Week One

(this is an okay picture of the lava...a better one is to come when I get pictures from other people!

I am almost finished with week one of school. I love teaching, but I can't wait for this weekend so I can do some planning. I feel like I'm running about five minutes ahead of my students. I teach Freshmen English--we're about to start the book "A Separate Peace," which I've never taught, so I'm pretty excited about it. I introduced a project to my 6th grade social studies class in which they have the opportunity to earn their knighthood (we're studying the middle ages). If any GCS people are reading it, I definitely ripped that project off Mr. Bobeldyk. I'm also doing a one on one English class with a student, and teaching an ESL class.

Creative writing will be a highlight for me--I have eleven middle schoolers who are all excited about writing and ready to work hard and have fun. I love it already.

I'm helping coach soccer too--apparently my keeper knowledge from way back when in high school is enough to earn me the position of goalie coach. It's a good thing that I was trained by the best!!!

I'm looking forward to teaching English at a friend's church, and also seeing if I can hook up with Young Life down here (the staff person is at all staff in Florida, so I won't be able to connect for a little while).

Pretty much, I'm keeping busy, loving life, and loving teaching.

More to come!

Bienvenidos A Guatemala!

I've been in Guatemala for hardly two days, and already the adventures are piling up. I had a rocky landing in what I found out is the worst wind the country has experienced in thirty years--including any hurricanes. Needless to say, I was welcomed to a powerless, waterless home. Really, is there any other way to be welcomed back? Probably not.

I settled in as much I could with the remaining daylight hours (it gets dark by 6 every day, all year), then set off on a simple task: drive my roomate Trisha's car to the gas station, put some air in the tire, then head up the boulevard to the Fry's house. What should have been a fifteen minute ordeal escalated into over an hour and a half of anxious driving. I did not know that the ENTIRE city had lost power, which explained why all but one gas station was closed at 7 pm. The one gas station was seriously overcrowded, so I decided to head to the Fry's and get an air pump from school. As I left the gas station, I missed the turn around and ended up on the upper portion of the road (comprable to an express lane) and had to drive FOREVER before I could turn around. Then, the road split so my return path was not the same as the one I was on. Needless to say, I was without communication, maps, and driving on a semi-flat tire in a completely dark Guatemala City. What a way to start! I kept praying that God would keep air in the tire like he kept oil in the jars, and he did. I eventually made it to my destination with quite a story to tell. Ethan and his girlfriend, Kelly, were actually out searching for me at the time.

The adventures continued on Thursday as our house still didn't have power (meaning no showers yet...gross, I know). E and I picked Trisha up from the airport, we caught up, got some goods for my room (essentials like lamps...I love lamps) and the power came back on in the afternoon.

Last night a group of us night hiked the volcano (again, a night hike in the dark is from about 6-10). My pictures didn't turn out too great, so I'll post some better ones later. Regardless, the intense glow of the lava created a red sky visible from miles away. It was a phenomenal experience.

Now I'm off to school to check out the notes the other teachers left for me and to get some planning done for my first week of school as a REAL, certified teacher :)

Out of Towner

A strange feeling enveloped me this Christmas season: I am now an out of towner in my home town. I am the relative that people see at Christmas parties, special occasions, and few other times in between. I am the person that has to stand up when people at church welcome those that "aren't always with us." I will spent the next six months in Guatemala, and I won't return to MI after that time! Bring on the transitions from college to the 'real world' I guess.

These emotions give me small, small bit of insight into what Christ felt during his time on earth. Not at home or welcome (ok, I can't identify with that one) in the world that he created. But he persisted anyway. That dynamic, that healing of relationships broken, that reconciling creation to God, is what Christmas is about.

Grandville will always be my home as much as anyplace can be. I guess none of us are really at home in the nostalgic sense. There will always be a part of us feeling a little uncomfortable, a little off, because we live in a world that does not align with what it was created to be.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Years--start reclaiming some of our home and looking for ways we, as God's chosen people, can continue the story and move things toward the way they were meant to be in preparation for an eventual homecoming.

Three Weeks

Three weeks until "annetteinguatemala" will once again be written from Guatemala!

If you can't see it...

Bear with my ramblings on this one please, but I've been thinking a lot the past few days about something I talked about with my cooperating teacher. She has been teaching in Chicago Public Schools for a while now, and we've had a lot of really interesting conversations about the reality of inner city education. How do students break out of the molds? What's holding them back? How do we effectively educate the students we have in the situation we're in?

She shared a story with me about a student whose comment in response to some of those questions was, "if you can't see it, you can't be it." Think about that. For these students, if they don't have the examples in their lives, they have nothing to work for. That's heartbreaking in itself, but those words challenged me on a different level as well.

If you can't see it, you can't be it.

We are called to follow Christ, to be like him, "your attitude should be the very same as that of Christ Jesus." But, there are so many things in our lives that hinder us from seeing him clearly; and, if we can't see him, we can't be like him.

As Christmas approaches, I am caught up in the joy of this season, but more importantly, I have been thinking about what changes I need to make in my life in order to see Christ more clearly.