As promised, here's more...

So, yesterday was our first day of training. It was a lot of foundational material, going over the kinds of research that support the way we're training teachers to organize, run, and teach in the classroom. We spent a lot of time on introductions, which I think was good. We had originally hoped to have translation occurring at the individual table groups (because the there are fairly wide range of English proficiencies in this classroom), but at the break time it became pretty clear that that wasn't working so well, so Annika, the administrator at Sekolah Papua Harapan, took over. Though she wasn't crazy about the idea (she felt a lot of pressure because a lot of the stuff that was being discussed was pretty high level vocabulary, but I think she did a great job. Grace and Liz took turns going over important points, but it was kind of cool because a lot of the things that they were saying was familiar to the students due to their previous training.

The only real strategy that we went over was the pictorial input that I model while speaking Spanish. Because I was ill with a cough and sore throat (which are unfortunately still present), there was a lot of coughing as I moved through the drawing. But fortunately, the teachers had grace for me and seemed to once again enjoy the input. One of the teachers came up to me after the session was over and told me that it had given her a lot of inspiration for her own classroom. It's really awesome to have a veteran teacher tell me, miss youth and inexperience, that what I've presented is inspiring. Once again, God working through us and paving the way for us is just so totally obvious. I know that throughout the training I've felt that it's totally His strength that's making the way--because I've got nothing!!

The training ended just before noon, and then we headed out to visit Sekolah Papua Harapan, the school that Wally started here in Papua. First we saw the new complex that they're developing for the new year, which will provide them with a lot more space and several more classrooms. They're getting a great rate for the space and the property as well, which is awesome. We then went to the current location of the school, and entered to see the students playing bingo in English! It was pretty adorable. We were shown around the school, which was much nicer than any of us anticipated. The dorms that students (who are from remote areas of this island) live in is really nice, and the dorm parents have an adorable 1 year old baby named Galvin. The school has two stories and the upstairs portion contains the actual classroom while the downstairs portion has a large room for play and the office space for the employees. We ate lunch at the school, which was DELICIOUS, except that I was feeling so ill that I could hardly enjoy it. :( Poor Liz at some point tripped over a raised portion of concrete and has two unfortunate bruises on her thigh to prove it. We've decided that she really just wanted to commiserate with the rest of our battle wounds from the "light hike" (read: trekking adventure) the other day.

After lunch, we dropped off a couple of students from a local program and then headed back to our apartment. A little later we came and visited the computer lab (which is how I got an entry in yesterday) and then I went back to the apartment and tried to take a nap so I wouldn't be feeling so ill. The afternoon was really quiet--the girls talked about the plan for today and then spent some time journaling and reading, after which we headed upstairs for dinner with Joan and Wally, and Annika joined us as well. Dinner was sooo yummy, and I was finally beginning to feel a tad bit better.

When we went back downstairs to get ready for bed, we all sat around talking for awhile, and it was some really great quality time for us. We also spent some time praying, initially for Janine who has the same throat disease that I have, and then for our team as a whole. It was pretty quality. :) One of the things that has been truly awesome about this trip (at least for me) is the way that we have gotten to know each other as people, and shared a lot about ourselves. Our friendships have definitely become deeper and stronger, which I think is one of the most rewarding points of the trip so far. Grace and I sat up talking, first in the living room, and then into the bedroom that we share, until midnight. Which is really late here, especially since we've been getting up between 5 and 6 am each day!

This morning we made breakfast as usual, and then headed up to the classroom. Many of the teachers were there waiting for us, but we weren't late, I promise!

Janine spent a lot of time going over classroom management and setup ideas, which seemed to go over really well and be received with interest by the teachers. Then Grace went through the content dictionary, I reprocessed the water cycle in Spanish, and Liz led an activity about the water cycle. All went well again. One thing that's great about this team is that it's composed of a group of really engaging speakers, so even for the students who have a difficult time understanding English, they're paying attention to our inflections and our movements to get cues, and then listening to the translation for information to write down and process. We're glad for this because one of our concerns was that students would zone out during the English portion, which isn't helpful since we're really trying to model a language acquisition classroom. The hope would be that everyone would get some new language (and strategies, of course) out of this seminar.

