Random

Since I've been bad about writing on here, I've got all sorts of random stories and thoughts, so here's a few.

Beauty
Last week one of the vice-principals invited me to visit a little village over an hour from Macas, where she used to live, called Pablo IV. We got on the bus at 8am and I got a great view of the amazing countryside here. As we were driving along, it hit me that I'm extremely blessed to be surrounded by such beauty. Alongside the road are innumerable banana/plantain trees, tall trees that look like they could reach the sky, tall grasses, ferns of all shapes and sizes, and the amazing fruit plants that grow wild here. The diversity still astounds me and I can't get over it. I love seeing this one kind of plant, it looks like fan-shaped grass, with a tall stalk that divides itself and kind of falls over. It's so different from the plants back in the Willamette Valley that it fascinates me. The amazing part of all this is the weather. All of these plants were shining brightly under a deep blue sky, with the sun overhead. As we got closer to the village, we could see Sangay, the closest volcano to Macas, getting bigger and bigger. It's nearly a perfect triangle and when it's a clear day in Macas, everyone tries to take a picture of it, it's gorgeous, but this time I could see it without any effort at all!

Pablo IV
It was fun to be able to visit a small town/village and meet Maria's friends. I think what made the most impression on me, though, was the church we went to Saturday night. Pablo IV doesn't even have it's own Evangelical church, but there's one in a smaller community about 20 minutes outside the town. We weren't planning on going to church until the leader (too small to have a pastor) showed up in his truck to give us a ride. We bumped along on the dirt/rock road for 15-20 minutes, picking up some guys, along the side of the road, who wanted a ride in the back of the truck (very common here, since not too many people have cars, and a way for people to bless others). We got to the place where we were going to have the service and I realized that it was someone's house. We met in the living room, a tiny room with benches on 3 sides and a tv stand on the 4th. The 2 guys started setting up a microphone and sound system. I couldn't figure out why on earth they would want a sound system in such a small, cement-block room. Once the service started, I understood; they broadcast the service to the area, so that people can listen in, even if they're too scared or proud to attend in person, they can still learn from it. Maria introduced me as a missionary to the leader who then proceeded to ask if I would be able to share with the group. For those who've known me since high school/college, this is a very amusing request. I don't do well speaking in front of people anywhere near my age! However, I couldn't refuse, so I said that I could share my testimony. Before he invited me up front, he asked if I would be willing to share my name with them, so that they could put me on their prayer list. It was so very humbling to hear a small group of people from a little tiny village, in the jungles of Ecuador, pray for me, living in a relatively civilized city, with nearly all of the modern comforts of anywhere in the world! Throughout the night people kept showing up, until there was a grand total of about 14 in the room. As I was sitting there, I was reminded that this was how the entire church started, a small group of people meeting in a small room in someone's house. From that little beginning, God changed the world! It was a very different style of worship from what I was used to, much more Pentacostal, but I still felt extremely privileged to be allowed to be a part of it, even for just one night.

Students
People keep asking me how school is going and I tell them that it's going well. The truth is, I love all of my classes! Of course, some of them drive me more crazy than others, others are learning faster than others, but all are fun, in their own way. Unfortunately, I don't have too many pictures of the students because when I'm with them, I'm usually too busy teaching to take pictures, so I've been accused by April, my sister, that I'm just playing here, when in reality, the majority of my day is with my students! :) The 3 year old class continues to amaze me with how far they've come from the first day. Looking back at my lesson plans, the first week was "console crying 3 year olds". Now they can listen to a story in English, they've started singing along to Jesus Loves Me, they color (sometimes even in the lines) and can tell me a couple colors in English! The 4 year olds have really picked up on colors and family members and love The Wheels on the Bus, I think I'm going to try to incorporate that song into every theme. :) So far we've done school and family members, we'll see what else I can tie into it! My first grade classes are always entertaining, but they've gotten to the point in understanding English where I don't have to give any part of the instructions for the activity in Spanish anymore! I just demonstrate while saying the English directions and then ask what they're supposed to do and they know it! :) The second graders are my most challenging class, it's the largest class and the one with the most new students to the school (well, aside from the preschool), so several of the kids are still figuring out what school's for and how to behave in a classroom. But even with all of that, they're learning the alphabet and vocabulary and also continue to amaze me with what they remember. The third graders are probably my most fun class, aside from the 3 year olds, because they're learning to read in English and so can do much more than the others. Class isn't all about pictures, but words, too (and I love words!). For the Christmas program, the 2nd and 3rd graders are going to sing Away in the Manger, in English, so we've been working on learning the words in those 2 classes. The first time I sang it with them, I wrote the words on the board, drawing pictures for some of the words, so that they would have an idea of what the song was about. Before I even finished writing the first line, I heard about half the class trying to read the words aloud and doing a decent job of it! Today, a bunch of the third graders said the song was too hard to learn and I told them that I was planning on having the words printed up for them to read while singing. The relief on their faces was hilarious! I love that I can use the written word to help them understand what we're doing. :)

That's all that I can think of at the moment, although I know I have more stories, they just aren't coming to mind, so I'll link to some pictures from Facebook for people to look at from Thanksgiving and my trip to Cuenca with Ivonne. :)
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129523&id=517974210&l=105d7b7d35