Quick year-in-review

New blog!

Hello readers! I am not sure if this was necessary, but I actually made a new blog to tell stories about my first teaching job! I'm not sure how often I'll update this, but I put my first post up last week, so check it out! I hope you are all growing closer to God everyday and putting Him first! Trust in Him with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. Our human logic sometimes leads us astray, which I can attest to firsthand, given my constant confusion and fatigue as I try to make sense of all the information and needs being dumped on me right now! Have a wonderful day!
Chao! Christina Joy

The new blog is http://www.noreservationsineb.blogspot.com

Nunca diga adios! Solo hasta luego!

Dear, dear friends and family, supporters and prayer warriors!
Time for a bit of closure, though I am quickly finding that there is no such thing as complete closure while one is still alive. There is no way to truly “wrap up all the loose ends” when a chapter of life is closing, but I will try my best right now, so that you can all hear about the end of my time in Ecuador and about my graduation from college, since that time definitely ran together for me.



Early in my last week in Guayaquil, Kiko’s sister Elvia took me to a huge display about Leonardo da Vinci’s work, and after we had wandered around and looked at the paintings, the inventions, and a movie about da Vinci’s life, we went with a bunch of her girlfriends from high school to have humitas and coffee at the house of one of the ladies. Elvia kept asking me if I was alright with the “old ladies,” but I really had a lovely time, and I found out that one of her friends was the grandmother of one of my students!



My last week with my kids went pretty well, even though I still had moments of frustration. I tried to appeal to the fact that it was my last week when working with North Carolina once, and only once. I don’t really understand the logic of twelve-year-olds; all I know is that all the advice I’ve ever heard is true—just don’t try to argue with them, because you will never win. I reminded them that it was my last week, so they should be nice and listen to me, but that started them all sobbing and being more disruptive than ever. It seemed as though they thought the more obnoxious they were, the more I would want to stay. Oh, well, it was my fault, and just a bad idea in general. Some of the kids were counting down the days, and would ask me often when I was leaving. The ecuatoriano teachers all asked me often as well, and at hearing the answer would say “Que pena, que pena,” which I found out means “What sorrow.” It made me really look forward to being able to be at the same school for a year or more and actually be able to form relationships with my fellow teachers and students. I still never got very many pictures with the other teachers, but there are a few that I will keep in touch with, and a few students as well, since we exchanged e-mail addresses.

During my last week my onsite supervisor, the director general Dr. Miller, came into the classroom to observe me three times. He is a bit gruff and thinks quite highly of himself, I think, but I did get some useful feedback from him. One thing that he emphasized is that I need to make my class more student-centered, which I want to do, but I don’t know how. He repeated some of what I have heard from other teachers, such as finding ways to use inductive teaching strategies, putting the students into cooperative learning groups so that they can help each other and not need as much assistance from me, and even having kids correct each other’s work when possible. He also said that this is going to take a lot of time on my part. I guess I knew that developing into a good teacher took time. Oh well.



On my last day, I knew there was some fun planned, though I didn’t know what, because Philip just said he had the lesson for each class covered. It was true—New Jersey and New York had a party for me as a reward for how well they had been doing speaking English in class. Things got a little crazy, but it was so fun, and I got so many hugs from all my students that day! They are all so sweet, even the naughty ones. Unfortunately, sometimes the naughty ones were my favorites, though I did pretty well never being too obvious about my hidden favoritism. I also got a lot of cards and gifts from my students. Domenica gave me lip gloss, Ernesto gave me a little leather coin purse, New York made at least three cards for me, and I got a lovely, very decorative card from Maria Carolina. I also was able to read Maria Paula’s short story before I left, which was about me! She wrote about how much she would miss me and about what I had taught her. I definitely did start crying a bit when I read that. I also indulged my love for encouragement and affirmation, and my need for feedback, by giving students an evaluation to fill out on my teaching. I asked them to tell me some things they had learned in my class, to tell me what their favorite activities were, to give me suggestions of what I could do better, and to write me a note to help me remember them. I still have not read all of them, because I have been pushing to get my senior seminar done, but I know I’ll get at least a little bit weepy! I love my kids, and hope that someday I’ll be able to go back and visit them!



Here is New Jersey. They were quite a rowdy class, but they were also very fun and very high achievers. They made the biggest gain of any section when I gave all the students a pre-assessment of literary terms and a post-assessment after we had studied the same terms and discussed them in light of the first short story we read. I was so proud of them, and hope that they will continue to respect Mr. Dixon so that they can have fun without driving him crazy. I love New Jersey!



Here is North Carolina. Oh, North Carolina. These students were very crazy and talkative some days, and most of them were not very good listeners. There were also a lot of them, and many of them did not know English well. The ones who did work hard and listen well often got frustrated with the rest of the class, which was hard. But I loved North Carolina because they were so quick to volunteer for anything in class, and they loved helping me. They also were all very sweet outside of class. I love North Carolina!



Here is New York. The kids in New York are very good friends, and they are very smart. Some of them grew up speaking both English and Spanish, which makes Colegio Americano a lot easier for them. They really liked playing games, like when we created a story about a galaxy of planets made out of candy and junk food. They were hard workers, and very patient with me when I was disorganized once in a while. I love New York!



Here is New Mexico. This was my class that knew the least English, and at least a few of them really do not speak any English at all. Since First Course is the first year of secundaria, many of the students in this class were new students whose parents had decided to move them for high school. All of the students who did not speak English smiled at me all the time, which was the same thing I did when people all around me were speaking Spanish, so we got along well. They were all such hard workers, and I saw some of them learn a lot in just a month! I love New Mexico!




So, as I said, I had a lovely last day at Colegio Americano, and then I went to visit Miss Patricia, the principal of the secundaria section, to say goodbye and thank you, though we had not really worked together very much. She was so sweet, and told me I couldn’t leave Colegio Americano without a piece of the chocolate cake she had and a gift from the bookstore that she called in for me. The two of us got a picture with Miss Marialaura, the director of Colegio Americano’s International Baccalaureate program, and Miss Sofia, the vice-principal and chemistry professor. We also had a fun time visiting about the friends that Miss Patricia has who are from Cottage Grove, Minnesota, and the bag with a Colegio Americano mug, keychain, and pen got to me just in time for me to run and catch the bus for the last time!