Today we're going down to the town to have lunch (since the international school where we're staying and doing the teacher training is up on a hill, pretty removed from the town itself) and we'll probably visit the Supermal here...maybe not as exciting as climbing over river rocks, but a piece of the story nonetheless!

On a more personal note, I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, though I do still have a rather evil cough. Please keep me, and the whole team in your prayers.

In addition, a couple of days ago there was a local flight out of Sentani (by the carrier Merpati, and Indonesian airline, but not the one we're flying) that has gone missing, and is assumed to have crashed. It happened on the day of the crazy storm on the trek to the waterfalls, so the best guess is that bad weather caused the crash. As we'll be flying back to Jakarta on a local airline in a few days, please keep our safe travel in your prayers as well.

Lesson of the day:

Mosquitoes are capable of biting through layers of clothing-- as I have two bug bites on my booty to prove it (and Gracie has generously dubbed me "sweet cheeks," haha!).

Still in Jakarta, but on the way out...

So, we really did spend most of the afternoon lazing by the pool. And this is one amazing pool--there are 5 jets of water that arc out over the pool, creating a refreshing sound of rushing water and just making the pool ultra beautiful.

It was nice sitting out there, in the water but under a spot shaded by the many trees in the garden. We were able to spend some time talking, and just getting to know each other better. Before I had come downstairs, I had met two of Connie's three younger boys, Andre and Anthony. They had looked at us so curiously in the morning before they headed off to school that morning that I decided they should have a name to put with at least one of the faces. :) While we were hanging out in the pool, Anthony, the youngest (he's 7) kept watching us from the balcony, but whenever I would see him and wave, he would run shyly away, only to return moments later.

When Connie came home at about 5pm, she asked us if we wanted to stay in for dinner or go out to the village dining, and we opted to stay in. She also told her boys that it was time to do their laps in the pool--Anthony does 50, Alden (the middle boy) does 75, and Andre does 130. Janine and Gracie were so impressed (I mean, i totally was too) because they had tried to swim a couple of laps while I was blogging and had given up in tiredness. The boys proceeded to do their many laps with their cousin, Ben, who lives here too as he goes to the same school and the three other boys.

We all went to our rooms to shower and freshen up for dinner, which was supposed to be served at 6pm. It wasn't totally on time, which was fine, except that Janine and especially Grace were exhausted! Poor Grace actually fell asleep on the couch as we waited for dinner. Alden and Anthony were riding some kind of skateboard around the living room, creating obstacles for each other and generally being semi-rowdy young boys. When we expressed how impressed we were with their technique, they simply responded, "you just wiggle." I don't know about Janine and Gracie, but if I got on one of those boards and "just wiggled," I would fall flat on my face and probably end up with a broken bone of some sort!

Dinner was had without Ibu Connie and Pa Kasmin, so it was the three ladies and four boys: Andre, Alden, Anthony and Ben. Andre was such a wonderful host, it was adorable. He apologized for keeping us waiting (though we weren't waiting that long and it was certainly not his fault!) and insisted that we serve ourselves first. He asked me to bless the meal (I think because I was the only one who had been introduced to him) and then served me some rice. It was really quite cute. Initially it was a little bit awkward, since one side of the table didn't really know the other, but we asked some questions and things just kind of took off from there. The interactions of the three brothers was quite hilarious, but they get along rather well--I was certainly impressed.

After dinner, they insisted on giving us a tour of the house, including their own bedrooms and their parents' bedroom, "walk in closet" (which was seriously as big as my bedroom), bathroom, and office, as well as the 3rd floor of the house which provides lovely views of the backyard and the rice paddies just beyond their fence. They were quite excited to show us around,and it was certainly a pleasure to be shown around.

