Hello all.
Well we still have no internet at home and no Vonage. this is sad. but the kicker is that someone stole our digital camera out of my class room. it saddens me greatly not just for the loss of the camera but it had to be someone within the school that did it. THAT is what makes me the saddest.
Teaching is going well. i think i have gotten a grip on this lesson planning thing. :) I just hope that the kids are actually learning everything they should be!
The weather is cooling down too, and that makes me happy. the average of late is around 74 or 75 it is beautiful. we went out to a movie this past tuesday with all Peruvians, not a single american amongst us. It was good for us. the movie was in english with spanish subtitles, that is the way peruvians prefer it. it just made me happy to do something "normal"
We desperately miss being able to connect with our loved ones at home (the States) and are praying with great determination that something will give and we will have either internet or vonage soon.
Thank you all for all the payer support you are giving to us, trust us it helps!
Love and miss you all very much
Cindy
Friday, April 25, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Third week...
As of today I have been in Lima Peru for three weeks. I am in the midst of teaching my third week. I have to admit that I am unsure of how it is going. i am also going to have to tell you i am no longer using capital letters. i am using the computer at school and the keyboard is slighty different, to allow for some Spanish keys such as รง and ¿ and the shift key is much smaller and i keep hitting< instead of the shift key. i can no longer stand to stop and back up to erase the < and find the shift. so there will be no capital letters for the remainder of blog. moving on, every time i think i am getting a handle on this job something happens and i think that there is no way i am getting through to these kids. sigh. they are a joy to watch when they finally understand some new concept or word, it just seems not to happen nearly enough. i know that i will get this and that they are learning and i just need to chill. so job wise i am dealing fairly well. today some of it went really great and then the afternoon went horribly wrong. not wrong just crazy. I need to get more creative in the afternoons to hold their nearly exhausted attentions.
now for the home side of things. we are struggling. we are cut off from all our family and friends. tomorrow is kira's birthday and we do not have a way with which to call her and sing to her. emily was not able to call katrina on tuesday and sing to her. it is all very frustrating. we think that the vonage router has been fried. the power lights come on for about 7 seconds adn then fade, while the router itself begins to smell hot and we frantically unplug it. this was enough to send me into tears last night. we would use skype or something like that execpt our computer will not connect to the internet. and for the wonderful persons who gave us the computer, you are right the computer works fine....i am NOT too thrilled with the lenovo software however. :) but that just means we have nothing. no way to call to the people who help us maintain our sanity. no way to email our frustration out to those who calm us while we are at home. yes we can email for school but that mean staying here longer and there are some days that the LAST thing i want to do is stay here longer...but those are the days when i need ot blog the most. it is just a crappy situation that satan is taking joy in and that just ticks me off more. So the long and short of it is that we need a new router for vonage we have no idea how much that is, that (i think) means that we will have to get a new number as well, but I will have to ask kris about that. I just keep trying to focus on the fact that life IS good and God IS faithful, instead of thinking about how much satan is messing with me.
okay so the tone of this email is pretty down and for the most part i am not down. I really like where i live, what i do, and i am amazed at how much life is the same here as in the states.
yesterday i learned how to make a Peruvian dish with rice, beef, chicken, ham, egg, peas, peppers, and soy sauce. it is really yummy and makes a ton. I had it for breakfast and lunch.
hooray!!! two of my Peruvian coworkers just came and asked if i would help them with their English for 1....huh there is no backslash on this key board.....asked if i could help them with English for half an hour two days a week and then for the next half hour we would work on my Spanish!!!! God is so freaking awesome!!!!! so we will work on conversational english and Spanish Tuesdays and Thursdays after class. Well I should prolly sign off and go do lesson planning for tomorrow and next week. love ya all
cindy
now for the home side of things. we are struggling. we are cut off from all our family and friends. tomorrow is kira's birthday and we do not have a way with which to call her and sing to her. emily was not able to call katrina on tuesday and sing to her. it is all very frustrating. we think that the vonage router has been fried. the power lights come on for about 7 seconds adn then fade, while the router itself begins to smell hot and we frantically unplug it. this was enough to send me into tears last night. we would use skype or something like that execpt our computer will not connect to the internet. and for the wonderful persons who gave us the computer, you are right the computer works fine....i am NOT too thrilled with the lenovo software however. :) but that just means we have nothing. no way to call to the people who help us maintain our sanity. no way to email our frustration out to those who calm us while we are at home. yes we can email for school but that mean staying here longer and there are some days that the LAST thing i want to do is stay here longer...but those are the days when i need ot blog the most. it is just a crappy situation that satan is taking joy in and that just ticks me off more. So the long and short of it is that we need a new router for vonage we have no idea how much that is, that (i think) means that we will have to get a new number as well, but I will have to ask kris about that. I just keep trying to focus on the fact that life IS good and God IS faithful, instead of thinking about how much satan is messing with me.
okay so the tone of this email is pretty down and for the most part i am not down. I really like where i live, what i do, and i am amazed at how much life is the same here as in the states.
yesterday i learned how to make a Peruvian dish with rice, beef, chicken, ham, egg, peas, peppers, and soy sauce. it is really yummy and makes a ton. I had it for breakfast and lunch.
