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

Buena pascua! (Happy Easter!) He lives!!!

Hello, dear readers! Well, I failed to get even one picture at our teacher get-together last week. I had my camera and everyone looked cute, but I just wasn’t feeling pictures. It was fun, though; we went to Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant on Victor Emilio Estrada, the main drag near my house. I was excited about that because I could walk, though I actually took a taxi home because of how late it was. It was pretty nice, even though we were all pretty tired from our first week. I had Aztec tortilla soup, which is very different from the tortilla soup that I’ve had before, but it was pretty good. My drink was jamaica, a yummy hibiscus tea that I had while I was in Mexico. I brought some home with me, but it doesn’t taste the same when I make it. I probably don’t put in enough sugar; Mexicans make it rather syrupy. I really do enjoy my coworkers, and wish I had longer to get to know them.

We had a large crowd there that night. Here’s the short list: Willa: English and ecology, Richard: business, Alicia: elementary, Kat: elementary, Hannah: elementary, Liam: history, Carla: economics, Philip: English, and Brad: philosophy. Besides that there were various significant others and friends present. I promise I will get pictures of these people soon. Next time we go out I’ll be a nerd and drive everyone crazy, but this time I just wanted to relax and visit. I also got to meet Philip’s girlfriend, an ecuatoriana named Lorena who is very pretty and very sweet. She works at one of the city museums, and it sounds really need. She says that she could get me in for free. I haven’t yet heard if the museum is normally free! We were having this conversation in Spanish, so it might not have been entirely clear to me. But I’m totally up for a museum.



I’m sure people are starting to recognize the gringa who wanders their streets every day, which has its good and bad points. The security guards are really friendly, and I’m starting to recognize some of them. Then my group of middle-aged men that live right around the corner from me are in the same spot every day at like 5:30, and they whistle and call out to me in English and Spanish every time. I’m starting to enjoy them, though—it really is better to find the humor in everything. Plus, it’s my fault that I keep forgetting to avoid that spot when I go on my walks. Anyway, one of my friends pointed out that from my pictures it looks like I’ve been lounging on the beach since I got here, which is not quite true, so I decided to put of pictures of my neighborhood this week. I never bring anything with me when I walk, so today I felt like I was living very dangerously when I brought my camera with me, but I didn’t get too many funny looks.



I can’t remember if I did anything on Saturday besides the usual walking, eating, and school work, but on Sunday I finally made it to Gaby’s church, which meets at La Parrilla del Ñato, but not the one close to me. I found out that morning that there are many Parrilla del Ñato’s in Guayaquil, and that they are all owned by the same guy, and Ñato is his nickname (it means “pig nosed,” so I guess my family has a new nickname for me…) I paid five dollars for the taxi there, which hurts for a cheap person like me, but on the way back Gaby’s dad drove me, which was so wonderful! I also understood a good part of the sermon, and it was all law and gospel, which some of you will particularly appreciate. The pastor talked about how life is full of problems, and that the problems start with us. That was a big part of the sermon, but then he explained why we need to understand that before we can receive God’s gift of forgiveness and cleansing. I’m just so glad that the problem is about us and the remedy is about God. A lot of my time with God has been kind of blah since I got down here, but He’s reminding me again that it doesn’t matter how I feel. Even more than that, He’s reminding me that my walk is not about how good of a follower I am, but it’s about how amazing of a leader and a lover He is! Praise God. It was really fun to talk with Gaby, too, and I got another surprise: the mission team that was down to help the church with a camp that they do for disabled kids is from Minnesota! I love seeing little bits of home, even though I can still honestly say that I’m not super homesick. I went over to visit with them for a little bit. Most of them were from St. Cloud. After that was the weekly Mai Jong game, and I had ice cream for the first time since the beach on my first day here. It was pretty amazing!