The next day I was working on reading and grading short stories, and that evening I celebrated my last big night in Guayaquil by going to church with my friend Darwin and going to a party at Philip’s apartment. I talked about Darwin a bit in an earlier entry—he was the friend who took me to a movie at the mall and to an anniversary party at another church. His church is Belem, which is the Spanish name for Bethlehem, and it is very small, but they had a good crowd out for their young adult service. Darwin spoke, and he was very nervous, but he did a good job. He spoke from Ecclesiastes, which I am reading for devotions now. It seems to be appropriate to read right at the end of a great achievement (graduating from college), because I need to keep my life in proper perspective and remember that nothing is worth more than a “chasing after the wind” without God. My life, my teaching, and my passion would be nothing without Him. Darwin was particularly talking about riches, among other things, which made me sit up and listen, since Pastor Paccha in Cuenca had preached about riches just the past Sunday at Cristo Vive. I always perk up my ears a bit when it seems that I’m getting the same message twice, and since I am a bit overly concerned about money right now (college loans and no job yet), I’m sure that He was just trying to remind me that all the wealth is His. Praise God that He is taking care of me, though I’m a bit anxious to be a tiny bit more secure!



After the service I chatted with Darwin’s friends for quite a while during praise team practice, and then Jessica and her boyfriend, a taxi driver, brought us over to Philip’s apartment, where Darwin and I said good bye and I went in to enjoy my coworkers from Colegio Americano one more time. Many of the teachers were there, though not quite everyone that I had hoped to say goodbye to, and significant others and friends as well. I had a really fun talk with Mikie, who teaches mid-level science and was almost my cooperating teacher, until they realized that I needed a cooperating teacher in my discipline. I also talked with some of the girls about where I was looking for jobs, and listened to Cat and Hannah dream about the vacation they want to take during vacation next year. I had my last chance to be totally immersed in Spanish, since Philip and I sat at the ecuatoriano table with his girlfriend Lorena and other friends, but we actually ended up speaking more Spanglish, which is still one of my favorite languages. I stayed ridiculously late, as usual, especially considering how early I needed to get up for my plane, but I was waiting to get all of my evaluations from Dr. Miller, which he had dropped off at Liam and Cat’s place. Once I got those, I let Philip call me a taxi, since it was about 12:30 AM.



I woke up at about 4:00 AM, and Kiko and I drove to the airport, where we checked in and then had breakfast at the little restaurant outside the security checkpoint. I was so blessed to have such wonderful hosts as Mariana and Kiko! I’m thankful for them, and sad that I did not get to say a better goodbye to Mariana, since she left for the States about a week before I did and returned the day after I returned to Minnesota. The flight home was alright, though it was long and I got really dehydrated on the plane. I had a lovely talk with an older gentleman named Richard on the way to Panama from Guayaquil, and not only was he a Christian, but his wife was a teacher, so we found plenty to talk about. My flight from Houston to Minneapolis was not very comfortable, since I was in the front of the mini-jet in a single seat facing a wall, but the flight attendant was very friendly, so that helped. I was so excited to come home, though, and I had a wonderful night with my family as we went to TGI Friday’s and then I told them stories as I repacked my suitcase for the trip to Morris the next day.





I spent a wonderful last week in Morris going to senior presentations, showing friends pictures, and revisiting old haunts. Elizabeth and I even visited the Prairie Renaissance Cultural Center, which is a sweet art gallery that I have always planned to check out. I definitely have to go back again, though the art is a little expensive for my empty wallet! I also got together with all my wonderful fellow English teachers, who have been such wonderful cohorts, especially this year. I was able to spend time with lots of fantastic people, and then I went home on Friday night for Michael’s spring choir concert at AFLBS, after deliberating a lot on whether or not I had the energy, since I was sick and had totally lost my voice.



I was shocked to find out that all of my fellow former Ambassadors from 2005 were there, and we had an impromptu reunion in the chapel basement to celebrate our first time all together in three years! Oh, happy tear! What a God-thing that we would all find each other. Of course I saw many other friends that I had really missed, but then we headed to the ancestral home to sleep for a bit before taking off for UMM commencement. I graduated with my Bachelor’s Degree in English on Saturday, and I said many goodbyes, way too many, but that seems to be what my life is about right now. At least God’s sticking with me no matter where I end up this fall!

Uff da! As of this week, I have completed my senior seminar, and now I’m in the middle of applying for teaching jobs for the fall and just trying to trust God to lead me and continue to use me to fulfill His plan. I thank God for my family. They really are fantastic, and have always encouraged me in my pursuit to follow Him. I thank God for Colegio Americano, especially for my students and for Philip, whom I loved working with and getting to know! I thank God for Mariana and Kiko, who really blessed me as my host parents and who added so much to my experience. I thank God for UMM, for the painful and beautiful place that it was to me at times as I struggled to live out my faith in a way that I would stand out. I thank God for all the people He has placed in my life to protect me, to bring me joy, and to love me. And I just thank Him for His love to me, that when I am faithless, He is faithful, that when I am cold, He gives me passion, that when I am weak, He gives me strength, and that when I was a sinner, He gave His Son for me (Romans 5:8). Jesus, thank you for taking me on an adventure with You! Let’s keep adventuring together. I’m up for whatever. I’d just love to know where we’re going next! But I’ll wait!



Love to all! Thanks for reading this. And thank you for giving and praying for me! I hope that I will use all that has been given to me for God’s glory, and that you would all know the depth of God’s love for you! Chao, Christina

Antes de la inundación

Wow! Dear friends, I am almost home! This will be my last post from Ecuador, though I will write once more to tell you about the rest of my trip! I have no idea how many people have really been reading this, but it’s been fun to write, and it has made me journal. Without a blog this semester, who knows if I would have written much of anything, which would have been a pity. I love to write, but I also think I process experiences by writing a lot. That was why you were subjected to these long posts every week, though in all fairness, you did choose to read! I am actually writing this on Wednesday instead of Thursday, because my first two sections are turning in the final drafts of their short stories tomorrow, which is why I titled this entry “Before the flood.” Tomorrow Mr. Dixon and I will have about seventy short stories to read, and it’s a dilemma for me, because I really want to read all of them, but it would take forever, and Philip is just taking it for granted that he’s going to help. I probably won’t argue with him, I’ll just have to hope for highlights. The rough drafts were already pretty entertaining! I love reading student work and editing and commenting. That’s why I’m a teacher, I guess. And a nerd.

