Come and see...

Whenever folks asked Mother Teresa about her work...how it was going, what life was like, she would say, "Come and see." - Shane Claiborne, The Irrestistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

It's about time I issued a request for service. In less than 3 weeks, I will be the only volunteer here. As we near test week and eventually, graduation, I am becoming acutely aware of what this could mean for the school. Currently, we have 5 teachers (Yolanda and Tere split up the day so that someone can be in the office). To function well, we need 4 teachers and a Director. When Nate and Calle leave, we will have me, Tere and Yolanda, who was actually due to retire last year. Although the church is very active and dearly wishes that volunteers were not necessary to run their school, the reality is that the school cannot afford to run without volunteers.
My request to you is that you would seriously consider coming to serve a school year here. Pray and ponder this request carefully. If this is not in God's will for you, maybe it's His will for someone else. Please refer your friends to the Mission Call here and to me if they have any questions. The call can be a bit confusing, so let me break it down for you. This is what you need to know:
The request is for service from February 13, 2011 to December 17, 2011 (10 months) in beautiful Monteverde, Costa Rica. *Clarification. I know this call will be over in less than a month, they just haven't posted the new one. You can still apply to this one.* The school is grades kinder (starting age 3) to 7th grade (considered to be high school). Teaching of all subjects is fair game---Bible, Math, Science, Music, Social Studies, Art, English, etc...Living arrangements will most likely be with a family who has a child in the school or possibly with the Director. You will receive a stipend of $100 (US) each month. Pretty much every store up here accepts US dollars and they will give you change in Colones so changing money is easy and there are plenty of ATMs. You don't need to apply for a Visa (though you do need a passport), which is really handy. You just need to leave the country every 90 days and your Visa is automatically renewed. For any other questions, refer to the Mission Call or ask me. I'm glad to answer questions.
Now it's time for me to gush about how awesome it is here. The school is small and growing too. Things have been tough, financially, but it's getting better. The school is awesome because you get to know all the kids individually; no one gets left behind. The church family is wonderful as well. They have a very active youth group so it's easy to make friends by going to the worship they have every Thursday or to game night after sundown on Sabbath. Monteverde is also a really safe and friendly town. It's a big location for tourists even though it's 2 hours away from another paved road. Teaching is hard work, I can't deny it, but it's so rewarding. When I least expect it, I'm completely blown away by my children. For example...The kinders are learning not to take toys or hit each other...My 1st graders can spell almost all their spelling words from memory...I found a way to get my 5th-7th graders interested in music...My 3rd and 4th graders are actually paying attention in class...It's a really beautiful thing. I literally could not stop smiling in my first grade science class today because I found out they had been studying at home. They noticed and laughed at me because of my goofy grin.
Honestly, I do miss home sometimes, but I've grown so much and learned so much that I can honestly say that I in no way regret coming. Coming here is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Please take my request seriously and pray about it. If you are called to serve, God will find a way to get you here, so don't even try the money excuse on me, haha. =] If you are not called, pass this on to anyone you think might be even mildly interested. Paz y amor!

Teaching, Movies, Crying, Running, Schedules and things of that nature.

8/19 – I taught Kinder all by myself today. Granted, it was only a half-day, but I did it. It was tiring but it was good. We made additions to the Noah and the Ark project we’ve been working on. So far we have the ark, Noah, the rainbow, clouds and 3 pairs of animals (tiger, elephant, horse). We were all really tired today. Around 11, I asked them if they wanted to play outside. They all screamed yes, grabbed a toy and headed out. I was helping Aniela pick out a toy so I came after them. I walked out and they were all sitting on the grass by the fence watching a repairman fix the power line. I sat down next to them and we just sat for probably a good five minutes. That’s a lot in Kinder world. Now we’re at Calle’s house watching a movie. Bring it on weekend. Bring it on.

8/21 – Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Since I can see church from my window, I didn’t go over until people started going in. There were only 3 people at 9am. Things really started around 9:30. Sabbath school was a Día de las Madres presentation by the jovenes since they were gone last week. It was really nice. We all wrote down characteristics of our moms (Amable, cariñosa, buena cantante, preciosa, lista, etc). They even read mine in front of everyone and gave me a rose even though my mommy isn’t with me. It made me miss her a lot. After church I went home and changed, grabbed some beans and rice and headed to Daniel’s. We made makeshift empanadas. Then we gathered our stuff for camping and braved the drizzle and hiked up to Ivan and Mayi’s house (about an hour walk, where we have the Thursday worship). I got really lucky. On the last, loooooonnngggg stretch of hill before their house, Esteban, their son, came by on his motorcycle. He gave me a ride up the hill. First time ever on a motorcycle and it was so fun! I may have screamed a little. Then we waited for everyone to show up. Melissa (Esteban’s twin) had the girls over for movie night. In the end, I decided to stay with them because it was pouring rain, thundering and I would be the only girl. The guys ended up having a pretty good time and it wasn’t too miserable (so they say) but I’m ok that I didn’t go. There will plenty other times to go in better weather. We watched 5 movies last night! It was crazy. I cried in 3 out of the 5. But it was kind of a good thing because it triggered my homesick emotions so I think I released some of my tension. The first movie we watched was The Last Song. *Spoiler Alert* When the Dad dies at the end, I cried a lot and it made me miss my dad and then I felt homesick and I couldn’t stop crying. I went into the bathroom and cried for a good long time. I hope nobody heard me. They probably thought I was dying. In total, we watched The Last Song, The Proposal, Anita, Wedding Crashers (only part of it because it was so raunchy), and My Sister’s Keeper. Now, I’m back at my house. We took the long walk back and it’s time for lunch. I’m gonna eat and then go over to the school and help paint the Kinder room if they need. If not, I’ll work on decorations for Yolanda’s classroom, plan Kinder and find internet. I also need to rearrange my room a bit.

