A Day at Training

Here is a typical day's schedule while I am at training:

Annie, me, Sharon, & Sarah all wore coordinating clothes.

6:00-6:30ish get up and get ready

6:30-7:00 make phone calls, have quiet time

7:00-7:45 breakfast

8:00-8:50 Discovery Group/Worship/Devotions

9:00-10:20 Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) class

10:30-12:00 Country or Region specific TEFL class

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:30-3:30 life overseas training - topic varies by day

3:45-5:30 Practicum Prep - see description below

5:30-6:15 dinner

6:15-7:00 drive to Practicum site

7:00-8:30 teaching ESL classes

8:30-9:15 drive back to campus

9:15-9:45 de-brief the day with same group from the morning

9:45-10:15 get ready for bed!

We do get short breaks after nearly every session, but it's only 10 or 15 minutes. However, the material is exceptional and I might even say it's better than my "regular" teacher workshops. They have a different way of saying things that is going to help me be an exceptional teacher (I hope) and I can't imagine how much better I will be when I get back to the states.

Practicum Prep

Erin & I wore matching clothes on accident!

We are actually teaching ESL classes this month. ESI has partnered with local churches to provide free English classes to the communities. And we are providing the teaching! Scary, but extremely beneficial. Most of the people here have never been teachers before, so they are getting their feet wet, and those of us that were are getting a chance to re-program our "teacher-brains" to what appears to be a better lesson planning strategy (at least for teaching people to speak English...I'll evaluate it more after I've taught for a few months.) Since I have experience, I got the wonderful privilege of going first on the first night. Unfortunately, the classes are very small, and no one came to mine. But we will do teach almost every other night, so Thursday I did actually have two students. It went pretty well overall, but of course I made a few bloopers. I'm excited about watching my progress over the next 3 weeks.

Prayer Requests for this week:

- for continued excitement

- for plenty of rest

- for my roommate - she should be here this week!

California Breakfast

This is a "You-know-you-are-in-California-when" story.

Sunday morning we had a continental breakfast. I saw some cereal boxes on the table, but no milk, so I made a comment about it. Somebody answered, it's probably for the yogurt. aaaahhhhh....

The cereal boxes turned out to be 3 different varieties of Kashi granola. Who knew there were that many different kinds of granola! I thought all granola was the same kind of granola, but the one I actually ate had strawberries, some other berries, and kiwi! It was actually very good and tasty.  Maybe I'll eat more granola this way :)

Training Begins

Leavin’ on a jet plane...don’t know when I’ll be back again!

me and all my posessions for the next year

Michelle, me, Brance & Wren

Saturday morning I packed up all my things and went to the airport. My parents, my sister’s family, and my best friend’s family came to see me off. Everything had gone so smoothly until we boarded the plane. Everyone was in their seat, the flight attendants had done their thing, then the captain comes on and says that there is no air conditioning and the plane won’t start. So several people chose to deplane and wait inside, but I just stayed in my seat. I did not want to take all my carry-on items off again. It only took about 30 minutes for them to fix it, and another 30 minutes to reboard those who left. So we were off, but about an hour late.

I sat next to two little boys, about 9 and 4. They were travelling with their dad and sister (in the row behind us) to see their grandparents in California. Spencer was so talkative and told me all about California and what I should do while I am here. His brother (William, I think) drew me two pictures with stars and shooting stars. They were so cute and great travel companions.

me, Amy, Guinevere, Floyd

Once we landed, I had planned on getting lunch at the airport. I couldn’t see anything in the waiting area, so I figured there would be something outside by baggage claim…nope. The Burbank airport was very small…a little larger than San Angelo, but not much…and no Chinese restaurant. So I found a Hudson News and got a granola bar and a Butterfinger. I ate the granola bar while waiting for my luggage and was saving the Butterfinger for the trip on the van/shuttle. However, it was so hot (and humid) here that my Butterfinger melted before I could eat it.

I met two other girls going with TeachOverseas at the shuttle stop and we all rode together to William Carey International University. It is very green here and I’ll try to get some pictures posted later this week. We went through Registration and got our room keys and then some nice staff & volunteers helped us get our luggage up the stairs. That’s when we discovered that we did not have air conditioning in the dorm (which really looks more like a 2-story motel.) This is quite an adjustment for me. I’ve never not had A/C. Last night when we went to bed it was 93 degrees in our room. We have a fan and left the windows open and all the doors open and it has cooled off considerably this morning. It is now 77 degrees inside. And very nice outside. We are hoping that it will not be as hot today. I have 2 roommates and there are 4 rooms in our suite. So 12 girls altogether – we all share 2 showers and 2 stalls and 2 sinks. Each room has a small mirror. So far it’s working out ok, but we didn’t have to be anywhere until 8:30 today.

Dad, me, Mom

There are more than 50 people here for training and a few more will come and go at different times during the next 4 weeks. I did find out that I will be leaving the States on August 16th.

This is long now, and it is nearly time for breakfast so I’ll continue my stories about training in upcoming blogs.

Please pray for cooler weather!

Farewell Fiesta

This past weekend began the farewell phase of my preparations.

