Serving and Teaching in Venezuela: The First Three Weeks of School

Wow, it's been three weeks already since school started. I've officially been in Venezuela for a little over a month, and time is flying. I have lots to share about how school is going, so I am going to start at the beginning. When I first arrived here, everything in my classroom was piled in the middle and covered in black tarp because the classrooms are painted every summer. I worked very hard the two weeks before school to sort through it, organize it, and arrange it how I wanted.

To get to school, I walk both ways uphill sometimes in the rain. The school and my house are both on hills (foot hills of mountains) with a valley in the middle. My house is higher than the school is so coming home can be exhausting, especially if I'm carrying groceries. When it rains here, it pours! Right now is rainy season, so rain is fairly common. Still, I would say that I see rainier weeks in Illinois than here. We have yet to stay in for recess due to the rain.

Look at the size of this gutter! I'm very grateful that my class is on the first floor because we don't hear the rain pounding on the roof like they do upstairs.

Below is my classroom ready for the first day of school! My computer was still being worked on, and things like backpack hooks weren't hung up on the wall, but somehow everything came together.

The first three weeks of school have been so busy. I have been working hard planning, grading, and keeping track of these fourth and fifth graders. They definitely keep me on my toes! During the first week of school, we tried to burn the school down. One student threw his/her water bottle in the air randomly, hit a fluorescent light, which proceeded to smoke, spark, and became a small fire before dying out. I ushered the students out of the room, and we were able to go back in twenty minutes later after the wonderful maintenance men came and fixed our light and I aired the room out.

Besides a small fire, we have also had five bloody noses and two lost teeth. We have already gone through five boxes of Kleenexes, and now their runny noses have been passed on to me. My mom told me that was enough to make me an official teacher.

During school, we have been focusing on learning the routines of the day more than learning academics. In the pictures on the right, the students were learning how to read with someone. Behaviorally, some of these students have been testing the limits. Others did not know how working at our school is different from Venezuelan schools. It's taken a lot of time and energy, but slowly things are beginning to shape up. The class still has a ways to go and will continue to learn. I can already tell friendships are going to be an issue most of this year.

In Bible class, we are following the fifth grade curriculum, which walks through the Old Testament. My class has an interesting mix of pastor and missionary kids and kids who don't even know the creation story or story of Noah's ark. As a class, they are very curious and ask so many deep and difficult questions. We started with doing a partner project on the seven days of creation. They loved working on posters! We then spent a few days talking about sin, the fall, Satan, heaven, and hell. The students were very curious and asked very good questions: Where did Satan come from? If God created everything, does that mean he created Satan? If God can control everything, why didn't he stop Satan? Since they Bible calls us to love our enemies and Satan is our enemy, does that mean we have to love Satan? How do we know what will happen to Satan in the end? I've been told _______; is it true? Does it count if we pray the prayer of salvation with a teacher? We had an interesting discussion that consisted of many student participating and reading many Bible passages. I am so glad that they are curious and wanting to learn more! Please pray that I will be able to answer their difficult questions in a Biblical way that's not misleading anyone.

I received this card and rose from one of my student on the first day of school, and it made me so happy and excited to get to know all of my students.