Happy Halloween!

Christo with his haunted house picture

Darryl and Vyshanne with their pictures

Ikwan with his ghost picture

Although I've had a wonderful week and have nothing to complain about, it was a little sad to hear about everyone back home preparing for Halloween. So yesterday at the last minute I came up with the idea to teach the children at Kindergarten Petagas about Halloween. Although some children are familiar with some aspects of Halloween, most are not.

There most certainly is no such thing as trick-or-treating here. I got it cleared by the principal and Teacher Hiew was nice enough to take me to one of the bigger super markets where I could find cheaper bulk like candy.... this way I could get enough to give one to everyone. I found coloring sheets online and also remembe

red the Halloween poem 5 Little Pumpkins.

Picture of me passing out treats

The children absolutely loved it! I will be honest, with the younger classes I'm not quite sure how much they understood... but they are always happy to get treats! I told them just about the basics such as how children dress up in costumes and go trick or treating. We talked about different costumes and how a big aspect of Halloween is spooky and scary. I told them about jack-o-lanterns and taught them 5 Little Pumpkins with the actions. They especially liked the coloring pages (as you can see in the picture) and spent quite a bit of time on them. When I gave them the treat I taught them how to say "trick or treat" and of course taught them to say "Happy Halloween!" It was a fun day; enjoyable for me, the teachers and the children.

Worksheet Station -- Ikwan has a question!

Game Station --- playing a matching game I made

Reading Station

Aside from our Halloween day, another highlight of my week was working with class A Red (my 6 year old class that I teach 5 times a week). The school is now done with testing (which went pretty well) and we have moved on preparing for our graduation program. Each class does 2 different dances. Although it is getting to be crunch time to learn the dances, it is a fun and more relaxed atmosphere. There is very little academic teaching happening and as I

walk past the classrooms, if the class is not practicing a dance they're usually just happily playing with toys. I am now only teaching class A Red twice a week because I have

a book to finish teaching them. This week I decided I was going to try and do stations with them. This is a teaching concept used for younger grades in the States but they have never heard of it here. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it worked and will definitely be using it a lot next year. I did three different stations: Worksheet station, Game station and Reading station. At

the reading station they practice reading to each other and while they're doing this I call them up individually to read with me. The children spend 15 minutes at a station and then rotate to the next. The key part of stations is that it keeps all of the children busy and gives me time to work individually with them. Picture of me reading with Alfiee.

I continue to be rewarded for the effort I am putting into my job and am always reminded of how much I am enjoying myself. I adore the kids and am so pleased that I have the opportunity to help teach them. The teachers are supportive and very helpful. They are constantly encouraging me to be creative and break away from their "boring" lesson plans. They want to learn from me. The children and teachers are my family here and I could not be luckier.

Happy Halloween!

Class A Red - 6 yrs.

Adjust + Embrace = Home

Today I received mail at my school for the first time. I don't even know the address of my school and it was a surprise to me that anyone else knew.... but it made sense when I saw the letter was from the ELCA. Enclosed was a copy of Global Gleanings: global mission news & notes, a monthly newsletter. It was a nice surprise and quite an enlightening read while I had my morning tea/breakfast. I would like to share an excerpt from the feature article, Letting Go, written by Kevin Jacobson.

"If someone tosses a hot piece of coal into your hands, what do you do? You don't ask, "How do I let go of this hot piece of coal?" You don't even take the time to ask, "How do I let go?" You just let go. You just let go. Often in this world of being a missionary I find myself needing to 'just let go' - let go of my old habits, culture, traditions, inhibitions, and, yes, even some beliefs."

I definitely can identify with this quote. It is an amazing experience being immersed in a new culture. It may sound kind of nerve racking or scary (and it may have its moments) but the truth is, like the quote says, you don't have time to think... you just do. You have to drop most things you know... likely things you took for granted, and accept and embrace the new.

I enjoyed reading the article to Teacher Hiew as she drove me home from school today. It was interesting for me to hear her response. She certainly agreed with it and stressed that although it is important to be open minded and allow the new in, she can imagine it must be a difficult adjustment being so far from home. I replied, "Yes that is true. It is difficult at times, but realize, as I let go I am not losing anything. Instead I am gaining this experience and embracing it to the fullest... and beginning to call it home." Over the past few days it has really hit me how much I am beginning to feel at home now. Although, I have only been here for two months and certainly have many more adjustments ahead of me, I am realizing the many hot stones I've let go without taking much notice. This is apparent to me as I reflect on my first few weeks here and even my first month and can sense the change in adjustment. This is something I struggle to put into words but is something I can feel inside.