…Later… So, I fell asleep. So much for helping paint. They’re done. I can’t decorate either because I don’t have the keys to Kinder of Yolanda’s room. It’ll just have to happen later. I suppose I’ll just make my plan for tomorrow and prepare in the morning. Nate came by to get the keys and we moved some stuff from the Kinder room to the library because of the mess and because it’s not finished. Pulga followed us over. She peed in one of the classrooms. Don’t worry; it got cleaned up (Thank you Nate).

8/23 – These last two days of school have been really great! For one, I’m a little less homesick. For another, I’ve gotten a chance to bond with all the classes and I’m feeling more confident. I’ve definitely bonded a bunch with Kinder because I’ve been helping out with them the most. But this is test week and I’ve been giving tests and also teaching class. 3^rd and 4^th graders are definitely the most challenging for me. The girls are easier to deal with. I guess it’s not that they’re really terrible per se, they just have more energy than time to get it out. Teaching math was way more fun that I ever thought. Yolanda wasn’t here today and yesterday, so yesterday I taught 1^st grade Math and Spanish. In Math, I got to teach them about adding/subtracting big numbers like 123 + 46 or 245 – 34. The trick is that they don’t know how to carry over yet or how to borrow but I taught them to always check to see if it’s addition or subtraction and then to start at the right and move to the left. Calle also had me teach her math class again today. I actually had a really good time. I freak out every time she’s had me do it but in the end, I always enjoy myself. Today, we all hashed out the new schedule (starting Monday). Here it is:

Time	Mon/Wed	Tues/Thurs	Time	Fri
8-8:35	Worship/Kinder	Worship/Kinder	8-8:45	Worship
8:35-9:45	Kinder	Kinder	8:45-9	Limpio
9:45-10:15	Recreo	Recreo	9-9:30	Recreo
10:15-10:50	Biblia 1	Biblia 1	9:30-10:20	Musica 5-7
10:50-12	E.F. (PE) 1	E.S. 1	10:20-11:10	Musica 1
12-12:45	Almuerzo	Almuerzo	11:10-12	Kinder
12:45-1:50	Matematicas 5-7	Matematicas 5-7
1:50-3	Ingles 1	Ciencias 1

For those of you who don’t know Spanish:

Limpio = Clean (Clean up, clean up! Everybody everywhere…)

Recreo = Recess

Biblia = Bible (Please tell me you already figured that out :P )

Música = Music (Self-explanatory, eh?)

E.F. = Educación Fisica = PE

E.S. = Estudios Sociales = Social Studies

Almuerzo = Lunch

Matemáticas = Math (Again, I hope you got this already)

Inglés = English

I’m really looking forward to teaching my new classes! The only thing I’m apprehensive about is Music class. Resources are really limited for this class. I just need to figure out what angle to take with this. Should I concentrate on theory or maybe just teach them to sing songs or teach them to play the recorder or should I use a keyboard (we don’t have a piano L) instead? The possibilities are many though the resources are limited. Tricky business indeed.

On a completely different note, I went running with Nate and Daniel today after school. I think I’m going to be really sore tomorrow. I wanna keep it up though. This was the first time in quite awhile that it hasn’t been pouring rain in the afternoon. It was quite nice. This evening after I ate and showered, a bunch of the youth group came to the school and we had worship and then ate some snacks and played games. It was really fun! The stars were out again tonight. It’s a little disappointing that I don’t recognize the constellations, but it’s still beautiful. Now for bed. I’m zonked. Tomorrow is supposed to be an easier day. I hope that it’s so.

8/24 – Today was not as good as I hoped. It was just so lonnnnnggggg…I woke up exhausted. It probably had to do with going on that run. I’m really sore. My thighs in particular. I was so tired I had a full cup of coffee at lunch time. I barely even drink a full cup when I drink coffee, let alone every morning. I’ve resolved not to become an addict. I bet Nate and Calle a sock each that I won’t get hooked within 1 month and 1 ½ months. I spent most of my day cleaning and organizing the Kinder room. The paint was all dry by this morning so Calle and I moved everything back inside and then I put everything in it’s place and rearranged stuff. It really satisfied my CDO tendencies (CDO is like OCD, but in alphabetical order. As it should be). Yolanda was back today and we had a meeting after school. Apparently the schedule may change a bit. Kinder is only going to be 4 days a week too.
My puppy, Pulga, has a broken leg. It’s so sad! She still tries to follow me school. Poor baby. I hope she heals well.

Tomorrow, the other teachers, the 5^th-7^th graders and I are going door-to-door to collect money for ADRA. I’m really not good at all at this sort of thing. It should be interesting though. Now for Movie Night!!! We’re going to watch Top Gun. Kindra, I’m thinking of you. =]