Teaching is a Work of HEART!

Goodbyes are HARD! 

HARD!

REALLYY HARD!

Especially when you are leaving a COUNTRY and will probably never see people again.  Relationships have been established, grown, and will not forgotten, even if the distance is a barrier.

When I came here, I had no idea what to expect.  I remember being completely exhausted (partly due to my “last minute marathon” choice) and completely overwhelmed.  I entered a class with 18 little munchkins staring at me and wanting to ask me EVERY. QUESTION. IMAGINABLE (and unimaginable haha!)

Today my class had a goodbye party for me.  We had cake and juice and all the students gave me a scarf, signed coffee mug, flowers, and wrote a book where they each wrote:

“Ms. Gabriel will be a great teacher because_______________________.” (insert heart-melting here!)

My heart has been touched, and my experience here has changed me forever.  One of the best and hardest things about teaching is that “kids are your job.”  You are in constant contact and relationship with people.  They are people that GOD loves.  People that GOD created.  What a responsibility-what a job!  As a teacher, I can lead kids to the one that created them through my words, actions, and conduct…but I also have the power to turn my back as they struggle and sink into the world around them.  I cannot take this lightly, and MUST daily call upon the LORD for help, knowing that HIS grace can cover my inequities.

I’ve learned about myself as a person and a teacher.  I had ups and downs, but choose to learn from it all.  I don’t know if international teaching is in my future, but these experiences will still help me be a better teacher no matter what students will be in my classroom.  I will be much more able to reach ESL students, and I will be much more understanding to students that have different cultural backgrounds.

I will miss the kids that I worked with, but I am also looking forward to starting the next chapter in my life. I will always be a student, because even as a teacher-I will constantly be learning….Learning from my successes and failures, and open to new ideas and new students (who are all unique and require different things from me).

HONESTLY I am terrified, but I am even more EXCITED.  Soon, I will officially be…

Three Things You DON’T Want To Be!

I’ve said this before, and my thought today remains the same.

When traveling abroad, the 3 things you don’t want to be are:

1. American

2. Single/Alone

3. Female

I like to think of myself as a fairly independent person.  I value time by myself, especially after a full day with lovely (albeit very rambunctious) children.  I need to unwind alone to relax by doing everyday activities such as grocery shopping, running various errands, and running/working out.  These things help my mind put stress aside.

During trips abroad to Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and now Ecuador, my independent every-day life has changed drastically.  My CONSTANT thought is: “who is a threat” and “who wants to rob me.”  Yes, I know these are negative thoughts, but as a white/American female traveling alone, I know that realistically I am in a vulnerable position.  I was terrified to leave the gates of the school and dorm building for the first few days I was in Quito.  The fear of “the real world” was overwhelming.  I feel somewhat restricted by not bringing my purse, but instead stuffing money in my shirt and only going out in daylight in crowded areas.  I miss going for a run without constantly checking my surroundings.  I miss carrying my phone with me and making phone calls while in public.  I miss not having to purposefully choose baggy/neutral clothing hoping to deter unwanted attention, but still somehow manage to get honked at and a few “Que guapa, eres linda” with an occasional whistle.  I guess no matter what I wear, I am still a Gringa!

The dorm building-leave at your own risk!

This is probably the hardest thing about being abroad for me.  Besides Starbucks, I also crave the feeling of safety and knowing my surroundings.  Without feeling safe, I loose a large chunk of my freedom. 

Surrounded by unfamiliar streets!

My home city of Chicago!  I miss knowing what's going on and where I am!

How do I deal with this??

Well, nothing completely fixes the problem, but I just try to be smart and keep on living day to day without constant fear.  Fear is crippling, and in reality:

“LIVING IS DANGEROUS!”

That’s right folks, if you are alive, you are in danger too!  So, apart from being smart (not going out at night, etc.), I just choose to live and go on day-to-day, praying God will keep me safe.  Please continue to pray that he will protect me as I am here!

I did the UNTHINKABLE!

What did I do???!!!

I DID A PAINTING ACTIVITY WITH MY FIRST GRADERS!!!

...With REAL PAINT!  

 ...And it went GREAT!!

I never knew this was even a possibility.  I cringed while planning this lesson, but I decided to just go for it anyway (as an athlete I've become great at putting my feelings-physical and mental-aside and "just do" even if it's crazy).  Student teaching is a time for me to learn and try new and sometimes challenging things, so I might as well be a little crazy while I still have these training wheels, right?!

I am teaching the students about the weather and seasons-specifically FALL, so I had them trace their hands/arms for the tree trunk and branches and use Q-tips to put dots on for the leaves. I covered the tables with packing paper for easy clean up, but it all went surprisingly well (which means NO paint ended up on the kids’ clothing or floor.  WOW!!)

Each tree is so very different-much like each unique student!

