It's been awhile....

Hello World!

I’m sorry that I haven’t written in so long! Time sure flies by here! I’m sitting at a table at a resort about a mile from the campus. It’s been a crazy past week! As some of you might have heard, I had to make a last-minute trip to the Emergency Room about this time last week, because I had acquired some CRAZY allergic reaction to who-knows-what, and my ankle and hands were ridiculously swollen, thus the trip to the ER. 

When I got there, I was actually surprised at how nice it actually was. It was air-conditioned and relatively clean. However, after I had waited for about an hour for a doctor, (it was about 10pm by then) they decided to keep me overnight to make sure that my reaction wouldn’t get any worse. (IE- no trouble breathing, or any more swelling) Anyways, I was released from the ER the next morning around 9:30AM, and was given some steroid (Prednisone- for the swelling) and a stronger version of Benedryl (for the hives). I went back to the campus and slept ALL DAY long… I was really groggy because of the medicine, and the next morning, I took a shower hoping to be able to go back to work, but I felt a little funny. (I think the medicine was making me a little nauseous and dizzy). So I decided to take the day off to try to rest some more. At one point, I had gotten up to do the dishes or something, felt a little funny, and the next thing I knew I woke up to my roommate standing over me, going “Carrie, are you OK?” Well, apparently I had passed out. But, I drank about a MILLION gallons of water, and ate a LOT of food, and I gained more energy. The next day I was able to go back to work, even though I still had woken up with a crazy rash. The rest of the week went by fairly well. I can say that I look forward to the weekends! Teaching is a LOT of work. I have a newfound respect for all of you teachers out there! I honestly should be working on my lesson plans right now… but I thought an update might be nice for you. Haha.

Hmmmm… okay well my kids! I have 21 in all, 11 girls and 10 boys. Let’s test my knowledge to see if I can name them all….. I have: Airi, Sunbeam, Sherina, Pete, Sechi, Leah, Junior, Rolinda, Romina, Andy, Neijen, Juslina, Dorcas, Shaelynn, Tim, Lennin, Kairirieta, Ebilla-Joe, and… oh boy, I am missing 2 of my students. I’m a horrible teacher. Oh well. Well, as you can see, I have a pretty diverse group. I have 4 Filipino girls who finish like in 5 minutes, the rest of the class takes about a half hour to do things, and I have one boy who doesn’t do anything in class…. At all. All in all though, my kids are really good kids. Their English is a lot more behind than I thought it would be by 5^th grade, but that’s okay. Last week we reviewed sentences and non-sentences, verbs, and subjects. They can be quite a handful. I mean, 21 5^th graders to 1 teacher is quite a challenge. I don’t have like one student who is like a “problem student” or anything, but if one student in the class acts up, the rest tend to follow until I feel like I’m having to yell to get their attention. I’ve adopted the ever-so-famous clap that we used at Summer Camp. I’ve also adopted the Q.U.I.E.T technique from my 6^th grade teacher. (If they get all 5 letters spelt out in one day, the whole class has to sit out during recess) Pray for my kids. I have 3 Christian students, and the rest are not really any religion at all I guess. Pray for me to be able to reach them. This is a mission school, so reaching them for Christ is my first goal.

 

Well, a few of you have asked for things that I might need. Well, here’s a looong list (please don’t send me all of these, haha these are just ideas!) I did sit down and make a list this morning.

Here it goes:

-       Hair-ties (I’m running out! I keep losing those stupid things)

-       Instant food (Mashed potatoes, pasta, ANYTHING! Food is soooo expensive here)

-       Recipes (I need to learn how to cook! We’re really into making bread in our bread maker here, we’ve made like a loaf a day, it’s amazing. I could always use new recipes or a cookbook!)

-       Any 5^th grade activity ideas you might have! I’ve been having a hard time making lessons more interesting. I mean, the stuff is, let’s be realistic, boring. But I need to able to make learning fun. Any ideas?

-       I can always use more skirts! (As long as they’re past the knee, they’re OK. We’ll be getting uniform shirts soon, so skirts are basically all I need)

-       Music tracks (They’re always asking for special music like 5 minutes before church starts. I’m really wanting to find a music track for songs by Selah. I’m wanting to sing Wonderful, Merciful, Savior or Hiding Place. But anything goes!)

-       Books. (I brought a grand total of ONE book to read, and I’m going crazy! I am a big fan of like Christian novels and stuff)

-       Peanut butter! It’s soooooo expensive here for like a little tiny jar (it’s nasty stuff too. Like the sugary unnatural stuff)

 

Well, my list was a lot longer this morning, but I can’t really remember it all… Anyways, I hope you all are doing well! I’m sorry I haven’t been updating this as much as I’d like… things have been really hectic and crazy here. I’m sure I’ll start to get used to it soon… Love you all! Keep me in your prayers! ;)

 

-Carrie