
Or yesterday, when my friend Marga taught me another three words and a suffix as we were drying dishes and hanging out wash together.
And on Sunday, Juana taught me another word as we were walking together after church.
And Saturday, Rene, Ines and I were cracking up as they taught me how to say "I'm full" and
tried to distinguish it from "I'm pregnant" (apparently, one Quechua word for full can also mean pregnant). Don't worry...I won't be using that phrase any time soon!
I've picked up words from so many people as I've built relationships over the past few months. And it's been a huge blessing. So no, my learning of Quechua might not be exactly like I thought it might be, but really, it's even better. God has given me the gift of friends and family around me to help me, to love me and to teach me. And I am reminded again that His ways are higher than mine and His love is deeper than mine.

Just as an interesting side note, here is the Quechua translation of John 3:16, in case you've ever lain awake at night wondering... :)
Diosqa anchatapunin runakunata munakurqan, chaymi sapan Churinta kachamurqan pipas paypi iñiqqa ama wañunanpaq, aswanpas wiñay kawsayniyoq kananpaq.