They invited us to a game of UNO, which turned into a competition between the "home team" (the boys) and the "away team" (us). Being gracious guests, we let them win (haha!). It was intense, but truly enjoyable. I really loved how they welcomed us into their room and all seven of us crowded on the bed to play. They were so open and funny, it was a true pleasure to play with them, and definitely the highlight of my evening.

We all headed off to bed (and by "we" I mean Janine, Gracie, and I--the boys continued to frolick around the house), and Janine was out just about as soon as her head hit the pillow! I journaled for a bit and then read, and then went to sleep, and rested fairly well, despite another early morning.

Janine and I were up around 6am again, and I think Grace must have been as well since she was at our door at 6.30am. We went downstairs and had breakfast, and met Liz who had arrived last night around 9pm. Pa Nouvell was back to pick us up at 8.15, and we headed out for another morning of training.

Since we had left most of the stuff up in the classroom, there was a little less set-up required, which was good. Liz led the class through the gallery walk, which included pictures of various storms (our unit is on weather, in case I failed to mention that earlier) and prompts for them to respond to. Our translator from yesterday was otherwise engaged, so we called on Billy, one of the students, to assist. He did a great job throughout the day. The students seemed to enjoy the gallery walk, and were engaged with the photos. Some of the comments/responses that they left were pretty hilarious. We saved them for posterity. :)

Grace went through a content dictionary strategy, which was also great. The students are supposed to predict what the meaning of a vocab word is and at the end of the day we confirm or deny (lol) and give the accurate meaning. Their predictions were again pretty entertaining. A reservoir was "a sewer" according to one prediction. And Grace is so engaging with the students. She's always making them laugh.

I went through many of the poems we had written and then through the sentence patterning chart. I was so impressed with the way the students responded to the poems--I would say it first, model it to them, and then asked them to repeat it with me. Their pronunciation was quite good, and they spoke boldly. I was really pleased. And the patterning chart went well too.

Janine next did the narrative (which they really enjoyed, and did really well with the reprocessing, even without translation) and then I did expert groups and process grids. That went fine, but I want to re-work how it's presented because it went so quickly and I want to make sure all the relevant information is accurately conveyed. They went through the process grid smoothly though, even though I insisted on going over the text without translation, so I know that at least the information was being understood for the most part! And they remembered this strategy when we asked later what kinds of strategies that we had modeled could be used in a math classroom.

We finished with exit slips, which are really a form of assessment for us, and the students seemed to be writing A TON. I haven't seen the comments yet, but I'm excited to. They seemed to enjoy the training, and made favourable reports to one of the faculty members, so that's encouraging.

We went for lunch once we had packed up all our supplies--rolled up all the poems and chants and posters and such--which was Indonsian chicken sate (much like thai satay) and something that was made from rice but was more...chunky? It's hard to describe--it was green on the outside and looked like it would be crunchy like a vegetable, but was soft and tasted like rice. I cannot at all remember the name of it...maybe I'll figure it out later and report back. But it was quite tasty, especially when dipped in a thick peanut sauce!

We opted to come back to Ibu Connie's house and rest and pack after lunch. Pa Nouvell graciously drove us home again. Our flight to Papua leaves from the Jakarta airport at 9pm, which means we should get there by 7pm (security has been increased since the recent bombing), which unfortunately means that we have to leave the house by 4.30! Apparently, it's going to take 2.5 hours from here to get to Jakarta due to rush hour traffic. This is not encouraging. :(

So, prayers are appreciated as we continue to travel-- it's about a 7 hour flight from here to Sentani/Jayapura, Papua--and there are two stops along that itinerary. Tomorrow morning, we'll arrive in Papua, and I can't guarantee what my internet access will look like, but as always, I promise to do my best to keep you updated!