I said good-bye to my many friends in Ozona this weekend. My Sunday School class hosted a Farewell Fiesta for me at a ranch. All the rain recently has made everything green, the temperature was down (in the high 80s/low 90s) and it almost felt like spring again. It smelled so good out there - all the greenness, wet earth, and a few blooming plants made for a spectacular scent. We had fajitas, chips and dips - guacamole, salsa, 7-layer dip, and a fantastic dessert called sopapilla cheesecake - cheesecake in the middle, sopapilla on the outside. I had a gigantic piece and it was delicious.

Sunday was a comissioning service at church. The ladies of the church all gathered around to pray for me as I take this step of faith and begin to serve the Lord in a new capacity. We also had a potluck lunch. I love potluck lunches! It might be one of my favorite things about small churches. Everyone pitches in a dish and voila! instant feast for 100 (or more). Some of the ladies even made Slovak recipes for the event. One in particular was very good - kind of like a ham & pea salad combination.

I will leave my parents' house tomorrow and make my way to my sister's house, stopping to see a few friends along the way. My flight leaves DFW for California on Saturday morning.

My goal going forward is to update the blog once a week. I will do my best to make it happen, but no promises! Please pray for safe travels this week as I galavant around the state.

Funds Raised!

My funding has been completely raised!

Thanks to everyone who contributed financially, with items for garage sales, or with prayers. It was a very humbling experience, but I have learned to be a gracious receiver. In our American culture, being receivers is much harder than being givers.

Why is this? I think it has to do with the American Dream - where you build everything you have all by yourself, from the ground up. It's easy to become prideful if you did it all. It's harder to be prideful if you have to say that someone helped you. It's impossible to be prideful if God did it for you. I say impossible, but I mean impossible for personal pride. I have pride in my great big God that he did this for me, because I surely didn't raise all these funds on my own. The Lord pricked hearts and put numbers in heads for this to be the success it was. I think this kind of pride is OK. Just like having pride in a friend or relative when they have accomplished or done something great is OK. So long as it doesn't come between you and your relationship with God.

Thank you Lord for teaching me to become a gracious receiver!

Garage Sales: West Texas Style!

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

I've recently become a garage-sale Pro. I received this distinction after being a part of 3 garage sales in 2 weeks. Here's how that worked out.

1. I held a garage sale for my own personal belongings. I did not want to put things in storage, so I decided to get rid of almost everything. (I do have about 20 boxes in storage right now, about half of which are school-related.) I told a few friends they could come by for an "early-bird" preview. A friend told a friend, who told a niece that was about to get an apartment for the first time. She called me and came over. She ended up buying almost all the furniture! It was a wonderful start. The day of the sale, a great majority of the other stuff sold as well.

2. My Sunday School class decided to host a garage sale as a fundraiser for my trip. So what I did not sell at my personal garage sale, we took over to the host's house. I was incredibly impressed at the amount of donations people from the church had brought over to their home. It completely filled a bedroom and the front living room. We ended up using the entire front lawn and car-port on the first day. The second day, everything fit under the car-port. What a successful garage sale!

3. The same weekend as the Sunday School garage sale, my grandmother decided to host another garage sale at the church where I grew up. This too was an amazingly successful garage sale. We had several people bring donations to the church. The church is located on a prominent street, so there were lots of people that stopped by to browse and generally everyone purchased something.

It was this particular garage sale that reminded me I live in West Texas. First, I've never seen anyone arrive at a garage sale on a tractor. Yes, tractor...like the kind you use to pick up the big round hay bales. He bought some CO2 canisters for a pellet gun, but was planning to use them in some kind of wine-bottle-opening-contraption. So a wine-drinking tractor-driving man visited my garage sale! How fun!

Second, a couple arrived on a motorcycle. How can you properly garage-sale on a motorcycle? The man got all excited about some zinc canning lids that were on one of the tables. He was calling people and checking out the lids individually...even counting to see how many there were. Then, he only wanted to pay .50 for them! Bizarre, but hey - it's a garage sale. This couple did only buy about three small items and then stowed them in the saddle bags of the motorcycle and drove off.

Third, toward the end of the garage sale, a young man rode by on his horse. He did not dismount, nor did he buy anything, but it was interesting anyway. He rode right up to the edge of the tables and just kind of gave it the once-over. I think he was just curious about what kind of junk was left. But I'll bet this never happens in the city!

All in all, it was a crazy, hard-working two weeks to get these garage sales off the ground. I am so thankful for all the help and all those who came to buy. The money raised put me within $500 of my goal. PTL!

Last Week of School

There are only 5 more days of school. Two regular days and three days of finals. I almost can't believe that it's nearly over, but at the same time, I'm so glad I can put my full focus on getting ready for Slovakia. I have two more books to read and more packing to do. I'll be having a garage sale in two weeks and there is more to do for that than I remember. It's been a while since I was on the selling end of a garage sale, and I forgot how hard it is to put a price on your personal belongings. Some are worth more than others, but some of the worth is only sentimental. Buyers do not know about my sentimental attachment to the item, so that value is worthless. How do you decide how to price those items?