Now it is Friday, and yes, it was a flood and is. Both of short stories to read and grade and of emotions. What a day! My heart is too full to even write about much of that, though, so I’ll postpone that until later. This entry will just tell you about my trip to Cuenca, partly because I still have way too many things to do before I leave, and partly because I need to collect myself before I talk about my last day with my students and sum up my time.



Right after I finished my post last week, I went to bed, and then Kiko knocked on my door to say I had a phone call. It was Valentina calling to say that she and her parents were going to pick me up late the next morning. I was so relieved to not have to take a bus or worry about a place to stay, because they were staying with friends and they said there would be room for me. They ended up collecting me a bit after lunch, and then we went on the most incredibly beautiful drive I have ever experienced. No kidding, I almost cried just from beauty. Perhaps I’m a bit overdramatic, but it just made me think of what a great God I have! I did not take pictures, because I just wanted to relax and enjoy, and I was planning to take pictures on the way home. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way, which I’ll explain later, but I still have my memories, and wish I could give you my eyes for a bit!

“This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought.”



We arrived in the city at about 7:00 in the evening, I believe, after quite a circuitous route by the Calderóns’ farm and stopping at a restaurant for a late lunch. We stayed at the home of Humberto Pesántez, a rich old gentleman who has an auto empire and lives, among other places, in an apartment building with at least three or four of his children. His family takes up almost the whole building, and they also have a large hacienda about twenty minutes outside of town. We visited with the family for awhile, and I was again bombarded by new faces with no hope of learning all the names. Then we ate supper, and Valentina said she was really tired, since she’d had a very busy week. I thought that would mean we would have a relaxing night at home, but of course not! We took a driving tour of the whole city with our hosts, and it was very lovely. Then we stopped at Cacao and Canela (Chocolate and Cinnamon), a quite delightful little place that serves large quantities of some of my favorite foods! Most of my friends know that cheese and chocolate are really the ultimate for me, and this place had plenty of both! It was maravilloso! I also called Justo Pillman that night and told him that I had a place to stay and that Valentina and I would meet him Saturday morning to walk around the city for a while.



The next morning we got up very reluctantly, but we made it to the Parque del Centro less than fifteen minutes after we’d told Justo we’d be there, and we found him and Paula, one of the girls from the Paz de Dios youth group. Justo is the older brother of some of my classmates from Bible School, and he is a blond cuencano, having lived there for part of his childhood as a missionary kids. Now he is there working with the youth and working with a group of homeschoolers. There are eight kids from the church right now who are being homeschooled, and since it’s a pretty foreign idea here, they need a lot of support. Paula is seventeen, I believe, and very sweet! It was fun to meet her.



First we went to breakfast at a little café with yogur and pan de yucca, which was all very yummy. After that we went to the market and got to see many lovely parts of dead animals, and bought some fun fruit. I can’t remember the names, but I will add them when I find out. This one in the picture was the best. It was “on-a-stick,” a la Minnesota State Fair, because it still had its stem, and I just peeled the rind off to eat it. After that we went to the craft-sellers at La Casa de La Mujer (the house of the woman), so that I could buy presents for my family. I found everything I needed and probably more! Definitely more. My friends were very patient with me! We ended our morning at a museum of Panama hats, which was great fun. Panama hats are actually from Ecuador originally, but once they are sent to Panama that country exports to many more countries, hence the name. (I feel like I can’t speak proper English anymore, so please forgive my strange sentence structure tonight). We took a tour and learned about the making of the hats, and then we went into the store and took pictures, and Justo made the employees think he was going to buy a hat, and he got them down to five dollars, and then decided not to buy it. We ate lunch at small café and had almuerzos. Almuerzo just means “lunch,” but at least in Ecuador it also means the special, and these are marvelous things here, because they are very hearty meals and beverages for only a few dollars. At this café, I paid two-fifty for soup, a platter, dessert, and agua de sandia (watermelon juice). We parted ways soon after that, because it was raining and Justo and Paula had to get going to a youth gathering for the church.



For the afternoon we spent more time in La Casa de La Mujer with our hosts, and then drove to Gualaceo, a smaller town in the mountains that is apparently famous for its leather shoes. Valentina and I had an impromptu dance party in the street, since neither of us was very interested in shoe-shopping. I finally know the difference between meringue and salsa, I think! After that we drove to the hacienda of the Pesántez family for supper, and while we were there, I figured out my Sunday morning: the Ulloas would pick me up for church at their church plant, Cristo Vive, and then I would have lunch with them and meet up with the Calderóns afterward. I went to Bible School with Ruth Ulloa, and I had hoped to meet with her sometime while I was in Ecuador. She also told me that the family of other Bible School friends, Darwin and Kirsten Paccha, would be at their church, which really excited me because I had a suitcase to deliver to them.

I was hoping to just relax that night, but of course, that’s not the way any woman with a life spends her Saturday night, so Valentina and I went to a discoteca and spent way too much money on a cover charge and on one glass of green apple cocktail. I finally met a nice shy boy, though. Juan started talking to me in the middle of the dance floor, but we just talked for about ten minutes before he even moved, and when we danced together he barely touched me. I definitely prefer shy guys on the dance floor, especially when I barely know them. It helps when they’re sober, and I’m pretty sure Juan was. He says he goes to discotecas a lot, but I can’t imagine why he would want to! I just couldn’t stop thinking about how empty that lifestyle looks to me. Maybe you work hard every day of the week, and even go to church on Sunday morning, but every Friday and Saturday you spend all your time dancing and drinking. You can look at one of my earlier posts to see what I think about both of these activities, but that’s not the point. The point is that if drinking and dancing is the highlight of your life… man, how empty! Anyway, I tore myself away from Juan and from… this other kid, I can’t remember his name, but he decided it was his job to make the gringa feel welcome since he had lived in Chicago for three years. Valentina and I crashed as soon as we got home.