Oh--a little tidbit that I forgot to mention from our arrival at Jakarta (that Janine reminded me to share with you):
I have a global phone and wanted to get a SIM card, and went to Janine, who was waiting with our luggage to tell her I was heading to find one. A janitor overheard our conversation and comes over saying "SIM card? SIM card?" and making the universal sign for phone. We nodded and asked where we could get one. Then he pulls a handful of sketchy-looking SIM cards from his pocket and moves toward us conspiratorily. We laugh, and shake our heads and he awkwardly chuckles and moves a little bit away. I head over to the LEGITIMATE kisosk to purchase one, but apparently the little guy kept pestering Janine about getting one and when she said I had one, he persisted in asking her where I had gone and when I was coming back. Poor Janine. :)

Arrived, and safely!

Welcome to my blog for my summer trip to South East Asia. I'm going to keep things as up-to-date as possible, but as my access to reliable internet might be scattered, please allow for some grace!

So, we made it! Janine, Grace and I arrived, tired but happy, at approximately 7.30pm Jakarta time last night. By God's grace, we met few hassles, despite the team bag being overweight by several pounds and Janine and I carrying on long tubes containing all of the pre-made poster materials for our training sessions. Juliet graciously drove us to the airport on Tuesday morning, and as we were able to check in at home, left my house at 5.45am, rather than the previously scheduled 4am. We didn't hit ANY traffic (I don't know that I can say the same for Juliet on the way home...) and were able to eat a leisurely breakfast near our departure gate after going through a security screening that had absolutely no queue.

The plane to Tokyo was FULL. I think I counted 3 open seats on the HUGE 747...I was seated on the upper deck, where I had never been before, and Gracie and Janine were on the lower deck, in the very rear. I accidentally stole a sandwich from the business class "oasis" on the plane...but it was worth it because that was a good sandwich, haha! The flight was incredibly long, more than 13 hours, but it passed relatively quickly, thanks to sporadic sleep and a decent collection of movies for my viewing pleasure. Also, a big thanks to those of you who prayed for me and the huge stress/hesitation I was feeling prior to the trip--I was not nervous at all, and felt totally at peace from the moment I stepped on that plane, and the flight from Tokyo to Jakarta. Hopefully, that peace will be maintained for the 8 flights I have left to go!

I found Janine and Grace in the Tokyo airport, right before the transfer security. We made it through without any problems and had about 30 minutes before we needed to board our next flight. I was feeling rather ill from the previous flight, so I went in search of this magical pain medication I had previously found in Japan called "bufferin." I found it, and bought a bottle of water, and by the time our Tokyo flight took off, my headache was totally gone.

And when I thought that things couldn't get any smoother, I discovered that the seat I had checked in for on the second flight was actually a premium economy seat! This was a huge deal because I never get upgraded or anything. It's not like it was business class or anything, but there was so much more leg room and I had a leg rest and a foot rest...and I just totally felt spoiled. It was totally marvelous. The food on this flight was slightly questionable (I think I ate a piece of octopus sucker??), but no worries. I am still alive, whatever it was that I ate on that plane. I was also fortunate enough to sleep about 5 of the 7 hours from Tokyo to Jakarta, so I arrived in Jakarta feeling less than exhausted, which was marvelous.

Arrival in Jakarta was also smooth. One semi-hilarious moment occurred while I was waiting in line for my visa: I looked up to see a welcome sign in the airport that read "Welcome to Indonesia: Death penalty for drug trafficking. For some reason this made me laugh--what a welcome! Be aware that the death penalty is available here! I received a visa on arrival, which was actually this pretty intense sticker that they print out with all your information and takes up an entire page of my passport. I hope that there aren't many more of those kind to be received on this trip because otherwise I will run out of pages in my passport! The lines weren't too long, and I beat Janine and Gracie through the visa line and immigration, and headed over to collect our bags. Gratefully, all of our bags arrived, but one of our team members didn't!

One of Gracie's friends from Chicago was to be joining us on this trip, and when we didn't see her at the gate, we weren't too concerned, and expected her to join us on the plane. