“To learn and never be filled, is wisdom; to teach and never be weary, is love.”

Hey!

We have started running new courses at the project, and things have started really well, in fact on thursday I had one of the best days at the project that I've had in a long time, and that was mainly due to the fact that we had help this time around.

So, at the moment one of the classes that I am teaching is Drama. If anyone reading this has ever seen me act, they might think that that's a bad idea. It's kind of like my Choir teacher in 7th grade, who always invited me to be in the choir, and then asked me not to sing, during the shows, well my drama is similar to that, I spent most of my school years in the school productions, I even landed some of the main parts, but it's not hard to do that when you are a 12 year old, I believe that the main descriptions of my acting skills use the words 'over' and 'acting'. BUT here I am, the kids all got really excited to do drama, so I thought that that would be a really good idea, so far, the classes have been absolutely full, it's just that, these kids idea of drama is to read a line off a piece of paper, while looking at the ground. The concept of ad libing does not really compute, because it just means that the kids grab a piece of paper and pen and write down the lines just before they say them. I realise that it's a question of confidence, but I feel that maybe this is going to be a little bit above my head, we shall see, I used most of the pastors internet capabilities (what is this limited internet all about???) looking for skits and plays online, because I really don't have enough time to write all the stuff myself, only to realise that translating it will take just about as much time anyway. Goodness.

I also teach ART, and yet again, maybe not one of my talents, but it has been one of my favorite classes, and yet again I am grateful for the internet for cheat sheets on how to teach, and what to teach. I feel a little bit of a fraud getting all of my material off the internet, but I am pretty sure that the way that things are going, we aren't going to be taught by people for long, apart from IT classes from the age of 5 up, after which wikipedia will be our main sources of learning. So I don't feel that bad in the end. Last week we did colour contrasts and Andy Warhol, and this week we are doing Georgia O'Keefe, I'm not entirely sure that they quite understand the concepts that I am showing them, but they are impressed that the Pastor lets us use the projector in the classes, so they still come along, and in some cases produce some pretty good work, I must admit.

The other class that I enjoy a lot as well is Sports, we've had a couple of weeks of volleyball and due to the help that I had this week from a couple of teenagers I as actually able to teach the kids about serving and lifting the ball (at which point my volleyball knowledge ends, so we're playing dodgeball next week - or maybe I'll look up some strategies on the internet, they must have virtual volleyball training?).

I have also been giving tutoring in Geography and History and some sciences as well, which I have absolutely absolutely loved. I almost feel like I have found a new calling as a human geography teacher! Well maybe not, but the classes have gone really well, and I am happy to say that my little student has learnt a little about how Mexico was formed, about their 1917 constitution and how the Americans robbed the Colombians of Panama. I was quite surprised at some of the wording of the textbooks when related to the United States, I don't think that the Brazilian educators are fans of the good ol' US of A. Which is interesting considering that USA is considered as close to paradise as you can get on earth out here, it seems to be the destination of choice when I ask people if they could go to any place in the world, at this moment, where would you go? (Mine is Cuba, still).

apart from project and preparing for classes not that much excitement has happened here. Daily grind....Finally. It makes you feel most comfortable in a place when you kind of wish that you had holidays to travel. That's when I know that I have settled. I have been struggling a little with missing friends again this week, for the past couple of months I've been getting on really happily and not been missing people too much, but at the moment it would be great to have a friend who knows me well to complain or moan too, because mostly if I complain or moan here, it has to be with good reason because it's taken so seriously, whereas you guys mainly just dismiss it as my manic ramblings.

In anycase
Love you
God Bless

Emma

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions-Samuel Butler

Image
Man, Brazil has a lot of bank holidays. THANK the LORD. This month of November there are two coming up, and to be honest, we need them. There are loads of exciting things happening in the next month or two, but it means that we are snowed under with preparation and kids, loving it, but add that to a particularly busy time at seminary handing in essays and such, means that I am a little fed up, and a little more than a little tired. This week has been particularly hard, and at the start of the week on Monday made we want to cry that it wasn't already Friday, but then I was blessed, and blessed again (with the help of our awesome teens) and have been blessed all week, and have made it to Wednesday without incident, and with several good days at the project, so I think I'm going to make it! On Sunday we had an amazing time at Children's day, we rented 5 different 'games' for the kids, two trampolines, two bouncy castles and one ballpit for the little ones and it was a ...
Read more

“Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.”

Image
We have moved into our new space! Giving thanks! Especially since we have managed to go down from four services to two services, since in our new temporary home in the side hall we have more space for more people, although having said that, the services were full and we might have to add a third service. The worship band is nervous, it's a long day for them and the teaching pastor! Since we have moved into the side hall there are some new challenges that we need to over come and of course the first weeks will be trying to resolve any issues big or small. This week we realised that the air conditioning isn't enough and that the exit is a bottle neck. These are issues we can fix, small fiddly things, our bigger problem is that in between services someone tried to break in through our back door, which is not as secure because of the building project. This alongside some beaurocratic paperwork has taken away a little from the joy of the blessing of the new space. But, ultimate...
Read more

“Into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary.”

Image
Hi, I'm Emma, and I'm late with my blog, again. Pleased to meet you. Well most, if not all of you, already know me, so this should come as no surprise to you, so apologies again. Also if I have promised to email or call you, I probably won't do that in a timely fashion either. But if you are a future employer, I am very punctual with my work. Right. I was just having a little clean of my room, which means that in fact I had a sandal in one hand and was trying to kill the monster ants that have nested in my wardrobe. While I was killing these ants I was struck with the thought that, well firstly, this feels a little like a massacre, with little ant bodies lying all over my floor, do you think that ants can recognize death of a species member, and then I wondered if they did, would they have a sense of self protection and panic, and I felt quite bad. And then I didn't. It's me or them, I am not sharing my room. So that was the end of that. In any case the reason that...
Read more