Teaching

 

 

This is why teaching, especially when you teach Kindergarteners, is so rewarding! The weeks go by so fast!! I have been teaching on my own for many weeks now and I love teaching so much!! It has gone so well and students are great! I just love seeing their little faces light up when they are learning something new.

This last Wednesday I had our small group meet at my condo. It was so nice to feel like a host. I had Bonnie over for supper right before, and then we meet at 7 for prayer and fellowship.

The main thing I’d like for you all to pray about is that I find another ministry to get involved in. There are SO many choices here at Faith Academy and in Manila and I want to find the best one for me to be a part of. I was going to be a cheer coach with Krissy, but there is now not going to be a cheer squad of Faith because lack of interest (and the girls who were interested were overcommitted anyway). So, now I’m looking for another ministry to get involved in.

 

Other prayer requests:

- Confidence and wisdom as I go through my first parent-teacher conference time. This might especially be hard, as I have a language barrier in some cases.

- Classroom management, especially in regards to the Korean boys I have. Korean parents usually wait till children are school age and then allow the teachers to teach them how to behave and to discipline them. I’m also trying to teach them the skills of sharing and not competing so hard for first place that they injure others.

- I would like to get vonage so I can better communicate with those back home. Right now, I’m relying on other people’s vonage phone and when I need to talk to people is not always the best time to disturb them. This would mean paying $27/month for the vonage service and $20/month for internet service. I am praying about it, but I think it would be worth the cost.

 

Thanks for your continual prayers and support!

God bless,

Betsy

These are some of the most wonderful people!! Left: Wendy Lock (I’m SOO thankful for her!!!), Don and Kristin McKay, and Karen Spain – Elementary Counselor.

Sometimes it’s hard here. It feels like all my identity is wrapped up in being a teacher/missionary. At home in the states I am a daughter, a sister, a long-time friend, a worship team member, a fellow fast food worker (and expert at what I did), a community group member, a swing dancer, a church member of a church I’ve gone to all my life, part of the community at MNU, a jayhawk fan, and so many other things. Here, since I’m so new I feel like I am a teacher and that’s it. That’s where I put all my focus and energy. My friends here are fellow teachers and it’s hard to find the time, place or way just to feel fully at rest.

I am constantly taking so much in, processing, and adjusting.

It is fun and exciting, but at times it is hard. It’s not that I’m totally stressed out all the time, but I can’t really seem to feel comfortable. I’m always being stretched. I do truly value and lean on the Lord and some of the friendships I have made. So, I don’t really know how to say it, but that would be a prayer request of mine. It’s hard also because I am dependent on others for transportation. It’s not a big deal (I can get to school just fine) and I just have to plan when to get groceries I need, etc. I also have to depend on other sources to use their vonage in order to talk home.

 

But God is good and I love teaching my 9 little Kinders!! I am fulfilling the work He has for me here. Though often I feel inadequate and like I should not be valued, I truly am needed here and I’m thankful God has brought me here!

God bless,

Betsy 

 

 

(Michelle and I last Sunday)

Things have been going well here. I’ve been staying very busy with school preparation, planning, hanging out with friends, celebrating birthday parties, etc.

I have survived my first week of full time teaching and then some!! I am amazed at how well the class is going – it really helps to have 9 Kinders instead of 19!! There doesn’t seem like enough time in the day to cover everything I plan or have ideas for. I love planning and I am so blessed to have Wednesdays to plan for the following week. If it wasn’t for my Wednesdays I would be much more overwhelmed. I think it also takes more time this early in the year since the Kinders are still learning how to work together and play together. We have had to stop the activity and discuss how to work together several times. I LOVE reading aloud to my kids!! I have a captive audience most of the time whenever I read. : ) And it’s fun to ask a lot of questions as I read and get to talking about other things.

The Elementary staff here is SO amazing!! They have become my instant friends and family – almost. Many of them are in their 20s, just like me. Let me mention them, so you at least know a little about who I am talking about:

Kinder teachers: me and Sam. Sam Zipp is a great Kinder teacher – she is awesome about starting simple for the little Kinders and talking them through how to behave in chapel, while walking in the hall, etc.