The first three days of the week were full of more procedures and tests, and lots of learning of names! I have probably one hundred thirty students, and I can match ninety names to faces already, so I think I’m doing pretty well. That’s actually pretty amazing. I’ve been worried that I would never learn that many names, but God must be answering my prayers. I really like them a lot. I’m sure that we will have some troublemakers, but I’m trying not to decide which ones! I just graded two sections of pre-assessments, and I’m going to be taking some time for the rest of this week to analyze that data, which could be nerdily exciting! We had almost every section for a double period on Tuesday, which was awesome because they were sitting taking their tests and I just got to wander and answer questions, all the while memorizing the names that were on their desks. Did I mention that we don’t have a class list yet? Colegio Americano really is not the most organized place in the world. But everything really is great. I am probably going to start my unit on Tuesday, though that is still a tiny bit up in the air. I made some pretty sweet posters for the classroom, too, for which Philip was very grateful, since he does not really like his own handwriting much. I should have taken pictures of them. Oh, well. I’ve got time to do that!



Now we are on a break for semana santa, and we kicked off our break with yet another cangrejo party! The preschool teachers were having a send-off for Denise, one of the doctors from the school who is now moving to Chile. I felt a bit out of place with all the preschool teachers, but they are all really sweet. I sat in the kitchen at the little table, which I later found out Mariana worked out on purpose so that I would be with a smaller group of people and would be able to participate in the conversation more easily! I sat with Maria Antoinetta, Paty, and Daniela. Again, I needed to directly ask for all of the names I learned, but I’m used to that now! I also got to chat with Miriam, Rosa, Anita, and Lili again, which was nice! I hope I can do something with some of them soon! It’s fun to have a connection to the preschool teachers through living with Mariana.



Today I did the usual walking and reading and some grading, and chatted with a few friends on the internet. And now I am closing out my day by journaling, at least if Waikeng doesn’t make me lose my entry with his pounding on the keys! He and I have finally become friends, I think. He said “Chao” to me when his family left!



Please continue to pray for all of my students. According to the results we’re getting from tests, I have some big challenges ahead of me. It’s frustrating to me because the majority of these kids have been in Colegio Americano for at least five years, but I don’t think they ever practice their English outside of the classroom. Mariana told me that one of their requirements to graduate is that they have to pass the SLEP test with one hundred per cent, which seems incredible to me. Getting most of the ex-alumnos that I’ve met to speak English is like pulling teeth. Since I’m only going to be here for a month, I know I can’t do that much, but one thing I want to impress upon them is the wonderful gift that it is to be bilingual (though I hardly know from personal experience yet!) As a teacher of “communication arts and literature,” my passion is to give students instruction and opportunities to improve their spoken and written communication. Everything that they are learning in school has a purpose of some kind, but I think it’s really hard to beat communication as far as practical skills go. Being able to communicate proficiently or fluently in more than one language is an extra gift. Many of the English-speaking teachers have systems put in place to encourage the kids to use only English in their classrooms, and Philip is implementing a system called “Spanish strikes”: each section is rewarded with a sticker if everyone in the class speaks Spanish less than three times, and at certain intervals we will give them rewards. Right now the tentative plan is that every nine stickers they can pick a reward from a list of options, such as having two minutes of free time at the end of class or doing a special activity. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, pray that I would have the wisdom to know the modifications that must be made in my lesson plans, and that I would be able to explain things clearly and remember to talk slowly enough. Most of all, pray that I would be a blessing to my students and that I would be able to point them and my coworkers to Jesus in whatever crazy way He wants to use.



Let’s see about updates: Philip’s pink eye is pretty much cleared up, I think, which means he doesn’t need to wear sunglasses while he’s teaching! I just heard from my friend Amy that Nancy’s most recent tests have looked great, as well. And Ian, my friend that I asked you to pray for quite a while ago, has the go ahead to be admitted into the hospital at the U of M to prepare for a stem cell transplant. That will all be starting April 15, apparently. So there are a lot of praises, though more prayer goes with all of those things, as well.

Pray for wisdom as I continue to apply to schools. I still have no direction on where I am supposed to go, which is fine, but I’m just wondering… I’ve applied to three schools so far, and have heard back from one. They just hired someone. I’m kind of out of the loop, being out of the country and all. But I’m sure God has a spot for me somewhere.