I'm also trying to decide what to keep. Some things will store better than others, and those are easier to decide to keep. So far, I've kept some glass bowls from the kitchen, my box of costumes (too much work went into collecting them to get rid of them...and who knows when you will need a costume or themed outfit), a few Christmas decorations, and I'm boxing up all my school stuff (again, too much work is represented by that pile of papers).

I am un-officially at the half-way point money-wise. I officially have $5,000, but my church has quite a bit (I don't know the amount) they will give me in July. So thank you again for your generosity!

All Kinds of Updates

Financial Update:
This week I added up all the funds that have been contributed and I get nearly $5,000. Thank you so much!  TeachOverseas.org asks us to have $6,000 by the end of May, so I'm nearly there. Once I hit the $6,000 mark, I'll be half-way to the goal of $12,000. The Bible shows us with Paul that some of us are meant to be the ones that "go" and some are meant to be the ones that "give". Praise the Lord for faithful givers. If you would like to contribute financially, visit http://www.teachoverseas.org/contribute.php

Language Update:
I know 85 words/phrases in Slovak...sounds like a lot, but I still can't really say anything worthwhile. I'll just keep plodding along.

Preparation Update:
The past two weeks have kept me very busy. I scheduled a physical with my doctor. He ran several blood tests and I have to have one more test done at the end of May.

With my mom's help, I've been looking at international insurance. I think we've found one that is going to work and we'll be ironing out the details for it next weekend.

I reserved my plane ticket to get to training in California. I'm actually using some airline miles I have collected, so it will help bring the cost down a couple hundred dollars or so. But it was a concrete thing that made this experience a little bit closer and a little bit more real.

I'm trying to pack up the things I want to keep in storage while I am gone and get the rest ready for a garage sale. I'm learning to let go and get rid of things. It's a hard lesson to learn, but I'm getting there. Really, its just stuff...it won't do me any good sitting in a building for a year or more. And someone else could be using it. (I think it's probably a good thing to learn this lesson early in my life, too...) I'm planning to use the money I get from selling my belongings to help finance part of the trip.

School Update:
There are only three weeks of school left for this year. All the students are ready to be done and it's getting harder and harder to convince them to do these last few lessons that will tie all their knowledge together. My focus is split between getting ready to leave and finishing what I'm already committed to. Please pray that I'll be able to keep things going on both fronts at the same time.

Emotional Update:
This past week was very tough.  I think because of all the combined factors mentioned above, plus it's starting to sink in that this is for real, and I'm going to be gone for a long time. I can't really explain it any better, but it was just a hard week. I'm spending the weekend with my family (for Mother's Day), so that will help.

Prayer Requests for this week:
For an emotional lift
To know the right questions to ask when looking at insurance
For my teammates/roommate in Slovakia - I don't know them yet, but they have been on my mind a lot.
For TeachOverseas.org as they make preparations for our month of training

Physical Training

A couple of friends have taken it on themselves to be my walking trainers...Literally.  They walk around town for exercise and have adopted me into their group. Nearly everyday for the past two weeks, I've walked with them.  There are several different routes...most of them more than 3 miles. You would think that walking in West Texas would be easy because it's so flat...not so. The town is actually built in a little bowl, so there are some pretty big hills to climb and come back down.

I've really enjoyed this training as it gives us a chance to talk about all kinds of topics and get to know each other a little better. Plus, it smells so good outside. We had a very wet winter and the wildflowers smell fantastic. And it's helping me to get ready for walking in Slovakia! I will not have a vehicle, so I'll be walking to the bus stop and from the bus stop to my destination all the time. I should probably start lifiting weights so I can carry my groceries around town too! Hmm...that sound's a little ambitious...we'll just stick with the walking for now.

The next time you take a walk, think of me and say a little prayer for my physical training and the people I will meet while walking in Slovakia!

Fingerprints!

A lot of times, I hear our uniqueness defined in terms of fingerprints. This is true biologically, and spiritually as well. None of has the same story, and none of us have had the same spiritual experiences. This week I had the opportunity to examine my actual fingerprints. Here's how that happened:

I received an email from TeachOverseas.org giving me instructions on getting an FBI background check in order to obtain a temporary residence permit in Slovakia. I had to submit "fresh" fingerprints to request a background check. I called the local sheriff's department, but they could only print out my fingerprints if they charged me with a crime. Since that would be counterproductive, I called a police department where my parents live and they could print them for $5. I visited their office on Wednesday and in an interesting few minutes, I had a copy of my fingerprints. They have a very cool machine that you put your fingers on and it scans your fingerprint. Then they print out on a special form from a laser printer. And that was the end.

I have to say this might be a fun family event in the summer...Its so neat to see something so unique about yourself in pure black and white. I spent several minutes in the car just looking at them. Then I took them to the post office and sent them to the FBI. In 13 weeks, the FBI will tell me that I have no criminal background and I will be able to get my temporary residence permit in Slovakia. 

One more step completed! On to the next one: full physical from the doctor.

Money Update: I have received about $1200! Praise the Lord! Only $11,000 to go! Please keep praying. This week - specifically pray for time to see the doctor about my physical.