(Almost) Two Week Update

Life here is good... I have been teaching English for almost two weeks and I enjoy it. It's hard though. My students are at different levels within their classes and although I generally can teach harder and harder things the higher the grade level there are kids in every class who aren't up to par with the class in general (they haven't all been at El Sembrador last year) and their are some kids who speak better English than the rest of the class (a lot of them are from Roatan where there are lots of tourists or from Tegucigalpa where some churches have programs for kids to learn English), but anyhow...it's hard to know what level I should really be teaching at.
I have curriculum, but it's not the best (there are a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, so I use it a little and make up the rest. I try to not stay on the same concept or exercise all class...and just go back and review several concepts everyday. My theory is that it's more natural. One thing we go over almost every day is a memory verse. I plan to give them a new one every month. This month I chose a short one: Romans 3:23 :For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Last week I had a night art class. I didn't do much teaching, this was kind of an informal preliminary one. The kids just sat around and drew pictures to be framed and sold. I chose the best 3 (out of about 20) and they are now for sale in the room where the school keeps things to sell to work teams who come.

My life here in general is pretty simple...my roommate and I take turns cooking and cleaning and our food is pretty much made from scratch...all tomato-based sauces are made from tomato paste that we season. We buy our bread usually, but I made some this week. I made homemade pizza (crust and all)the other day...things like that. My roommate is an the daughter of missionaries (she actually lived out here when her father was the director of the school) and she can cook a lot-which is great cause she knows a lot more about making Honduran food than I do. She taught me how to make tortillas the other day :-)

I teach in the mornings (at least 3 classes, today it was 5). In the afternoon I do dishes and plan of the next day and catch up on anything that might need catching up on. At night I either stay in with my roommate and watch a movie or I hang out and watch the boys play soccer and help some of them with their English homework.

It's a very different life from what I am used to. I can't just hop in my car and drive to Walmart for a frozen pizza. I can't just phone a friend up to go do something. There are no dishwashers and putting off cleaning could mean that my apartment would soon be flooded by cockroaches and ants. Teaching classroom fulls of teenage boys is far outside my comfort zone. I get up before dawn and am in bed by ten.

Some of these things may sound negative. And at times they feel negative. But I believe that they will produce huge positives in my life. I have to rely on God more. I have to learn to do things in ways that art always the fastest or easiest. And my prayer is that what I do this year will change me and make me better prepared for future service. And that God would use me.