I love you all! Thanks for reading about my life in Ecuador, and thanks for caring about me! I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little bit of Urdesa. Let me know if you ever want some captions! I have stories I could tell about many of the pictures I've posted! Praise God that we serve a risen and living Savior! I know I didn't talk about Easter in my post, but what an awesome celebration! I pray that you all know Him! He's a wonderful God! The wonderful God!
Chao, Christina

An addendum to earlier post

Hi again, family and friends!
I know I'm early, and I'm taking time away from lesson planning to say this, but I know I should explain a few things to my readers. I really have no idea who reads this, but this is just the right thing to do. This is in reference to my "playa" post, about my trip to the beach, and maybe some other posts. I've joked about how my posts are typically quite long, and I admit that I am a writer and that rambling is a weakness of mine. I also am aware that some of you may think I give a bit "TMI," or too much information, in my posts. Since a blog is a journal that others are meant to read, it is sometimes hard to draw the line between what is appropriate and what isn't. However, I want to give one reason to you all explaining why my line is so fine: I do not want to do anything while I am here that I will regret, or anything that I would not be comfortable with my friends and family hearing about. This blog keeps me accountable to all of you, because I know that I will not be able to resist at least a parenthetical mention of every crazy thing I do down here. I know Jesus sees everything I do, and I want to let you all experience Ecuador with me as well, though I won't give you quite the access that He has!

Specifically, I wanted to mention drinking and dancing. I know most of my church and my family have pretty conservative ideas about both of these things, and I usually agree with you! But just so you know and you're not worrying about me, I thought I'd give a quick run-down of my standards. Drinking is probably the easier one for me to set standards for and to explain, so I'll say that first. In the Bible, by which I try to live my life, men inspired by God warn about the dangers of alcohol and tell readers not to get drunk. Most people in my family don't really drink, and I can say categorically that there are very few alcoholics in my extended family that I know of, so I am not really sensitive to the issue of simply "imbibing." I've just decided for myself that I am never going to let myself drink enough that I would do anything to dishonor God or my family, and I've never had trouble saying "No más!" I also should make a rule to only drink stuff that tastes good, which would rule out most alcohol in my opinion... but that's another subject. Anyway, though I said that Andres had had a tiny bit too much that night at the party (and it couldn't have been that much, because I was watching), I was quite sober.

As far as dancing goes... well, I really like dancing, unfortunately! It's such good exercise, and it feels amazing. Dancing that night was actually one of the funnest nights I've had down here. I did liturgical dance in high school and college, which I really miss, and I occasionally went to school dances at the university. I definitely see dancing there that I don't approve of, so I am just careful to dance with people who don't like to bump and grind, and I usually only dance with guys when I'm at weddings or with my family. I will say that I know when it's time to stop, that I'm not shy about moving guys' hands, and that I'm really glad to know that God is watching over me! In this specific case, the reason I kept dancing so long was because I had a feeling that in Andres' mind it was either keep dancing with me or... do something else. I felt like dancing was a good choice.

Maybe this was unnecessary, but maybe not. These are the choices that I have made to set myself apart for God, and while they may not be as extreme or high-minded as other people's standards, I believe they are in line with God's Word, which is my authority. I hope I do not ever make anyone uncomfortable with the stuff I discuss on my blog, but I want to be honest with you all and not hide anything in my life. Rebecca St. James, the Christian singer, used to sell t-shirts that spelled out her family's philosophy on relationships: "Where there are no secrets, there are no lies." That is how I want to live my life as well, being open and transparent so that people can see that though I am not perfect, I am striving to follow after God and glorify Him.

Love, Chao, Christina

Very long entry for my first week with mis alumnos!

I am so sorry—I have been so focused on starting school and applying for jobs that I have barely taken any pictures this week! These are just pictures of me in my super cool Colegio Americano polo! I feel quite professional, if not exactly stylish! The uniforms that the Ecuadorian teachers wear are much more professional, actually; some of them have to wear pinstripes and vests! It depends on where you work and where you come from! I am pretty happy with my polo, though the thickness is not that great in the heat. Since last week, everything has been focused on planning for my unit, getting the classroom ready, looking ahead to the fall, and actually getting the kids into the classroom! I apologize in advance for the length of this entry, but it was a big week, since I finally met my kids!




