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.
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