hooray!!! two of my Peruvian coworkers just came and asked if i would help them with their English for 1....huh there is no backslash on this key board.....asked if i could help them with English for half an hour two days a week and then for the next half hour we would work on my Spanish!!!! God is so freaking awesome!!!!! so we will work on conversational english and Spanish Tuesdays and Thursdays after class. Well I should prolly sign off and go do lesson planning for tomorrow and next week. love ya all
cindy
Monday, April 07, 2008
Speed Bumps
So things here are good. Both MLE and I are getting a grip on the whole lesson planning thing and moving forward with our classes.
the technological side of life is more than a bit vexing...our computer is possessed, or something. It doesn't like to connect to the internet...i don't know maybe the net said something that offended it and now they aren't talking? What ever it was it seems they have worked it out because it spontaneously started connecting to the internet again. How long this will last who can say but for now we are just grateful that it is working again. We haven't yet been able to get our vonage working so we were totally dis connected from our friends and family for several stress filled days when it would have been nice to talk...but we made it through and now we are even more grateful for the internet when we do have it.
I think I am going to be able to do this job. I am still a little shakey but I think it will all be okay. What I am really anxious about is learning Spanish. I am praying that God gives me the ability to learn it quickly without major frustrations.
Wani: the weather here right now is 76.8 and I am wearing long-sleeves because it feels a little cool tonight. The high today was like 86 or so. It is kinda funny, I never have to look at a weather report...it will be sunny and hot. No rain, no thunderstorms, no snow. Later on I am told that it will be foggy in the morning not as hot then sunny and mild in the afternoon, then even later than that it is just foggy. August is the height of winter here so it is very foggy then.
Random thoughts to close us out:
22 four-year-olds are too many in one class.
I like having someone else clean the apartment.
I don't like "the forgeiners welcome" illness.
I can buy Pantene shampoo plus conditioner here in Lima.
I cannot buy diet Dr. Pepper.
I can buy Sprite Zero.
22 four-year-olds are too many in one class.
the technological side of life is more than a bit vexing...our computer is possessed, or something. It doesn't like to connect to the internet...i don't know maybe the net said something that offended it and now they aren't talking? What ever it was it seems they have worked it out because it spontaneously started connecting to the internet again. How long this will last who can say but for now we are just grateful that it is working again. We haven't yet been able to get our vonage working so we were totally dis connected from our friends and family for several stress filled days when it would have been nice to talk...but we made it through and now we are even more grateful for the internet when we do have it.
I think I am going to be able to do this job. I am still a little shakey but I think it will all be okay. What I am really anxious about is learning Spanish. I am praying that God gives me the ability to learn it quickly without major frustrations.
Wani: the weather here right now is 76.8 and I am wearing long-sleeves because it feels a little cool tonight. The high today was like 86 or so. It is kinda funny, I never have to look at a weather report...it will be sunny and hot. No rain, no thunderstorms, no snow. Later on I am told that it will be foggy in the morning not as hot then sunny and mild in the afternoon, then even later than that it is just foggy. August is the height of winter here so it is very foggy then.
Random thoughts to close us out:
22 four-year-olds are too many in one class.
I like having someone else clean the apartment.
I don't like "the forgeiners welcome" illness.
I can buy Pantene shampoo plus conditioner here in Lima.
I cannot buy diet Dr. Pepper.
I can buy Sprite Zero.
22 four-year-olds are too many in one class.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Day Three of teaching...
Wednesday : Morning- Was great! We did Bible and Zoo-phonics. Miss Carmen told them the story of how Adam and Eve got thrown out of Eden and had two sons, Cain and Able. Then she told how they didn't get along and Cain was mad because God liked Able's gift more than his. All this was done in Spanish. Then we sang the Zoo Phonics song and practiced many of the sounds together. Then it was time for "lunch" Which is really just a nice snack, because in Peruvian culture the main meal of the day is eating mid afternoon, by which time my kids are at home. Then recess. It was after recess that it all went to pot. Carmen agrees with me on this one. In her words..."It was a hard day today...are you planning on coming back?" She said this with a grin.
This schedule is just murder on the kids. Every twenty minutes (Basically) we line up and go to another room, and the kids that are currently in that room come back with me. It is NUTS. I spend more time getting the kids to walk quietly without messing with each other than I do teaching them anything! It is very frustrating. I need to talk with Ivan and/or Nancy and see if they have any ideas...never mind I will just talk to Nancy, Ivan hasn't ever had real life experience with P-4.
Today is our third roommate Katie's 30th Birthday!!!! Last night some people came over and we had cake and ice cream, chips and drinks it was nice. Tonight Nancy, Emily, and I are taking her out to eat. It should be an enjoyable time of fellowship. I am going to go lay down for a while before I have to get up and start doing lesson planning for next week.
Keep up the good work people, if we don't give up we might just make it through this day!
This schedule is just murder on the kids. Every twenty minutes (Basically) we line up and go to another room, and the kids that are currently in that room come back with me. It is NUTS. I spend more time getting the kids to walk quietly without messing with each other than I do teaching them anything! It is very frustrating. I need to talk with Ivan and/or Nancy and see if they have any ideas...never mind I will just talk to Nancy, Ivan hasn't ever had real life experience with P-4.
Today is our third roommate Katie's 30th Birthday!!!! Last night some people came over and we had cake and ice cream, chips and drinks it was nice. Tonight Nancy, Emily, and I are taking her out to eat. It should be an enjoyable time of fellowship. I am going to go lay down for a while before I have to get up and start doing lesson planning for next week.
Keep up the good work people, if we don't give up we might just make it through this day!
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