1^st grade teachers: Sarah Quick (she is married to the youth pastor at the school) – this is her first year at Faith, though she has taught 2 years. She and her husband are so sweet!! The other 1^st grade teacher is Krissy Gresset. Krissy (this is her 2^nd year at Faith) is full of so much energy and is the instigator for our social outings. She goes to workout at the gym regularly (I need to go with her) and she is the other cheer/dance team coach!! We are having our informational meeting this Wednesday and the cheer camp is next week and tryouts are next Friday. It’s going to be exciting to be a part of that!!

2^nd grade teacher: Wendy Lock. She is a-MAZing – can’t say enough about her. (she has 26 2^nd graders in her class!!) She is a little older than the rest of us, but it doesn’t seem like it. This is her 4^th year at Faith. She is so very giving and tender-hearted. She takes me, Bonnie and usually someone else to school and back everyday. I also go to the same church as her – Union. After attending church the first Sunday back, the pastor talked about how important small discipleship groups are. So Wendy decided to start a small group at the condos with all the other Elem. Teachers. We met last Wed. for prayer, caring, and sharing. : ) It’s so refreshing to have that in the middle of the week and to know sisters in Christ are praying for you!!

3^rd grade teacher: Lara Obbink is from Australia and I just love, just love her accent!! I haven’t spent so much time with her, but she is a sweetheart. She is married and her husband also works at the school, teaching high school…English, maybe?

4^th grade teachers: Kate Vaner Kolk (who lives next door to me). I’ve gotten to know her pretty well. She goes to Union church too and she is with First Love. Her roommate, Michelle, is such a sweet heart and I’ve gotten to know Michelle a lot. We text back and forth, and I’ve had her over for dinner once and breakfast once. (Kate spends a lot of time at school, otherwise I’d have Kate over too.) They are nice next door neighbors to have – they’ve let me borrow their vonage phone several times!

The other 4^th grade teacher is Val Bunting. She is so fun and goes to Union church. She is married and always has wonderful stories to tell. : ) She’s been in the Philippines awhile (met her husband here a few years ago – took the only young single male).

5^th grade teacher – Kim Abels is so adventurous and the world traveler. She also goes scuba diving a lot on the weekends if she is not busy planning. She is going to Thailand for Christmas – that would be fun!

Then there is Bonnie!! I love Bonnie – Special ed teacher. She lives down on the first level. We ride together to school and get to talk a lot. She is about my age, so we have much in common. She is one of the most serving people I have ever met!!

 

 

(from left: Sam, Bonnie, Lara)

Karen Spain – elementary counselor. I meet with her once a week (cause she meets with all the new teachers once a week for the first part of the school year). She’s given me some good resources to read!!

With all of these wonderful people, I am either going out to eat or going over to someone’s condo for dinner around 3 times a week and we always try to do something fun over the weekend. This Saturday we celebrated two girls’ (Val and Michelle) birthdays. The 2 birthday girls and a few others went to the spa to have a massage and then everyone joined for dinner (we had 19 of us all together) and finally to karaoke. It was such a good time!!

Sundays are always nice. We have to drive a ways for church, so we always make an afternoon of it and go out for lunch and shopping after church. Church starts at 9:45 and ends by 11. It is so relaxing and we get back early enough in the afternoon to take a nap. But it’s just fun to spend the day that way, with awesome sisters in Christ!

Well, this post is long enough and I must get to bed, for I have to get up and teach in the morning! God bless,

Betsy

Cultural Differences I’ve Discovered

Many of these differences stem from the fact that there are 19 million people living in this city…

Malls:

There is security at every door when you enter the malls. You have to open your bag/purse and let them quickly peek inside. At other times, you might just walk through a metal detector.

They start playing Christmas music and putting up Christmas lights in September. The Christmas countdown begins mid-September and there is a 3 day sale going on that week at one of the malls.

For movies – you can bring a whole meal…anything to eat into the movie theater as you watch the movie. Once you buy a ticket, you can stay in that theatre as long as you want. Filipinos will often sit in on the ending of the movie before and then watch the movie. Or they will come in on the middle and watch middle to middle.

