This week has been full of emotional ups and downs. I started teaching last Wednesday and found that many of my students did not understand me. It was frustrating and I felt unprepared. However, many people encouraged me by reminding me that my students had been on vacation and had not heard English for 2 months. In addition, I am brand new to them and they probably have to get accustomed to my accent. Now that I have taught them for three days and have started getting to know them, I am more comfortable with the situation. I speak much more slowly and I try to take everything in stride.
As I began working on lesson plans, I felt very unsure of myself because I have limited training and experience as a teacher. I started asking my fellow teachers lots more questions than I had been. I also decided that I have to keep moving forward instead of letting my fears keep from doing anything. As I have been stepping out, the Lord has been meeting me. He has been giving me ideas and providing resources from other teachers to help me with my lessons. God is so good! I love the verse that says that even we are faithless, God is faithful because He cannot deny Himself!
The really crazy part of teaching is learning my students' names. Their names are things like Teerapat and Warinthorn. They have shorter nicknames too, but I was told by one teacher that it is better to call them by their full names. Since then, other teachers have said it is better to use their nicknames. I think it is more a matter of preference, so I am using their full names just to keep continuity with how I started.
On my second day, I told my students that we were going to pray and I folded my hands together to help them understand. They really did not understand and it took me a long time to get them to close their eyes. I prayed a very simple prayer.
After I said "Amen," they still had their eyes closed. I had to explain that "Amen" means it is the end of the prayer. I am now asking them to say Amen after me so that we will have less confusion. Overall, I realize that the Lord is allowing me to teach them about Him from the ground up. What an opportunity! Please pray for me to have wisdom and insight about how to do this. Please pray that I will choose to believe the best and not get discouraged as I live out and share my faith with my students and fellow teachers.
On a lighter note, I thought some people might find it humorous that Starbucks sells sausage and mayonnaise buns here, along with brownies, cheesecake, and other pastries.
I am continuing to seek the Lord about where and how to be involved in ministry outside of my job. I am blessed to have many Christian friends at two churches.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday, May 7, 2007
The Beach and Starting My Job
This week has been more structured in that I started working, but work has felt very unstructured. We had several meetings during the first few days and we were supposed to start planning our lessons and decorating our classrooms. As a brand new teacher, I am not very clear about what to do about lessons and decorating, but I know that God is in control and He will help me ease into it. Several of the teachers in my department are new this year and we are all learning together.
One of my co-teachers is a Christian and another Christian teacher from Lee University is coming soon. I know that there are other Christians in other departments, but there are very few in my department. I am also one of 5 women in my department. I am really praying for my fellow teachers and asking the Lord to guide me in building relationships with them. I believe God has me in this school for a reason.
Friday was a special service with 4 other Christian schools. One of the best things about the service was a children's group playing a Thai instrument called an ankalung. It was like a human xylophone! Each child held two ankalungs. The ankalung has two wooden pipes with a 6 inch space between them. Part of the side of each pipe is carved out and the children shook their instruments to produce a sound. For any music lovers out there, the program was similar to a handbell choir. They played hymns that I recognized. It was great! The meal and entertainment after the service were very different...my co-teachers and I were not sure what was going on.
I got to go to the beach on Saturday with my churchmates (as my Filipino friends would say)! We played in the ocean at Rayong Beach and saw an elephant. I payed about 75 cents to feed it.
Interesting food:
Adidas (pronounced just like the sports brand name): chicken feet boiled with garlic, sugar, oyster sauce, etc. Not too bad--once I got over the fact that it was chicken feet:)
Banana hearts: The flower of banana trees that will eventually become bananas. They are cut off when they are young cooked with spices and eaten as a vegetable --it was spicy but tasted very good!
(both cooked by my Filipino friends)
After eating lunch at Rayong Beach, we went to a fruit farm. We had lots tropical fruit. Arroy mach ma (very delicious in Thai). Some of the types of fruit were: durian, dragonfruit, jackfruit, mango, rambutan, mangosteen (my favorite), pomelo, pinapple, guava, papaya, and grapes (not tropical, I know). Spending the day with my churchmates was wonderful. I am really glad that I am here.
One of my co-teachers is a Christian and another Christian teacher from Lee University is coming soon. I know that there are other Christians in other departments, but there are very few in my department. I am also one of 5 women in my department. I am really praying for my fellow teachers and asking the Lord to guide me in building relationships with them. I believe God has me in this school for a reason.
