smelly teacher Angela...

These kids are incredible! I often think I know how great they are, but then they surprise me all over again. Gruar last night was awesome, as always. It was only raining a bit on the way over, but by the time we started to unload and set up it was coming down hard, so we relocated further into the squatter where there's some shelter. The venue is smaller and cramped, but we were mostly dry and managed to do our songs, skit, prayers and hand out food :) Milet told the story of the feeding of the 5000. I mostly held Mae Mae- I got to meet her little brother and parents yesterday. It was really cool to talk with them briefly. They told me that I'm Mae Mae's favourite, and of course I told them that she is mine. Not that I should have any favourites, but it's always going to be true that some kids stand out. They are ALL special. Her English has improved since last year when she didn't speak any at all! I'm very proud of her. And I've learned more Tagalog now, so our communication is improving all the time :)

Perhaps I should lay out what my weekly schedule looks like. I realized I've never done that before, maybe it gets confusing sometimes? Anyway here it is:

Monday:

• I teach the Grade 3 reading class at 9:00 am,
• Grade 2 reading class at 11:40am,
• East Avenue, Quezon City children's ministry from 5:00pm-10:30pm

Tuesday:

• Grade 3 and 2 reading class
• Bagong Silang squatter village ministry at 4 or 5:00pm, then dinner at the church

Wednesday:

• Grade 3 and 2 reading class
• Prayer meeting at 7 or 8:00pm

Thursday:

• Grade 3 and 2 reading class
• Preparing food for Gruar from 11:00am- 4 or 5:00pm
• Gruar squatter village ministry at 5:00pm

Friday:

• Grade 3 and 2 reading class
• Worship practice at 8:00 (?) pm

Fridays are rather quiet for me.... I can do lots of reading and sleeping on fridays!

Saturday:

• Superkids children's ministry (400 kids) from 8:00am-1 or 2:00pm

Saturdays are definitely the longest and most tiring days, but also so much fun. It's nice to have a good rest after the chaos of hanging out with, then feeding 400 kids. Trust me, you cannot imagine what it's like unless you've seen it! haha.

Sunday:

• Church at 10:00am
• Youth group at 6:00pm

There are almost always people at the church, so I will usually hang out with whoever's around during the hours in between events. They end up being full days, which is so good, and I'm very happy about that. I prayed before I came that I wouldn't let one day be a waste. I don't want to take any of my time here for granted, which is sometimes hard when it's so hot and all I want to do is lay down with the fan on.. haha. And I do that too, but I'm usually with people. Community is so important here. It's a cultural aspect that I love and am growing accustomed to. 'Alone time' is experienced when you are showering, in the bathroom, or going to bed. Haha. And I like that!

About showering, maybe I should explain for my Canadian friends what bathing is like here. I have a bucket, and a smaller dipper. I fill the bucket with water, and splash it on myself using the dipper. Once nice thing about a dipper bath, is that you can let the water sit out and get a little warmer, so it's not such a shock to splash cold water on yourself. Also, you waste a lot less water bathing this way. I quite enjoy my bucket baths. I have one every night, one in between classes in the morning, and one in the middle of the day to cool down.

One of the students gave me a bar of soap today. I didn't understand at first, I thought he was playing a joke on me, trying to say that I'm smelly! But Ate Mona explained later that his father works in a soap factory! So sweet little Jules was giving me a gift. What a blessing to receive a gift from small hands that have so little already.

I love my students, I love my classes, I love the squatter village kids, I love the Superkids, I love the youth of the church, I love the leadership of the church, and I love my God for bringing me here.

"Good morning class..." "Good morning Teacher Angela!"

Today was my first day teaching, and it was a total success!! None of the kids died, or got hurt, or cried, and they were all dismissed with smiles on their faces :D So... better than I expected!

I took over Ate Beth's grade 2 class today because she was at an orientation. It was only a half day of school anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Starting tomorrow and for the rest of my time here I'll be teaching the grade 3 Reading class at 9:00, and the grade 2 Reading class at 11. So that leaves me with an hour long break in between.. I'm sure there will be more work to be done tomorrow, but I'm going to try to sneak away to watch some of the Boston/Vancouver game. I can't believe that the team I've been cheering for all along is playing for the Stanley Cup tomorrow and I'm not with my family to see it. Kind of sad.

After school I'll have an hour to bathe, rest, and get lunch, and then I'll join the youth to prepare for our ministry in Gruar. My favourite squatter!! I don't know what our ulam will be tomorrow, but the cooking will commence as early as 11 in the morning and then we'll start bagging it all in the afternoon so we're ready to drive there for 5 ish. I'm so excited to see Mae Mae again! We didn't get to go last week because it was raining too hard, so I've only seen her once since I've been back- the day I got here. That's what the picture is from. I'm still in my travel clothes, haven't showered or anything, but I was so excited to see her and the other kids I had to go!

I'll be waking up at 7 or 8 tomorrow to go get breakfast and eat and pick my stories for the classes and I'm already tired at 11:30 so I should really go to bed. Goodnight!

stuck in bed.

yes, I am stuck in bed. So why not take this opportunity to write a little catch up post? It's not even so much gross, as it is truly impressive the amount of phlegm I'm coughing up these days! Just where does it come from, I'd like to know? I'm like an endless pit of mucus, every day I could fill a cup! (Nasty enough?) Like I said, I'm stuck in bed, so I'll attempt to gain some entertainment from the thought of you cringing and imagining the expression on your face as you read.

Lisa and I had planned to go to a large, wonderful market called Greenhills today (Lisa is the 19 year old daughter of Pastor Ding and Ate Mona), but Mona advised that I not go. I've had this awful cough for 4 days now and recently with the addition of diarrhea and a fever, I haven't been feeling so hot. I tried to make it but I'm too dizzy even to walk around the church so it's a no-go.

I was up at 7 this morning for the parents orientation. We went through the school handbook and discussed boring school things, but I saw some of the students I'll be teaching which makes me so excited. I was also introduced to the parents so now they'll know who the crazy white girl teaching their kids how to read is. The church offers schooling for preschool and grades 1 through 3. There are ten grade three students enrolled, and everything I've heard suggests that they're a really good group.

Yesterday was cool, after church I went home with the Teodoro's (the pastor and his family) and had lunch with them :) Their dog, who bites everyone and is usually very protective and mean actually let me pet him! Lunch was great and then I went back to the church to hang out with a couple of the girls. We got some Sprite and borrowed a movie and watched in my room with the fan on. It would have been really good, quality bonding time if the movie selection had been a bit better. One of the girls picked Scary Movie, and I knew it would be crude, but I did NOT remember it being as bad as it was! We were laughing of course, but I don't think we'll watch it again haha. This is an extremely modest culture so Scary Movie was rather shocking...

I tried turning the air-con on for half an hour to cool down my room, which was glorious, but as soon as I turned it off it went right back to being hot, hot, hot. I'm sucking back gatorade and trying to work up an appetite but so far, wala pa. With the humidity it's a cool 44 degrees. Not all that great when you already have a fever!! Anyway... sleep well, Canada, God bless you!