The Ulloas picked me up for church at 9:15 the next morning, and I met many more very nice people and listened to a sermon from Darwin’s dad about how God wants us to use riches. It was a good reminder for me, because I am pretty concerned about money right now, as I don’t know yet where I will be working this fall. I know God has it all under control, and that he will show me how to pay off my school loans! After that, we went home to Ulloas house for chicken and rice. I met Ruth’s parents, her siblings, Lohita and Christian, and her cousin Adriana. They were very sweet! The only thing that I was sad about was missing out on lunch with the Pesántezes, who were eating cuy, the cuencano delicacy. Cuys are basically guinea pigs, and they’re kind of like lutefisk, just because everyone eats it in Cuenca, but ask a guayaquileno about it and he will shudder. Anyway, I thought I was sacrificing the cuy experience to eat with the Ulloas, but it was totally worth it to spend time with them.



When Pastor Ulloa dropped me off at the hacienda, I found out that I was totally on time, so I got to taste guinea pig. It was alright. I liked the flavor more than the texture. I was sitting and enjoying my last afternoon in Cuenca, wondering when we would go home, when I suddenly realized that the Calderóns were not planning on returning to Guayaquil until the next morning. They asked me if I couldn’t just be late for classes, at which I rolled my eyes and wished for a moment that I was self-employed or independently wealthy. But not for very long. Because of these developments, I ended up riding a bus, and it was very safe and very comfortable, actually. The only downside was that it was raining, so I was not able to take very good pictures of the magnificent beauty that I described earlier. I read a tiny bit, but mostly just napped, which meant that I had no energy for anything by the time I got home. I decided to go to bed earlier and get up and hour earlier than usual… and instead I slept in, because I had set my alarm correctly, but I had set the clock itself twelve hours off, because the power had gone out while I had been gone. It worked out, though, and Philip was cool about it. I had a readymade sub who actually had looked at my lesson plans for the first two hours, and I even made it in time for third hour, when the director general of the school was supposed to come in and observe me.



As I said, I’ll fill you in on the rest of the week and the rest of my time with my students later, because I have lots of work left to do and not enough emotional energy to unpack everything! Please pray for everyone I have met in Ecuador, that the conversations I have had, the smiles I have given, and the faith I have shown would not be in vain.

Pray especially for my students and Philip, that they would have a great remainder of the school year together. Many of them are whining about my leaving, because they think Mr. Dixon will be stricter with them when I am gone (even though he is actually really easygoing). I just answer that he is a better teacher than I am, because he makes them listen! I think they all have had a pretty good start.

Please pray for my trip home! I’m leaving at 6:50 in the morning on Sunday, getting home at 6:30 in the evening, and then leaving very early on Monday morning for Morris. I’ll be spending finals week sorting details out from student teaching, watching senior presentations, and hanging out with friends, and then I’ll be walking in graduation on Saturday, a week from tomorrow!

Also pray for my friends Elise and Jarrod, who just left this week to spend the month in Ukraine and Russia with East European Missions Network. I don’t know much about the details there yet, since I’ve only gotten one update so far to say that they made it safely “across the pond.” And pray for my friend Jessica as she raises money to go to Guatemala this summer! She has a lot of faith that God will work things out, but she is one thousand dollars short and is getting a little anxious.

So, love you all, see many of you soon! Expect at least one more entry wrapping up my time here, or maybe more. Blogging can be rather addicting! Chao, Christina

I just admitted to my kids... I'm bad with titles!

My time here in Ecuador is rapidly coming to a close, so rapidly that my mind is paralyzed when thinking about the next three weeks! I expect to be quite comatose by the day after graduation, even though things aren’t going to slow down then, either! But right now to the topic at hand: I need to tell you about my week and do a last bit of lesson planning before leaving for Cuenca for the weekend! Things have come together pretty slowly for my trip, but I know I would regret it if I didn’t take the opportunity to visit la ciudad muy bonita that so many of my Bible School friends come from. I plan to leave tomorrow morning, either with my friend Valentina or by myself—I’m waiting for her to call me right now!

Anyway, as for this past week, we had a short school day on Friday because of the votación, the Ecuadorian election, which was on Sunday. Colegio Americano was an election site, so we needed to get out before officials came in to set everything up. As soon as I got home, I left to walk to Iglesia Christiana Evangelica, where my friend Darwin is the janitor. I haven’t written about him at all, because we’ve only talked at random times when I’ve been walking by the church. The first time we talked, he told me that I should visit his church sometime, which is not actually the one that he works at. Last Wednesday I saw him again, and I told him that I would like to go to church with him, so he told me to come to the church Friday to tell him if I was planning to go to the service on Saturday. When I got to the church Friday, we decided to go to a movie at San Marino Mall, one in Spanish, of course, so I could practice and then summarize for Darwin at the end. We decided to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which in Spanish was called Policia del Centro. While we were in line, Daniela, one of my students, ran up to me to say hi and give me a kiss. Then she said “Bye!” and ran away, coming back a few minutes later with about eight of my students! Apparently they were all at a movie together, without any parents, but maybe I just didn’t see them… Kids these days. Ha, ha. They all kissed me and then ran inside, but we ended up in the same theatre and Darwin and I sat right behind them, which was fun. For me, anyway. I don’t think they’re at the age yet when they are embarrassed to see their teachers in public, because they all seemed excited to see me, too. After that we saw a few more of my students with their families while we were sitting and drinking coke, and then we headed back to my house, because I told Darwin that I really needed to do some work on my assignments for the University. It was great fun, though!



The next day I woke up kind of early and started frying plantains for breakfast, but I guess I wasn’t ready to cook without ecuatoriana supervision, because I burned my hand with hot oil, and it hurt for hours! I think I did the right things, because I ran water over it for a while and then wrapped my hand in ice for a few hours while I tried to type one-handed on my assignments for the University. Don’t look too closely if you’re especially squeamish. I don’t think it’s that bad. Renatta, one of my students in North Carolina, was whining to me about how she needed to go to the doctor for a paper cut, but then I showed her my burn, and she didn’t say another word. It was quite effective. I was very glad that my mom had insisted that I bring antibiotic ointment along!