Friday was a special service with 4 other Christian schools. One of the best things about the service was a children's group playing a Thai instrument called an ankalung. It was like a human xylophone! Each child held two ankalungs. The ankalung has two wooden pipes with a 6 inch space between them. Part of the side of each pipe is carved out and the children shook their instruments to produce a sound. For any music lovers out there, the program was similar to a handbell choir. They played hymns that I recognized. It was great! The meal and entertainment after the service were very different...my co-teachers and I were not sure what was going on.
I got to go to the beach on Saturday with my churchmates (as my Filipino friends would say)! We played in the ocean at Rayong Beach and saw an elephant. I payed about 75 cents to feed it.
Interesting food:
Adidas (pronounced just like the sports brand name): chicken feet boiled with garlic, sugar, oyster sauce, etc. Not too bad--once I got over the fact that it was chicken feet:)
Banana hearts: The flower of banana trees that will eventually become bananas. They are cut off when they are young cooked with spices and eaten as a vegetable --it was spicy but tasted very good!
(both cooked by my Filipino friends)
After eating lunch at Rayong Beach, we went to a fruit farm. We had lots tropical fruit. Arroy mach ma (very delicious in Thai). Some of the types of fruit were: durian, dragonfruit, jackfruit, mango, rambutan, mangosteen (my favorite), pomelo, pinapple, guava, papaya, and grapes (not tropical, I know). Spending the day with my churchmates was wonderful. I am really glad that I am here.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
One week down, lots more to go!
The first few days in Thailand were difficult. I realized that I am really living here for an entire year. It's also very different to be here without any other Americans. Because of the 2 year gap since my last trip, I felt like I had to get reaquainted with my roommates. I am very comfortable opening up to them now, but it was hard at first.
I've already seen some strange things and experienced some different things as well. I'll try to keep it brief by putting them in categories.
Strange sights:Blue, red, and yellow rice! (pictures to follow)Salad with mayonnaise for salad dressing(in the US, some mayo jars have "salad dressing" as a subtitle to Mayonnaise. They take it literally here)"Mexican" steak--chicken, pork, fish or beef steak with a green chile looking substance--but it's not green chile!
Different experience:Riding in a bus that is the back of a pickup truck--it has a roof over the passengers in case it rains.
I was able to visit Bangkok Christian College and sign my contract. There's no turning back now:)I will be teaching 4 sections of 5th grade and 1 section of 4th grade. Meetings and orientation start tomorrow. I'm glad to start having a regular schedule.
On Saturday, I went with my roommates to a cell group that meets across town. There is one new believer and 2 nonbelievers in the group, as well as several Christians. I am learning a lot about ministering to nonbelievers from my roommates.
Sunday was a busy day. I attended two different churches--one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I got to see lots of old friends at the church in the afternoon. I will probably not be able to attend both every week. Please pray for direction about which church I should get involved with. I got to go to Starbucks with my Filipino friends after church!
Praise Report: I have American friends here! I met a female American missionary on Sunday night. Also, a guy from Colorado that I went to college with will be teaching at my school. He is coming in 2 1/2 weeks.
Prayer Requests:Affordable housing for my roommates and meDirection about ministry and other involvements outside of work
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I've already seen some strange things and experienced some different things as well. I'll try to keep it brief by putting them in categories.
Strange sights:Blue, red, and yellow rice! (pictures to follow)Salad with mayonnaise for salad dressing(in the US, some mayo jars have "salad dressing" as a subtitle to Mayonnaise. They take it literally here)"Mexican" steak--chicken, pork, fish or beef steak with a green chile looking substance--but it's not green chile!
Different experience:Riding in a bus that is the back of a pickup truck--it has a roof over the passengers in case it rains.
I was able to visit Bangkok Christian College and sign my contract. There's no turning back now:)I will be teaching 4 sections of 5th grade and 1 section of 4th grade. Meetings and orientation start tomorrow. I'm glad to start having a regular schedule.
On Saturday, I went with my roommates to a cell group that meets across town. There is one new believer and 2 nonbelievers in the group, as well as several Christians. I am learning a lot about ministering to nonbelievers from my roommates.
Sunday was a busy day. I attended two different churches--one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I got to see lots of old friends at the church in the afternoon. I will probably not be able to attend both every week. Please pray for direction about which church I should get involved with. I got to go to Starbucks with my Filipino friends after church!
Praise Report: I have American friends here! I met a female American missionary on Sunday night. Also, a guy from Colorado that I went to college with will be teaching at my school. He is coming in 2 1/2 weeks.
Prayer Requests:Affordable housing for my roommates and meDirection about ministry and other involvements outside of work
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