Finally... the first of many to come

Greetings from the beautiful city of Kota Kinabalu! I am pleased to report I have arrived safely and am adjusting quite well. I have now been here for almost two weeks and it is gradually beginning to feel like home. Thank you again for all of your support and prayers. I apologize for my lack of correspondence, as I have been without Internet since I arrived. So much has happened in the past 14 days that I feel I could right a short book. I don't quite know where to begin...

After 44 hours of traveling, 22 of those hours in the air, I arrived on Friday, August 28th in the sunny, hot and humid city of Kota Kinabalu. Although I was fairly worn out from traveling I was very happy to finally reach our destination. We immediately began our activities for the week of orientation but were given quite a bit of down time the first few days to rest. I was pleasantly surprised that the jet lag was not too bad for me. After about a day or so I felt pretty adjusted to the time difference, which is 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.

This week I began my job placement at Kindergarten Petagus. It was a great feeling to wake up on Monday morning and know I had to get ready for work… and then to walk out the door towards my job for the next year. Not having a regular job this summer was difficult for me and it was especially hard not working with/seeing children regularly. I had been ready for this day for quite awhile.

Kindergarten Petagus is about a 15-minute drive (sometimes a bit more depending on traffic) from my apartment. Every morning I am picked up by Mr. Lo Vun Ken, a board member of the kindergarten and he transports me to the kindergarten. One of the teachers gives me a ride home after school. I am picked up at 7 a.m. and school starts at 8 a.m. School ends at 11:30 a.m. and I am home by around 12:30 p.m. I have the afternoon free to work on lesson plans, work out, read, journal and do just about anything that my heart desires. It is a very relaxed schedule and so far I am enjoying it quite well.

Although on Monday I was happy to be at the kindergarten it was not too eventful. I spent most of the morning meeting with the principal and going over the different classes and different materials that need to be taught. I spent a brief period of time at the end of the morning peeking into each classroom. I did get to see and English class being taught to the 4 year olds, which was very helpful. This is one of the smaller kindergartens in Kota Kinabalu, which I am thankful for. This way I am able to make more of a connection with the children and hopefully will know most of them. There are approx. 130 children and they are split into 6 different classes. In Malaysia, kindergarten is age 4, 5 and 6. So at Kindergarten Petagus there are two classes for each age.

Tuesday was my first day teaching! I was surprised at my lack of nerves but it made sense as I had prepared well and am comfortable teaching young children. The biggest problem I could foresee was the language barrier. Malay is the first language of most children at this kindergarten. At school they learn Malay, Chinese and English. However, it does not seem to be a problem. As long as I talk slowly they understand pretty well. The 6 year olds understand just about everything I say and with the 4 year olds I have to concentrate on using very simple English. But so far so good. This is quite a blessing as know very little Malay right now (but I am learning). On Tuesday I taught 4 classes back to back (with a half hour tea break in the middle). I taught Phonics lesson and then English lesson to the same 6 yr. old class. I then taught the same English lesson to the other 6 yr. old class and my last class for the day was an English lesson for the 5 yr. old class. I was a little tired by the end of the morning but very pleased with the way the lessons had gone.

Today, Wednesday went even better. My first class of the day was the same as Tuesday (6 year olds). On Tuesday I taught this class to say “Good Morning”. Today, when I walked into the class and started getting my stuff ready for the lesson almost every student came up to me individually and said “Good Morning!”  That made my day right there! J  The rest of my classes went well.

It seems that my 5 year old classes are going to be the most difficult to teach. The 5’s are in a weird medium between just the beginning stage of learning (4’s) and the stage of understand the overall concept (6’s). The 5-year-old classes are also always my last class of the day and by that time their attention span is pretty short.

I feel I have been placed in a wonderful job where I am really needed and where I will excel. So far I look forward to work every morning and enjoy challenging myself by adding some uniqueness to the lesson plans and not teaching straight from the book. At this point it has been a wonderful week and I look forward to getting settled into the school and really impacting the children.

 Through out the next week I will make several posts on different topics and try to catch you all up on the past two weeks of my life in Malaysia.

 This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  –Psalm 118:24