I have good news! I found the semi-colon key! ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Oh the joys of making proper sentences! ¡Gracias a Dios!
I haven't spent much time keeping you all updated lately, please forgive me. I have been very busy doing (and I do keep updated on my journal, and of course I email home) and not so busy informing you about it. Fewer posts on my blog site does not reflect the amount of work I am doing, rest assured.
The past two weeks has had its ups and downs - each day does - but lately I have had significantly more "ups"; in addition, every "down" seems to have a brighter side.
I don't really want to recount the goings on of each and everyday... not only because I can't remember everything, but also because I don't want to bore you to tears! (I am not so egotistical that I presume you would like to read of every single happenstance in my day - but of course Pops, I know the world revolves around me... love you!) Rather, I would like to share with you a few experiences... as each experience has its own story.
Last week I had the opportunity to go with Gabriel and Juan Carlos to Masaya to buy a keyboard for music class. I found one for a great price in ElectroNica! (ElectroNica's mascot is a lightning bolt that has a face with a cowboy hat and it holds a lasso... weird). It's a Casio, has 4 octaves, and plenty of settings, as well as a song bank with a large selection. So, I was quite pleased with my purchase. The trip to Masaya was truly enjoyable, as I had the chance to chat with JuanCarlos. It is really wonderful to get to know the families at the Project - especially the adult members. I spend all day with their children in classes; so, I think I should know them too! (Alright, so this little informative bit isn't really a main part of the story I was going to tell you... but I was really excited about my new keyboard, and I had a great time with Juan Carlos and Gabriel. If I were writing this as a narrative for English class, I would most definitely omit a significant part of this paragraph because it holds no weight in the actual story - but this isn't English class ... and you all should feel my joy of forming a friendship with Juan Carlos :-) ). The next day whenever I walked into the school carrying the keyboard in its box, I was immediately surrounded. Every single student wanted to see the new keyboard.
¡Que bonita!
¿Es tuyo?
¿Es para enseñar música?
¿Puedes tocarlo?
It was awesome to see the excitement in their faces, their eyes shone with anticipation of hearing music from the keyboard, of having the opportunity to play it... sure, all kids love new things, but these kids don't get "new" very often. I didn't have a class until after recess. While I was setting up the keyboard and giving it a whirl many of the students who usually would be outside playing baseball or tag or eating a snack were crowded around me. They wanted to help me open the box, find something to set it on, plug it in, turn it on... (in reality they just wanted to touch it, haha). It was so cute to have their attention (and believe me a new keyboard was a great attention holder for class that day!). One of my favorite parts of the day was during Pre-scholar music class. I gave the students the opportunity to play the keyboard. Of course I wasn't expecting (or even considering) a Mozart to pop out from the bunch, and yes, I realize that none of them would be able to play a song. I just wanted to give them the chance to try it out. I love seeing the different ways kids approach a piano - it so often parallels with their personality. The shyer/quieter ones - like Eveling and Adrianita didn't even want to try it at first... whereas little Miss Eva - she's a talker and most certainly has a mind of her own - was ready to play away. Some of the kids only used one finger, and touched one note at a time, as though they were afraid of making a mistake. Others went at it full force and just jammed away... and others attempted to imitate my playing. I actually did this activity with all of my music classes that day - although Pre-scholar was the most enjoyable... the first and second graders couldn't understand the concept of taking turns, no matter how many times I said only one at a time, wait your turn, make a line, no pushing, etc. etc. With my dear first graders I got so frustrated that I had to turn the keyboard off and had them sing without it the rest of the class. But you know, they sang with so much joy and enthusiasm, and still loved me... even when the kids get unruly and my head starts to hurt a bit these kids bring a smile to my face!¿Es para enseñar música?
¿Puedes tocarlo?
Another day last week I had to teach 5 Art classes, three groups of first graders and two groups of second graders (they had art and computer classes back to back - so we split them up). It was a surprise because there is an art teacher at the school (who was hired to teach English and also has been teaching art... although he's not a very arty person - he was just available and they didn't have a volunteer to teach it at the start of the semester) but he didn't show up that day. So rather than my being there to help him teach art, I had to come up with an idea... and just go with it. Well it's October, and Halloween is coming -
sidenote: Nicaraguans do not celebrate Halloween, as it doesn't have the reputation that it has in the USA, you know a day for kids to dress up and eat candy, the no-harm-Halloween... however, it is slowly becoming more accepted, and Cheryl Avery (project director) likes Halloween, and wants the kids to have the fun of experiencing dressing up in costumes and getting candy and making jack-o-lanterns etc. Therefore, Chacocente celebrates Halloween in the school.
So, we made spiders to decorate the classrooms. These spiders were awesome. I made one as an example... cut out a construction paper body, added some pipe cleaner legs, some puffy eyes, and then made a spider web out of yarn with popsicle sticks as the frame for it... and hung my spider from it... Then I got the kids started. Some of them thought the spider was so cool - but were completely unconfident in doing it themselves. The second graders were significantly more independent and creative, adding detail and color and personality. The first graders took awhile to catch on to this. But although the classes were frustrating because it was a lot of cutting and glueing and helping... paper and yarn flying everywhere and a lot of yelling "¡No toca!" y "Un momento!" y "¡Esperate!" y "Necesitas secarlo!" My voice hurt, I was tired, I had a headache, I didn't know if I had helped everyone... but at the end of each class I had a desk covered with the awesomest, most creative, paper spiders... of all different forms, colors, shapes, sizes... and the kids as well as both Profesores Yamileth y Marbel were pumped to hang them up in the classroom!
This weekend I had the unfortunate experience of being sick - Friday and Saturday. My stomach was horrible, I slept from 4 pm on Friday until 8 am on Saturday, and lounged around most of Saturday, slowly recuperating. I missed church Friday which was disheartening because I so enjoy worship here, I'm always so filled with the spirit worshipping with my brothers and sisters in mi iglesia here in Sabana Grande... but you know some days I'm going to be sick. Some days are going to be rough... some days I am just going to want to go home, but I have to get through it. If it wasn't a bit rough, then where would the reward be? If I didn't have a little struggle, how could I feel accomplishment? Being sick gave me a lot of opportunity to think - which is something I really love to do... I did a lot of meditating, and praying, and writing... and it was refreshing. Then, today not only did I feel better physically, but I woke up so refreshed mentally... just ready to praise the Lord; after all it's Sunday!
Culto was so meaningful today (both this morning and tonight). This morning one thing we did in church was read Joshua 1:8 over and over to memorize it, and then Pastor Pablo had people in the congregation recite it from memory. So, I'm trying to memorize it too, and I mostly have. What made this "exercise" (for lack of a better term) so special for me was that everyone in the church participated without a thought. Everyone saw the purpose in memorizing a scripture... it's not to be able to recite it in front of the church, or some useless activity to take up time... it's to imprint the words on your mind and your heart... to mull them over, and have them mean something to you... God's words in Joshua 1:8 reflect an important discipline of the Christian walk...
Nunca se apartará de tu boca este libro de la Ley, sino que de día y de noche meditarás en él, para que guardes y hagas conforme a todo lo que está escrito en él, porque entonces harás prosperar tu camino y todo te saldrá bien. Josué 1:8
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. Joshua 1:8 NLT
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