After I had been working for a few hours, I went with Mariana and Maria downtown to stop at the Cathedral and do a bit of shopping. Mariana was looking for dresses for her granddaughter, and we went into the cutest shops! Mariana and Kiko have four kids: Mario Angel, Mario Antonio, Mari Ani, and Mario Andres, and Mario Angel is married to Lori and has three adorable kids. All of the kids and grandkids live in Florida right now. The Cathedral was very beautiful, and it is part of the Parque de las Iguanas, which I’ve been hoping to visit sometime before leaving. It was pretty ridiculous. I am still in awe of the iguanas, and I also enjoyed the turtles and other animals. Additionally, there was a magnificent statue of that prince among men, Simón Bolivar.



Then we returned to the house, and Amarilis, my amiga from English class, came to visit me. She is seventeen and she attends veintiocho de mayo, a private girls’ school. She wanted to practice her English, so she e-mailed me to find out if she could visit. We chatted for a bit more than an hour, and showed each other pictures and looked up words in the dictionary, and then parted ways so that she could go home and I could meet Darwin for church. My night with Darwin and his friends was interesting, just because we were going to a different church and none of us knew exactly how to get there, but once we got there it was great. Darwin has some very cool friends, and a few of them knew a little bit of English, but I think I did OK with my Spanish until 9:30 or so. Carolina asked if it was “demasiado tarde para mí” (too later for me), and I laughed, because I tend to stay up pretty late usually, but I admitted that it was probably “demasiado tarde para mi español.” The service was at a church called Resurrección, and there was a message based on II Timothy 4:12, a verse about setting an example for believers as a young person. We also sang a few songs, and Darwin played guitar, which he did very well at. Lastly, we ate fried rice with shrimp, which down here is considered to be traditional comida ecuatoriana. When I called it Chinese food the next day, the Camchongs looked at me strangely and said that it was not Chinese at all, but Ecuadorian. So funny! Then we rode a few buses to get home, and finally a taxi, but by that time it was raining, and when I leaned into the taxi to give the driver directions, water started pouring on my from the overhand above us! I got totally soaked, but water always feels good in this heat, so I didn’t complain. I did a little more work and then went to bed.

I went to church at the Baptist church again on Sunday morning, and this time I said with a nice lady named Luz. We had a good little chat before the service, which was again good. After that I had to work a lot on my homework and my lesson plans, and I pushed through until I had to play with Waikeng for awhile when they came over for supper. I think he’s starting to take advantage of me a little bit, but it would be hard to be around adults so much. I’m glad I wasn’t an only child. We practiced writing the alphabet, which he is very good at, and I would say them in English only to have Waikeng glower at me, though he needs to practice his English, since he goes to Colegio Americano. I didn’t really do anything besides work on Monday, our election day off, but I did find out that Rafael Correa is still president of Ecuador, and Jaime Nebot is still alcalde (mayor) of Guayaquil. I also found out that Mariana was leaving on Wednesday for the States to work on her recertification for her directorship of the preschool, and that she would not be getting back until after I was already back in Minnesota!



Because of that, and because Elvia, Kiko’s sister, had just gotten home from Orlando, I decided I needed to cook some Minnesota food on Tuesday night, so I made Sharon’s “Wild Mexican Casserole,” which I really liked when I was living with them and which has wild rice in it, something that my family here has definitely never seen before. It was a huge hit, and I was very happy that they all liked it! I liked it, too. I missed wild rice. I am leaving the rest of the bag with them, so we’ll see what Maria will decide to do with it! Elvia and Belgica, Kiko’s two single sisters, came over, too, and we had a nice meal together. I made Mariana and Kiko get pictures with me!





That’s really all that has happened this week, besides many things in the classroom, but I will wait on that until next week, because this entry has gotten a bit unwieldy. The only other thing I’ll mention about school is that Philip got the bright idea, as you might remember, to start a little coffee shop in our classroom, and he had everything set up yesterday, and had even started to get students in on monitor the store during recess as a class job. Daniela had also made cookies to sell at the shop, and she and Philip were going to split the profits. Philip’s part of it was probably going to go toward class parties and celebrations, but then the rectora, Miss Patricia, heard about it, and she told us that we couldn’t sell anything in our classroom without official approval, so Philip needs to write a proposal and a rationale, which he is about done with.



Oh, and one more thing: at Brenda Fischer’s house at Christmastime this last year, we played a sentence game with the ladies from church, and I tried it out with my students and the two upper classes loved it, though it didn’t work very well for the ones with lower English proficiency. Thanks for the idea! It was really fun! I really am loving the days that things work together so well, though I know I learn a lot and probably do my best teaching when everything goes wrong! Either way, God is good, and I have enjoyed my time working in Colegio Americano immensely! Philip has been a great cooperating teacher, Mariana and Kiko have been great hosts, and I will miss this place and the people, though I’m almost ready to go home!

Please pray for Mariana as she is renewing her credentials. She is kind of worried about the red tape of transferring credits between universities here and there, though I’m sure she’ll get it figured out. She will be returning home on Monday the eleventh, the day after I return to Minnesota, as long as nothing funny happens due to swine flu outbreaks.

On that subject, Richard from the business department keeps teasing me about being stranded in Ecuador for another six months because of the flu, and though anything like that is hardly likely, I have been getting messages about it almost every day from the Consulate General here and from the University. Please pray that there are no problems, and obviously be praying for those who are being affected by the disease.

Pray for me as I plan this last week, that I would have wisdom to know how much my students can handle and how much I can squeeze into five days without going crazy! Also pray that I would be safe this weekend as I travel to Cuenca, which I am so excited about, but nervous because it’s a kind of big trip and some of the details are still kind of sketchy! We have school off for May Day tomorrow, so I'm leaving sometime in the late morning, probably.I’m still waiting for a call from Valentina, but I am going no matter what she decides!
God bless you all so much! Chao, Christina

So tired, but here's the rundown of my classes and my life!