While preparing to leave this past summer I shared my favorite prayer with many of you. I say it often and as always it brings great peace to me. I am honestly a bit surprised to report that it has gained even more meaning through out these past couple months... reminding me that our spiritual growth is never ending, even in a favorite prayer. As always I have put great trust in the prayer but I feel more than ever my prayer has been answer. Below is the prayer and I have highlighted in bold the three lines I have felt a stronger connection with recently.

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle in your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and everyone of us. Amen.

Moment of the Day

Today Teacher Hiew was not able to be at school. She usually gives me a ride home, so today one of the other teachers did instead. This teacher (I am blanking on her name... horrible I know) is the mother of my favorite student, Vincent, who is in one of my five year old classes.

Vincent is my favorite student because he is very well behaved and eager to learn... always. This is pretty impressive considering I always teach his class at the end of the school day. So by that time the attention span of most of the children is pretty low. However, I can always count on Vincent to set a good example. He is always sitting quietly and is very attentive. Although

he may not be the smartest kid in the class he catches on pretty quickly and works hard to learn. His English is pretty limited (as is his mom's) but we make do and do a pretty good job of understanding each other, even if it requires gestures and pointing sometimes. Since his mom is a teacher at the school he always stays late after school and if I'm not too busy grading assignments or preparing for the next day, I will play games

or read stories to him and the other children still waiting to be picked up. During my first week at the school I taught him and a few other children a high five game: Up high, to the side, down low....(pull your hand) too slow!! Vincent has worked very hard to learn how to do this... of course it was easy for him to pick up the hand movements but it took some practice for him to learn the right words to say.

Today he gave me another reason as to why he's my favorite student... I was walking out to his mom's car to go home and he put his backpack in the back seat and then hurried to open the front door of the car for me. A five year old opened a car door for me!! I definitely haven't ever had that happen before and was pretty impressed. His mom was getting into the car at the time so as far as I know she did not tell him to do this. Even though it is only 2 pm here, this most certainly made my day. How could it not?!

The pictures were taken a few weeks ago on Children's Day. All of the children decorated their own mask to wear for fun!

hot, Hot, HOT

The weather in Malaysia is tropical, which, as I'm sure you all know, means hot weather all the time. Not only is the weather hot, but it is also very humid. I would say an average day here is comparable to one of the hottest days of a Midwest summer in August. I am absolutely loving it and am wondering if I will ever start to get bored of it as the year continues. However, it is kind of funny because I don't think it has really hit me that it's October and I think it's because of the weather. I'm just not used to this much heat in October.... I feel like it's still August.

At first I will admit it was an adjustment. I was continuously covered in a light layer of sweat. But as time has passed I think a combination of two things have occurred: 1. the weather has gotten slightly cooler 2. I have adjusted to the heat and humidity.

The rainy season begins in November and I am interested to see how much it really rains. I have been surprised by the lack of rain thus far. It maaaaybe rains about once a week. In the past couple weeks we have had two rainy days. They were pretty comparable to a rainy day in the summer back in the States and I really enjoyed it. It was quite cool, upper 70's and everyone at school was wearing comfy sweatshirts. One boy in my 6 year old class came to school wearing a full blown winter jacket and didn't take it off for most of the morning! I will admit that I too was wearing a light long sleeved sweater/jacket and was very comfortable.

In the evening it cools off a little. Right now it's almost 9 pm and on my computer it says it's 81 outside.... but to me it feels like its in the mid 70s. I usually go for a run early evening just before it gets dark because that's the coolest time to do it, aside from the morning and I don't have time then. The evening would also be a great time to sit outside and read or journal but I don't do that too often because the mosquitoes are pretty bad (and quite annoying).

We do have air conditioning in our apartment but we are not suppose to use it. The first couple weeks I had my moments where I wanted to use it... but now that I'm fully adjusted I have no need. If I'm really hot I just put the fan on me. Some businesses/restaurants and shops have air conditioning and some don't. Just about everyone seems to have air conditioning in their house but it is not always used... just depends on the family. The air conditioning in houses is not central air... they have individual ones per room.