A few other “teacher notes from the week”

1.  My name has always been hard for the kids to say-I don’t really know why, but it has been teacher, Mrs., Mrs. Gabriel, Mrs. Gabriella, and The newest one (thanks to one of my little cuties) is Mrs. GARBRAL!! HAHAHAHA! I think that I will ask every student to tell me my name and those who get it RIGHT will get to clip up! I was also called “mom” on accident haha-the sad thing is that MY MOM has accidently called me “mom” before too!

2. THE FIRST loves notes I’ve received come from 6 year olds ;) I got a few “love notes” from my students-SOOOO CUTE (see: I’m Mrs. Gabriel haha)!! It touches my heart to receive these small little things from my students!  My heart is so full!

I'm even wearing PINK in the drawing!! 

On the flip side of #2:

3.  I made a student cry for the first time this week.  There were some issues between 2 students at their table.  After they BOTH came and tattled (complained about the other person), I told them that they need to stop talking to each other or ignore each other and if I heard one more thing about the other person, then one of them would have to sit alone at this table in the room.  Of course, there were MORE issues, so I told a student to go sit at the table to finish her work. She started telling me it was not her fault (it never is haha!) and I said I didn’t care, she either moves in five seconds or can “clip down.”  She chose to move, but not without tears!  Teacher initiation for me!

4.  Since my voice was not existent, we had some different motivational things for the class to listen extra hard to me.  On Thursday, I told them that if I gave them 5 check marks on the board for good listening, then they would have 10 minutes of recess at the end of the day.  With one class left (Bible) they had 4 check marks.  After Bible I said, “I don’t know if I’m going to give you all another check mark” and the students went DEAD SILENT.  I held the marker 5 inches from the board just to add to the suspense (Ha, I was totally milking it for all its worth!!).  I suddenly made the mark on the board and instantly the class yelled “YYYEEEEEAAAHHH”  (in complete unison).  I don’t think I’ve ever made so many 6 year olds so happy!!!

Next week will be another FULL week of teaching-EVERY.SINGLE.SUBJECT!

Please pray that I would do well and continue to grow as a teacher in this placement! (Especially with my upcoming observations!!)

Living Off Soup and Juice

About a week ago I started to feel a little “tingle in my throat”-ohhh no!!  I knew all this feeling all too well!

Sure enough, the next day my throat was throbbing and horribly sore.  I made it through the school day, but left right away to rest. 

Saturday was very cold and rainy, and my sickness continued going down hill…fast and hard.  I was shaking a lot on Saturday night, despite having multiple layers of clothing on and two blankets covering me (not just my typical “Kim coldness”).  I suddenly was overcome with congestion and could not breathe laying down, so I had to sit upright to relieve some pressure.  I went to blow my nose and blood was pouring out (sorry for the TMI!)-making me more weak and achy. 

Sunday was a blur-so tired from not being able to sleep.  I continued to rest all day and try to get ready for a full week of teaching.  Unfortunately my body did not get the memo.

Monday I had slightly less congestion, but I did have moments of feeling overheated.  My mind was in a fog, but I had an observation that morning-greeeaaattt timing!! I tried to power through the best I could, knowing it wasn’t my best lesson, but it was my best effort with any remaining strength I had.  By the end of Monday, my voice was almost gone. One of my sweet students said, “Ms. Gabriel, why does your voice sounds weird.” 

Tuesday I did not even have my voice, I was tired, sick, and my emotions started to get the best of me!  I wanted to be in the classroom, but fully present!  I felt like a useless body walking around unable to really engage and teach the kids.  My cooperating teacher taught math for me, so I could attempt to teach in the afternoon.  I did, but it was so hard to manage a room of six year olds without a voice.  I was so thankful for our morning classroom aid who made me an AMAZING soup-so hearty and delicious! 

Today (Wednesday), my voice is still non-existent, but for the first time in 6 days I actually have SOME energy!!! A good sign, right?!!  I’m still going to rest for another day or 2, but hopefully by this weekend I will be healthy again.  Then I can enjoy and be fully present for my LAST week and a half of school here! 

…But for right now, it’s time for more SOUP AND JUICE!!

 

Once in a Lifetime

PART TWO: Adventures in Baños!

Sometimes you just have to do things that you may never get the chance to do again! 

At 7:30 we woke up in Shell and got ready to catch a bus for Baños that left at 8:15.  We stood outside and waited until it arrived.  The ride was a little over an hour, and we got to Baños around 9:30.  We immediately went to the bus station and bought tickets to return to Quito on a bus at 5 pm that night!  We were all set-or so we thought!

We had not had breakfast yet, so we stopped at a little place.  We all ordered the breakfast with coffee, eggs, and a roll.  It was pretty tasty and we were powered up for the day!

Fuel for the day!