Man, what an exhausting week! Hi to everyone! I am right in the thick of everything, but I actually only teach two periods tomorrow because school is shutting down early for the election, so I have a little more time tonight, which is wonderful, since I have a bit of time to write to all of you and update you on my life. The Ecuadorian election is this Sunday, which affects a lot of things, including school, since the school is a polling site. Ecuadorians take elections very seriously. First of all, every Ecuadorian above eighteen has to vote, and has to return to his hometown to do it. Rather Roman, is it not? It is also against the law to buy and sell liquor during election weekend, which is probably a good idea. It will be interesting. I’m definitely getting my full of politics again, after just getting away from the presidential hubbub in the U.S. I just can’t get away from politics, or avoid talking about them. This week in class I was talking about transitions that set contrasts between ideas, and I said something like, “While some people think that Correa is a good president, other people think that what he is doing is not good for his country…” and then stopped to the roar of anti-Correaness that came from primer curso New York. We’ll see what happens on Sunday, but if only Guayaquil were voting, I just don’t know if Correa would make it. Of course, maybe I just know too many rich people that are against redistribution of wealth.



But enough about politics. School has been most of my life this week. I am very short on sleep right now, so I’m not sure exactly how much detail I am going to go into, but here’s a summary of how things are going, in general and by class. In general, I really do not have enough time to finish the unit that Philip and I planned and that I have been assembling, because we have only three days of class next week, due to a day off after the election and May Day. After that I have one full week. In that time I want to finish reading a short story, have a day for the kids to brainstorm about their own stories, have a rough draft due, have time for peer reading and editing, and have a final draft due, of course, getting it all graded before I leave on the tenth! Uff da! By the way, I taught New Jersey and New York “Uff da” today. That was exciting for me. It was a very appropriate word for the day, as well, because the administration changed all of our schedules today, which means we start on a new class plan tomorrow. Due to our early dismissal for the election, I have only two of my sections tomorrow, and the two that I have are already ahead in the story we are reading. I can’t imagine why they can’t wait until next week to change, but oh well. I know we’ll figure out a way to make things work.
New York is a really fun class, though I could say that about each section. This class is fun because we are able to do more activities, since the kids speak better English and are just more advanced academically. We are always going to move faster in that class than we do in the others, which I was reminded of today when I had them do independent reading of one section and had a lot of kids get done early, then told them to keep reading. At least a few of them are done with the story that could very well take the other sections another week.



New Jersey is next in the order of average test scores and such, and the character of the class is very different from that of New York. These kids are very entertaining, and are probably a little bit more talkative than New York. It is also a class that for some reason has given me a lot of trouble with names. There are just a few kids in my sections that look like each other, and many name duplicates, particularly Joselyn’s, Carlos’s and Maria José’s. Please, if any Ecuatorianos are reading this, do not use any of these names for your future children. Their future teachers will thank you! I believe I have four of each.

North Carolina, well… I like them. They are the most difficult class for me, by far. Their English is not that good, but worse than that, about three out of thirty-five of them get the idea of listening to the teacher during class. That definitely makes for an overwhelming time. Mr. Dixon and I keep trying to think of ways that we can get them to listen better, but it’s hard. We gave them a seating chart today, and I did readings today as a “reader’s theatre,” meaning that we had a reading chair up front where the reader needed to sit. It worked the same way as popcorn reading except that there was more pressure and encouragement to read clearly and loudly, and it was a little easier for the other students to listen. A few of the kids got really annoyed by how hard it was to get anyone to listen to them, which may have give them a touch of empathy for me. I can hope!



New Mexico is the class in which I have four or five students that categorically do not speak English. Mr. Dixon and I are figuring out gradually who these people are, but today I found out for sure that nearly all of them transferred to Colegio Americano from different schools, which was encouraging. That means that some of them are hoping to improve in their English, unlike the handful of boys that appear to be content to stay in the lowest class for the rest of high school. New Mexico is a much easier class to manage than North Carolina, however, both because it is a smaller class and because we have more shy kids. You know those keychains that say “I smile because I have no idea what is going on?” One of the boys in New Mexico smiles a huge grin every time he sees me, and though he may be a friendly child in general, part of the reason he smiles is because he literally “has (almost) no idea what is going on.” At least it’s not as bad as the situation that Brad, the philosophy teacher, is in right now: he has a Chinese student in a class who does not speak English or Spanish. Imagine going to a bilingual school where all the classes are taught in your respective second and third languages!

As I said before, I still don’t know how we’re going to cram the unit into the eight school days I’ll have left after tomorrow, so I guess that brainstorming is one of my many tasks for the weekend. I really do enjoy my students, and can promise that many pictures will be forthcoming before I say goodbye to them. Mr. Dixon told me yesterday that he just knew they were all going to be so sad when I left that they would start hating him, but I don’t think he’s got anything to worry about. I’m really enjoying working with Philip. The last few days have been really fun, despite challenges of discipline and time. We’ve been grading tests the last few days, and both of us have made some pretty ridiculous mistakes. This morning I was double-checking a stack that he had finished last night, and I found one that 100% at the top. I was excited about that, but I felt like I should check it, and when I asked Philip we both noticed that he had actually marked three matching questions wrong. After reading through the rest of the test, I changed the grade. The reason that I checked it in the first place was actually because Philip had given it a twenty out of twenty… and the test was out of eighteen.

I did not do a lot besides school this week, but I had a fun Sunday. I went to Israel, the Baptist church, again, and I met a girl named Ana. We started chatting as we waited for the early service to get out and let us in, and we found out that we were both native English speakers, she from England, though I can’t remember from which part, and I from the States. She is working with disadvantaged children down here, though I didn’t figure out exactly where. We sat with each other during the service, and it was nice to have someone else who did not always know exactly what was going on. This church sometimes asks for responses from the congregation, and sometimes we did not understand exactly what we were supposed to do, but I think we understood all the important stuff. The service was once again a blessing to me. Since it was my second Sunday there, I recognized a few of the songs, which always feels good. I also realized later that day that one of the songs was a translation of the Delirious song “History Maker.” It’s funny that it took me that long to figure it out, since the tune sounded kind of familiar and the message was almost the same, even if some of it was changed in the translation. The message of the skits was about “Guarding your heart,” and the pastor preached from II Chronicles 7:14--“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” I did not catch any talk about the election, but that might have been on people’s minds as they thought about how God is looking at their land right now. One of the other skits really touched me a lot, and I think God was definitely speaking to me through it. I had seen the skit before, which was actually a mime. At Intervarsity’s winter retreat some students performed it, I think students from UMD. It is a typical youth group mime of a girl who gets to know Jesus and starts dancing with Him, but then gets distracted and pulled away by the things of the world, and it is set to “Everything,” a song by Lifehouse. As I said a while ago, I really have been feeling a bit dry spiritually, though it’s hard to put my finger on the feeling. Watching the skit again just affirmed God’s role as Lord of my life once again, and made me think about how worthless all the little distractions are in my life. He is everything!