Even though this is not related to weather at all I am going to end this blog post with a few snip-its of a Franciscan blessing a fellow YAGM shared with me recently:

And may God bless you with

enough foolishness to believe

that you can make a difference

in this world and in your community,

so that you will courageously try

what you don't think you can do,

but, in Jesus Christ you'll have

the strength necessary to do.

May God bless you that you remember

we are all called

to continue God's redemptive work

of love and healing

in God's place, in and through God's name,

in God's Spirit, continually creating

and breathing new life and grace

into everything and everyone we touch.

First Busy Week

Happy Friday! This week has flown by for me. It was my first week that felt more normal and busy. I had something other than school every afternoon/evening except for Thursday. I am slowly feeling like I am building friendships and feeling more comfortable around the people here.

On Monday evening we were invited to a farewell dinner for Evelyn's friend who is studying at Cambridge in London. Evelyn is a new friend of ours and she attends the same church as us. Last Friday we went to a cell group gathering (kind of similar to bible study) for the first time and this is where we met her and many others close in age to us. I will share more about the cell group in a future post. Dinner on Monday night was lots of fun. I enjoyed talking with everyone, especially Evelyn's friend (I am completely blanking on his name). We had fun comparing the States, England and Malaysia.

Tuesday was probably the highlight of my week. I went to school like normal in the morning. At school, Tuesday's and Wednesday's are my busy days. I only have a half hour break and am teaching the rest of the time. Starting this week Tuesday's are my extra busy day. After school I will go straight to Care Haven to teach English to the orphans there. Myself, Lauren and Kelsey decided to do this a couple weeks ago but just started this week. Since our afternoon's are free, Lauren asked Pastor Laura if there was something else we could do and she quickly found a couple options for us. I do not have too much of an issue filling my afternoons because since I am teaching English at my school and have assignments to grade and lesson plans to work on. However, Lauren and Kelsey are more available because they currently are simply assisting teachers at their schools. So between the three of us, Kelsey and Lauren are going for two days a week and I am only going on Tuesday.

The orphanage is only a year old and only has four children that need help with their English. Vivian is 16, Edward, 13, Idrus, 12, Nelwe, 14 and they are a complete delight to teach. They really want to learn and try very hard. It's obviously much easier teaching 4 students vs. 30, like I do in my kindergarten. They also really enjoyed helping me with Malay. They were kind of shy at first but by the end of the lesson (each day one of us will work with them for 2 hours) they were having a blast learning new english words and then teaching them to me in Malay. Good learning for both of us! I will be sure to post a future blog with more details on my time at Care Haven.

On Wednesday, I was invited by Deborah to attend a Mooncake Festival gathering of two cell groups combining to celebrate. It was pot luck style, aka lots of good food! Again, really nice to

just have a chance to meet more people and to talk and get to know them better. Deborah is another member of our church who I have gone to Sunday brunch with a couple times. She is someone who I consider a friend here. It's very nice to finally feel like I have some friends here, outside the other YAGM of course. It's a slow but steady process. Saturday is the official Mooncake Festival but this was an early celebration. After eating and conversation, several of us walked around the block with the children. It is a tradition for the children to walk around the neighborhood with lanterns. I asked a couple of the adults if she they the meaning behind this and they said the older generation might know, but that it has been lost through out the years and they didn't know. It was a very fun night!

Today was Children's Day at my school. This happens once a year and it is a day to reward the children. There were no classes and we all got together in the bigger assembly type room and played games, sang songs and read a story. The children also received goody bags full of treats. I spent most of the day observing and taking lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera back at my apartment, so I will post pictures with my next post. I also had a chance to talk with my principal for a little bit. She asked if I had any ideas for changing the English program for next year. I have a few small changes I'd like to make but mainly I told her I would be happy to start an afternoon program for the children whose parents are busy. Many of the students get picked up late, which is extra work for the teachers. They don't like to stay too late with the children, but also don't want to 'scold' the parents. Although, like I said, it's easy for me to fill my afternoons, I am to here to help as much as possible. I like being around the kids and if they are in struggling homes where the parents don't have time for them (which sometimes is the case) I would love to spend more time with them, and especially help them one-on-one with their English. The principal really liked the idea and said she would discuss it with the board. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the progress.

"Success in life is most easily measured by the number of days you are truly happy" -- A quote 'facebooked' to me by my lovely mother. Yes, my mom has Facebook!

I hope this finds you all truly happy.