Kristen wanted to go to “La Casa Del Árbol,” which is a tree-house in the mountains.  There is a swing hanging from the tree-house which is on the edge of a mountain!! It is called the swing at the end of the world.  We were originally going to take a taxi there and back, but there was a little travel/local adventure store that sold daily trips to visit places around Baños.  I talked to the woman in the store, and she said that it would cost $6 for each of us for the bus to take us there and back-with an hour at La Casa Del Árbol.  There was also a trip to Las Cascadas (waterfall tour), and that would cost $6 as well.  I asked about the times and it seemed like it would work out great (11 am-1pm for the tree-house and 1:30pm -4pm for the waterfalls).  It was about 10:30, so we walked in the park nearby to wait.  It was a PERFECT sunny day!

There was a group of about 10 of us going to the tree-house, but we didn’t leave until about 11:15 and arrived at 11:45.  They told us to return in 30 minutes, so we got off and immediately got in line to go on the swing (of death haha!)  The line was very long, and we wondered if we would have enough time.  At about 12:30, we were still about 30 minutes from the front of the line.  At this point we assumed the bus had left to go back without us, but we did not want to have waited in line all this time without even getting a chance to go on the swing.  There was a couple in front of us from our group who decided to stay longer as well, so we all decided to take a taxi together to get back! 

Swinging over the EDGE of a MOUNTAIN!!

At 1:00 we had all gotten our chance to swing-it was kind of freaky, but so worth it!  We all found a taxi, and asked for a ride back into town.  The taxi driver, the couple and I talked about getting a ride back, but he told us that he only drove to the bottom of the mountain and that we would have to take another taxi from there.  We all agreed and piled in.  The couple was very friendly (probably late 20’s) and I learned that they were from south Quito.  They were also leaving that night on the 5 pm bus!  When we got back to town, we said goodbye, and ran to the travel shop-it was already 1:40, and we hoped that the next trip to the waterfalls had not left.  We made it just in time and got on the bus.  We made multiple stops at different waterfalls, and it was absolutely gorgeous! 

On one of our stops, we were at a place that had canopy zipline rides across the mountains across a valley with a river and waterfalls! We could go on it for $10, so we quickly decided that we were going to go for it!  I made sure that the bus was going to wait, and found a family that had one extra person since we had to be in groups of 4 and we were a group of 3.  I was going to go with a girl named Paula and Morgan and Kristen would be paired.  Paula’s family watched our bags-a big help-and took pictures!  It was definitely one of those: “not thinking, just doing” moments in life! I am terrified of heights and cried many times in high school during our high ropes PE class, so this was something spur of the moment crazy for me!  I was going to be hanging in the air like superman hundreds of feet in the air!

I didn't have any pictures of myself, but this is what it looked like!

After catching our breath from the canopy zipline, we got back on the bus which took us to to another waterfall.  At this point it was 3:45 and we were told we would be back around 4.  They said we would have 30 minutes at this location, and that’s when I knew we would NOT make it back by 5 for our bus returning to Quito!  I started to panic and even after asking them if we would be back by 5-to which they said YES, I knew that it was not likely.  Unfortunately we were “off the beaten path” with no taxi in sight.  I tried to talk to a few people, but no one could help or was able to drive us back to the bus station.  So we were stranded and had to wait.  The bus left at 4:30, and was still on schedule to get town by 5.

…On schedule…as if those exist in Ecuador.  TIME MEANS NOTHING HERE!

There was a HUGE traffic jam through town-only one road-so we did not get back into town until 5:30.  We were hopeful that maybe just maybe the bus would have gotten stuck in the traffic and would be getting there late as well, so as soon as the bus stopped, I started to climb off the side (it was one of those open riding buses).  BUT the bus was not actually stopping to let us off yet, so I found myself hanging on the outside of the bus while it was moving!!! Talk about thrilling!! I pulled myself inside again and waited (this time!) until the bus stopped FOR REAL!  We all ran to the bus station, but it was too late and we missed the bus L  Wha wha wha…

We went to see if there was another bus leaving for Quito that night, and there was one more bus leaving at 8 pm that night.  We bought tickets-again-and headed out for some dinner.  After feeling sick from the first bus ride, I decided to eat a little before the ride and buy some more saltines for the rest of the ride (Yay for saltines!).  We ate and hung out at a cute little coffee shop where I ordered a “humita” (Humita is a Native American dish from pre-Hispanic times, and a traditional food in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. It consists of masa harina and corn, slowly steamed or boiled in a pot of water.)

At 7:30 we left to make sure that we would NOT be late this time!  The journey back was uneventful, and we got back to Quitumbre at 11 pm.  Then we took a taxi back to the school and got there at 11:30 pm.  We were wiped and quickly went to bed.  I was glad to have all of Tuesday to rest and relax before a 3-day school week!