Thursday, February 2, 2012

Patience

Patience….Patience….Patience….Patience
Maybe if I say patience enough it will fill my mind! These past two weeks have been pretty rough in the class room. The kids are starting to get more comfortable as me being their teacher, so they try and push my limits. I have kids running, jumping on tables, doing handstands, chasing each other with brooms, and lying down in the room. I will go tell one of them to stop and finally get them calmed down and then turn to someone else. As soon as I get to the other one, the first one is right back at jumping from table to table. It’s a mess!! Then when I finally get them all calmed down and ready to learn I start to talk and then it starts all over again. So out of a 45 minute class period I will end up teaching about 15 of that. I’ve tried many disciplinary actions and none of them seem to be working.
                 Not every day is chaotic. Some days I can actually get a lot taught to the kids and they are actually listening to me, at least I think so. Yesterday we had a review for our 3rd quarter mid-terms and they all were being really attentive and a lot of them knew that answers. I was really confused in my head, because when I was teaching them that information they were not listening at all, at least I thought so. It was actually really refreshing to hear all of them participating in the review and knowing the answers.
                So right now I am going though this phase of recognizing the easiness of the U.S. Everything come to us very easily back in the states. We get used to this style of life and it spoils us! I mean if I wanted to use the internet back home then I could just get on my computer and its right there. Here, I have to wait 2 minutes just for Google home page to load. Back home I was getting used to this thing called an Iphone. If I wanted to search something I could just pull it out of my pocket and search; I don’t get those luxuries over here. You just learn to not need as much stuff. I am now starting to realize that every single one of those easy things was interfering with my relationship with God; hindering what I need to learn about Him and what He has given us to study daily, the Word. It is starting to hit me that this is one of my reasons for coming here to Ebeye.  It may be hard and not enjoyable at times, but God is right here directing my steps.
                All bad things eventually stop! I got to take a field trip the great Island of kwaj, which is about a 25 minute boat ride. This is not just an island, this is America! This island is a United States Army island and it shows that it is run by the U.S. Nice paved road, nice clean bathrooms with hot water and not salty, green stuff they call grass, and Subway and Burger king. Yes, I said Subway and Burger king. Of course I was not going to miss out on this opportunity to spoil myself. This is how it went down. Kwaj has softball fields and sporting equipment. So every so often we bring a team from Ebeye to go play on the fields. Well, I was one of their sponsors last night so I got to go. After we were done playing softball, we all went to the food court; MMM, delicious! I even bought enough so I could bring some back and have some for lunch today.
                Well even though these past couple weeks have been rough, I have been making memories that I will never forget. I know times will be rough and I won’t want to be here, But I can do anything with God on my side. I know I have to just keep pressing on and that is what I am going to do!
Until next time!!

2 comments:

  1. Good for you, Blake!
    The mission field can definitely change your life, thats for sure! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's crazy is that after they're so horrible for you, they'll end up respecting you and loving you. Just keep being patient and strict and all that you've been doing. You'll make it.

    Is it all the grades who are jumping on tables? Or just one particularly?

    Besides, I like reading your posts. For the time it takes to read, I can mentally travel back there and vividly imagine what's going on for you. And, yes, Kwaj is a nice treat.

    ReplyDelete