The other fun thing that I did was I went for supper at a friend’s apartment. Chikako is one of the girls that I met at the pizza party with Philip’s Spanish school, and we exchanged numbers after that night, or I should say I got her number because I did not remember mine! I finally got around to calling her last week, and we had my first full phone conversation in Spanish, which was interesting. I get really nervous trying to speak Spanish over the phone, and I don’t even like talking on the phone in English that much, especially to a person I barely know. But we got things set up and decided that I would go to her place for supper on Sunday night. Chikako is from Japan, and she and her husband, Toru, have only been in Guayaquil since January. She is twenty-nine, while he is probably about the same age, and I found out that they will be celebrating their first anniversary in May. I really enjoyed visiting with them, casi solamente en español, but since I knew that they speak pretty good English I could not resisting caving into English every once in a while. My Spanish suits me well for small talk or for intellectual conversations (yesterday I argued with a random guy on the street about whether English grammar was more complicated than that of Spanish or not), but when I want to have a deeper conversation with people and get to know them better, I get stuck. Toru showed me pictures of their wedding while Chikako cooked, and then we had a yummy dinner of Japaneseish cuisine. It was fun to get to know them, and I hope I can see them one more time. It is fascinating to be able to communicate with someone from entirely different culture in a common language, though I’m pretty sure that they both speak English much better than I speak Spanish! As far as Japanese goes, ummm, probably would never happen for me.

Pray for Ecuador. Some of the people here are very anxious about the election. Some think their country is sliding toward dictatorship, while others are very worried about the economy and about currency, which Correa has vowed to change from the dollar to the sucre, which would understandably complicate many lives.
Keep praying for my friend Ian, too, who is going through his second round of Hodgkins, and is not doing as well as he had hoped. They have been looking at doing a stem cell transplant, but the last round of tests showed that he’s not ready for that yet, and that they need to go with not Plan A (the transplant), not Plan B (another round of chemo before transplant), but the less desirable Plan C (treat with antibiotics and antifungals for one month before anything happens, and make me really really sad, as Ian says on his caringbridge site). Pray that he would be given fresh hope, as he is very disappointed right now. Ask that God would help him to keep trusting!

Also pray for my students, the ornery ones and the sweet ones alike (though the vast majority of them are in between). Keep praying that I would teach them to the best of my ability and that I would improve my skills, particularly in classroom management! Every day with that North Carolina class is an experiment, but I guess that’s teaching for you, anyway.

Things are great, and I thank God that His mercies are new every morning. Speaking of which, it’s almost midnight, so I really need to close for now! Just a few weeks left! Love, chao, Christina

My time is so... full

Hello again, dear family and friends! I am taking time from lesson planning and learning latin pop songs to update you a bit more on my lovely life. I had a lovely semana santa, though it wasn’t quite as relaxing as I had expected it to be! Anamaria, the teacher from the preschool that I have talked about in a few entries, adopted me for most of the weekend, which was so sweet! I had told her on Wednesday night at the preschool party to call me if she wanted to do something, and she took me at my word. She called me late Friday morning and asked me if I wanted to go hang out at another teacher’s house that afternoon, and that was relaxing. Anita also bought me an M&M McFlurry, so it was a very happy day! I haven’t had ice cream very much down here. When she dropped me off at my house, she asked if I wanted to go with her to watch a friend play tennis on Saturday morning, and I said yes without even asking how long we would be out, which might not have been a good idea! This gringa just never knows quite what's going on, partly because she doesn't ask!



The next morning Anita and her friend Ilana came to pick me up, and when we got to the tennis courts Gordo and Pablo had just started playing. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet, but nearly everyone down here gets called “Gordo” or “Flaco” (Fat or Skinny) at some point. I never have—probably because I’m right in the middle! Or because calling me “Gringa” is easier. Anyway, Gordo’s real name is Luis. Everyone that we were with that day knew Anita from university. Before she dropped me off that night, she asked if I wanted to go with her and her parents to Playas, the beach close to Guayaquil that I had not visited. I couldn’t bring myself to say no, because, as you can probably tell, I really like the beach. Besides that, Anita told me that she would have to work on lessons just like I would.



(P.S. to this part: Gordo actually thinks that Correa is a good president! So I have accomplished my goal of meeting a Correa fan from Guayaquil, and Mariana just told me that the taxi driver that takes us to school likes him, too. After I had found that out about Gordo, they started asking me my take on American politics, and they all freaked out when I said I hadn’t voted for Obama. Since the media portrays him as a god, I suppose it’s not surprising that they don’t realize the relatively small margin that he won by…)



I went to the Easter service at Mariana and Kiko’s church that night. I have only been to mass a few times, but I have always wondered what Easter mass would be like, so I was excited. I was also just excited for Easter. When I was little, I always thought Easter was a lame holiday compared to Christmas, possibly because Easter does not involve presents or Christmas lights. However, lately I find that Easter gets more amazing to me every year. I am in awe of the ultimate sacrifice that the God of the universe made… for me. But as it turns out, I missed my church at home! First of all, Saturday night Easter services are lame. It just doesn’t feel the same to celebrate on the night that Jesus was still in the tomb. And then of course, I don’t always understand what is going on. Many scriptures were read, and the one that I remember the most was the one about Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command, as a picture of what the Lord would someday do. The music was beautiful, and the service was candlelit, which I loved. But still, there was just something missing. I sensed joy and devotion in the people there, but it just wasn’t quite as tangible as in the Easter services that I am used to at Minnesota Valley. There was no brass quartet, and the music was much more subdued than the triumphant hymns of my childhood:

“Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes! He arose a Victor from the dark domain, and He lives, forever with His saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!” “Ris’n again, our glorious King! Where, O Death, is now thy sting? Death in vain forbids Him rise, Christ hath opened paradise! Alleiua!”