On Friday and Monday we had more preparation for class, and on Tuesday the first course class spent their first day on campus. This is their first year in secondary, though most of them are not new to Colegio Americano, so they came a day earlier than the rest of the high schoolers. We had an assembly with the parents on Tuesday morning, where the rectora gave a speech about all of the opportunities they would have and about the vision of the school. After the parents had left, we all played an icebreaker, and we had a list of questions that we were supposed to ask each other. I did not ask any questions, but I wandered around through the crowd to let them ask me questions. When I say “crowd,” I mean crowd, by the way—we have between 120 and 140 seventh graders! That’s a big change from Clinton-Graceville- Beardsley in Minnesota, where I did my practicum last year. We had probably thirty seventh graders there. My first impression of them was pretty good, and I think they are adorable. The rectora, Miss Patricia, also seems very nice. Maybe I will finally get to meet her tomorrow—we are having a birthday party for her at the school.

Yesterday our task was to give all of our students the SLEP test, which stands for Secondary Level English Proficiency test, I believe. After that we graded, but we did not get them done until today. The sheets were scantron, but we did it the old-fashioned way: we had a cut-out answer sheet and a red marker with which to correct each test. I was so surprised when I finished them this afternoon; for awhile it felt like it was going to take the rest of my student teaching time! Since there are so many kids it is going to take quite awhile for all of us teachers to learn their names, but I’m going to work hard at it. They were split randomly for today, and probably will be tomorrow, too, but in the next few days they will be divided into four sections, two at higher English proficiency and two at lower proficiency. Very few of them are very comfortable, at least judging from their tests, but of course, standardized tests only measure ability so well! I had to really adjust my expectations while I was grading the tests, since I was not testing my students on something I had taught, and I had to get rid of the idea that they would all have at least half of the answers right. Some of them didn’t even fill in all of their bubbles, though they had time, which makes me sad because I know that doing that might affect them for the rest of high school. I told Mr. Dixon that I think I could have taken a test better in a language I had never studied at all than a few of the students did, but again, there are limitations of standardized tests, and some students would probably not do well at them in any subject. That is one very problematic part of the way that Colegio Americano does tracking: they are really only tracked by English proficiency level, so I still have no idea what to expect regarding general learning and language abilities.

We actually had three out of four randomly assembled groups today in class, and we went over the syllabus and procedures and introduced ourselves. Unfortunately, all of the classes were too big for all of the students to say their names today, so Mr. Dixon had them fold papers to make little “tents” with their names written on the front. We also talked with them about having more freedom and responsibility now that they are in secondary school, and hopefully they will respond positively to this idea. However, my day got more exciting when Mr. Dixon had to leave to get his picture taken with the other teachers, and I had to take over for two periods. The first one was actually the second that we had had with that particular section today, so I told them a little more about myself, asked questions about them, and gave them some fun ESL worksheets to do. The second period that I was in charge was with a new section, and it was actually the last hour of the school day, since the kids got out at noon, which meant the kids were respectively either very hot, very chatty, or just very tired. It was a bit difficult, and I’m really not sure how well I did. I tried to cover everything that Mr. Dixon had with the other two sections, but I teased them that I was not sure that they would ever really get the procedures down because they talked so much. A few times I stopped everyone and asked them what they thought would happen if I just let them talk whenever they wanted to, when I called on Philip, a kid up in the front, his eyes got big and he said, “We’d have chaos.” What a word for an ELL (English Language Learner)! The one native English speaker that I know we have is Thomas, who hails from England. He told me his parents are missionaries, and I don’t even remember how many different places he told me he has lived. Anyway, I still like the kids, but I was not happy that I had to yell as much as I did, last hour or not. After that, we had a few more kids come in to take the SLEP test, and then we finished grading a while before we both left school.

I’m sorry if this is too much information, but I know some of you will be interested in the details! So that was school stuff—now for social stuff. Not much to report this week! I stayed in Urdesa all weekend, though Mariana and Kiko had a big group of friends over for another fiesta con cangrejas (crabs). This group of friends is from high school, college, and a few other places. People kept getting added to their group as they moved, got married, and made new friends, and there were about ten of them over on Friday. We also had shellfish this time, which Mariana got from Peru. They were baked right in the shells with lots of parmesan cheese, which I loved, naturally! I had a lot of fun talking with Klaus, who went to German high school with Mariana. We mainly talked politics, and I found another person who hasn’t been very impressed with Rafael Correa. I have made it my goal to find someone in Guayaquil who agrees with the city’s native son, but I’m not sure where to look. The alcalde of the city, or mayor, does not support him at all, from what I understand. I have heard that this may be because Correa is socialist and Guayaquil is a big business center. Klaus was just so thoughtful, though. A few times he reminded people to talk more slowly so that I could understand them, which I appreciated, though I still didn’t understand the many Correa jokes. In case you didn’t know, Ecuador has an election coming up this month!