When they see you are white, they are going to try to charge you more money. (Since you are American, you have more money.)

Traffic:

Nobody obeys the traffic light when it is red…except the traffic lights in Makati (the business district). In fact, someone got a ticket for stopping at a red light – cause it was obstructing traffic.

You use your horn quite frequently to let others know you are passing. You don’t have to look behind you…just keep your eyes ahead so you don’t hit anyone. If you want to turn left, you just have to pull in front of oncoming traffic at some point because there is so much traffic. It’s amazing there is not more accidents here.

Grocery stores: are located at the bottom floor of every mall. Before entering the grocery store you have to check your other bags at a desk.

It’s taken a bit of an adjustment being able to shop at grocery stores here. Everything looks a lot different. If you see an imported product you want, grab it when you see it because often when you come back another time they won’t have it.

The difference in ice cream prices is not based on the different brands, but on the different flavors.

Move quickly through the meat department…the smells there are no good.

Other differences:

For your birthday…YOU treat everyone to a meal. If you are given a gift, you usually don’t open it in front of who gave it to you.

At church it doesn’t matter if you wear jeans or dresses (there is a mixture of both), but cleanliness is VERY important to the Filipinos.

There are SOO many more and I’ll probably update this at some point, but this is the list I have so far.

Waterfalls…

I did not know what to expect from this trip.

The 5 of us Elementary teachers from Faith decided to drive south a ways on our day off. We had received directions from another teacher who had visited the Falls before. It was raining, but we hoped for the best. We made the 1 1/2 hour trek down to the right place in the province of Rizal without getting lost!

We had only heard that we would be traveling down a river and viewing beautiful waterfalls along the way. We had no idea what the boat trip was to look like…

As we arrived it was still raining, but it wasn’t pouring or anything so after paying and gathering our gear we set off. Three of us (the skinniest) sat in one boat and two in another. We had two boatmen to each boat. The first stretch of the river was pretty calm and straight. But then we started nearing rapids.

It was AMAZING how these guys navigated through the rapids!! The guy in front would literally get out of the boat and push against the rocks with his bare feet to steer the boat!! To go uphill against the rapids, he would get out of the boat, stand on the rocks and pull the boat (with us three girls in it, doing nothing) as the guy behind would push. I felt SO lazy!! Bonnie took some pictures of the amazing boatmen at work…I will have to get them from her.

Anyway, within the first 10 minutes of traveling down the river it starts pouring, and then pouring even harder! Fortunately, earlier we had bought ponchos to wear on trip. Of course the rain, then thunder, then lightening didn’t slow the boatmen down any. They kept trekking! Our trip was supposedly (and miraculous if true, in my mind) to only take 20 minutes upriver and then 20 minutes downriver? How can one go upriver and downriver in the same amount of time?

As it turns out, it took close to an hour to make it to the huge waterfall. Partly because we were letting a lot of Koreans ahead of us (because they were on a tour schedule). There were several gorgeous waterfalls on the way, but at the end of the “road” – haha was a huge waterfall!! Here, everyone got out of their boats. To cross by raft and go under and behind the waterfall you had to pay an additional 90p (about $2). I was cold from getting wet and didn’t want to pass under the waterfall which was pouring down with tremendous force, so I stayed behind to watch and take pictures.

Traveling back was much more enjoyable – it was no longer raining! So, I could take the hood off and look around a little more. It was so beautiful. It was like going through the middle of a jungled great canyon and we were on the river at the bottom of it!! Breathtaking. The glistening waterfalls stretched so far up into the sky that I could not get a picture, except one that would only catch a small portion of its radiance. I can not describe how breathtaking it was. As we would glide past the waterfalls, the sheer force of the water coming down and hitting the bottom would send wind whipping past us.

It was so awesome. We made it back safe (and almost got lost). Next week I start teaching full time with my own class!! I am excited! I have 9 kids in the class, 5 of which are Korean, so I’m going to be studying a little about the Korean culture in the next few weeks. Well, I better go!

God bless,

Bets