Anyway, church and brass players, know that you were missed! But praise God that Jesus is risen and living, and that I got to praise Him at the beach on Easter. Anita and her parents came to pick me up very early on Easter morning, and then we took the long way to Playas, because Anita’s parents are both doctors and her dad had to check in at the hospital for a few minutes. It was really fun to chat with her mom a little bit, though she barely speaks any English anymore. I believe she and her husband both attended Colegio Americano, but now she doesn’t get many chances to practice. We talked a bit about her other two kids, whom I haven’t met, and about my siblings and parents, and then she started telling me how much she loves her job as a doctor in pediatric intensive care. She says that nearly all of the patients she has are very poor, so one of the biggest problems she deals with is malnutrition. I have not really seen many of the poorer parts of Guayaquil, but like most big cities, there are many more people who are poor than those who are wealthy. It was great to see how much Señora Fernandez cares about the children that she works with, though it must be a difficult and sad job sometimes.



In Playas, we visited Señor Fernandez’ best friend from high school and his family. His parents and his siblings have land right off the beach, and there is a mini neighborhood full of houses, one for each smaller part of the family. I had a fun talk with Valentina, one of the granddaughters. She just got back from Florida, so her English was freshly practiced. When I told her that I haven’t been able to travel very much yet, she told me that she would love to go on an adventure with me, so I’m hoping to convince her that she is dying to take a trip to Cuenca some weekend before I leave! My time here is really slipping away, but I still want to see that pretty city and see a few friends there, as well as transport Darwin and Kirsten’s suitcase the rest of the way home! Anyway, it was a lovely Easter with Anita’s family.

On Monday Kiko left to spend a few days in Quito, so Mariana and I were on our own, though we had relatives over most nights. Kiko got home last night, and he said that there was such a bad rainstorm in Quito that he was not sure if he would make it home. I think it rained most of the time that he was there. He is planning to go to Cuenca next week, but during the week, unfortunately. Kiko really likes to travel, as does Mariana.

But the real news of this week, and what I really need to tell you all about, is the teaching. I took over almost everything from Mr. Dixon this week, and I’ve had some interesting experiences already. I am so exhausted right now, and I still have one day left, but I don’t usually feel tired when I am with the students. Those of you who remember my last semester will believe me when I say that no matter how crazy my life is, if I enjoy what I am doing I will be able to keep going. Of course, there are also problems with time management and procrastination that I am still wrestling with, which means I should be able to sleep more than I actually do, but hopefully one day I will grow up that way. The college life is ingrained quite deeply in me by now. Learning to get up early has not been too difficult for me, but learning how to go to bed early has. The heat is definitely getting to me, though, and I do not have nearly as much energy as I wish I had. I am starting to grab opportunities to stay at school late and work in the air-conditioned library, which is working well so far.

So, about this teaching. My first real day teaching a lesson was Tuesday, which is our fullest day, with no free hours. We have each section for seven periods a week, and the schedule is entirely different every day, which is difficult for me to keep up with. I was concerned about making sure that they realized that I am going to be their teacher for this time, so I dressed up and threw myself into the teaching. The first few lessons have been a pre-assessment for what they know about literary terms, a story about my time I spent in Moorhead before coming to Guayaquil, a PowerPoint of literary terms, and our first short story, “Duffy’s Jacket” by Bruce Coville. The students loved hearing about snow. They were supposed to write sentences about the differences between Guayaquil and Moorhead for their homework, and they were all enthralled by the pictures I showed them, especially since we got so much snow this year. The pictures of the Red River flood would not have been as enchanting, I don’t suppose, and nor would pictures of people shoveling. They definitely do not know that side of snow. A few of the kids actually did some research to find some differences, and it was really fun to see what interested them. I really love reading journals and homework. That’s the way to get to know students, just like I found out at Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley last semester. I know almost all of their names now, which is very exciting to me! On my first day I thought I would never learn them all before I left. God’s definitely given me help, and I’ve been working hard at it.



I’ve had a few frustrating times already, especially with the two sections with lower English proficiency. Those groups are both very chatty, and we are starting to implement our discipline plan, but we have yet to see what will be the most effective for curbing some of their impulses. Yesterday I felt like I had to yell a lot, but today was much better. I was even able to almost whisper for a little while, and Mr. Dixon is brainstorming ways to encourage better listening. One good motivator is the knowledge of an upcoming test, though, and I think that might be one reason why things were better today. I kept reminding them how cyclical listening in class is—they don’t understand English all the time, so they check out and start talking with each other, and then they miss important instructions and understand even less later. We are also working on ways to encourage them to speak only English in English class (crazy, I know). Today we made a seating chart for New Mexico, and we told them that after they have met their goal of using Spanish less than three times a day for nine days, they can chose their own spots again. They did not use Spanish once the whole class period, though Renzo came very close once. We also did small group discussions in the two higher classes today, and that went very well, so I am hoping it will tomorrow for the other two classes, though I know it will be more difficult.



Then, there are the little fun things that make life so much more enjoyable. On Tuesday Philip finally set up his coffee bar in our room, with an electric carafe, tea bags, and cappuccino mix, and I used it and enjoyed it very much. Sadly, during last hour yesterday, while I was reading the short story with New York, the extension cord overheated and set the table cloth on fire! The kids in the back of the room started yelling right before I saw the smoke, so I walked to the table with my big honking literature book to investigate, unplugged the cord, and carried the electric base to Philip, who was sitting at his desk by the door. Then we kept reading the story, and while the humor of it did hit me then, as I write this I am laughing so hard that I snorted, and Kiko must be wondering what in the world I am doing down here by myself!

Hmmm, so pray for my students once again, all 130 of them, and pray that I would continue to love them and would teach them well. I want to become part of the community at Colegio Americano, though I also don’t want to get too attached. Pray that I would have guidance in my plans for the fall. I really need to work more on sending applications.

Pray also that I will find more opportunities to share my faith. Most of my friends down here know that I am a Christian and that my faith is important to me, but they don’t know how important. Sometimes words are necessary in witnessing, though not all the time, and I feel like I haven’t given many words. I especially want to know what kind of relationships Anita, Philip, and others that I know better really have with God, but I haven’t had many opportunities yet, especially because Philip and I are always talking about class.

How can I pray for all of you? E-mail me or send me a facebook message! I would really love to hear from you! I just got a letter from my Grandma yesterday, and it totally made my day to get mail, as it always does! God bless you all! Chao, Christina