I mentioned last week that I went to Lili’s birthday party, but I did not remember to say that I met a girl named Gaby, yet another ex-alumna from Colegio Americano. She is an extremely sweet girl, and she is also a Christian. She invited me to come visit her church, and she gave me the address, which I promptly entered into Google. It is just a little church plant that meets in a restaurant, and I found out on the internet that the restaurant was close enough that I could walk, which made me very happy. Unfortunately, I found out on Sunday morning that the restaurant on Victor Emilio Estrada is not the same Parrilla del Ñato where the church meets, so I guess I will need to take a taxi. However, when I found out that the restaurant was not right, I went to Israel, the Baptist church on the same street, and I really liked it. I was a little late, so I missed most of the music, but I liked what I heard. Then some of the youth put on a skit about gang violence and some girls did a mime about going down the wrong “path” in life, and they did a really good job. After that the pastor gave a message about young people keeping their ways pure by living according to God’s commands. The banner at the front of the church said something like “Our desire: to have the next generation!” As I’ve mentioned before, Guayaquil is the biggest city in Ecuador, and there is quite a bit of crime, along with many temptations that young people could fall into. This church seems to be actively working against a lot of what is going on. The pastor preached from a few different verses, but especially from John 3, which talks a lot about salvation. I still plan to go to Gaby’s church soon, but I really liked going to “Israel.”

The other fun thing that I did this past week was go to a pizza party where Liam and Philip (AKA Mr. Dixon) study Spanish. Philip asked me sometime on Tuesday afternoon if I wanted to come, and I said pizza sounded amazing, so he wrote out the directions and my taxi driver and I found the place somehow! Two teachers were there, and three students, Liam, Philip, and Chikako, a woman who just moved here from Japan with her husband. The rule was that we had to speak only in Spanish, and it was fantastic. We all worked to help each other, and the teachers spoke slowly enough that we could understand. We mostly talked about food, one of my favorite subjects, and about witches, which you would have had to hear to understand! Jessica, one of the teachers, had a student from Norway once who brought gjetøst for her, which is Norwegian goat cheese. She loved it so much, but it is very expensive everywhere she has found it, so she has been craving it ever since. I laughed, because I got a big block for Christmas from my sister last year and never was able to finish it. It’s interesting stuff, if you haven’t tried it. Then the icing on the cake was that the pizza was from Pizza Hut, which will always be one of my favorite places. I’ve only had pizza once since I got to Guayaquil, and it was pretty disgusting, so this was a good fix! I really enjoyed it. It was also really fun to get to know Chikako; we shared a taxi on the way home, and she gave me her phone number and told me that I need to call her and come over so that she can cook me Japanese food! I hope to take her up on that offer!

I will let you go for now, dear reader, even though I’m sure I could think of something else to talk about. Next week I will try to post pictures of my fellow teachers—we are having a Mexican dinner tomorrow night, hypothetically, and I’m excited to get to know my coworkers better!

Pray for Philip, my cooperating teacher. He contracted pink eye last weekend (which is called “Chinese kick” in Ecuador), and he’s been wearing sunglasses and using eye drops all week. His roommate has it now, too, but I think it’s safe to say that I’m OK, because of how long he has had it.

Also pray for Nancy, the mom of my friend Amy, who has breast cancer and just had surgery this week. I have not heard about the results yet, but she and her family could use plenty of prayer!

Lastly, pray that I would do my best as a teacher, and that I would enjoy and love my students while still being in charge and doing my job. Oh, never mind, also pray for me as I start my job searching! I just sent in my résumé to my first school yesterday! It’s more scary than exciting right now, but only narrowly! Love to all! Chao!
Christina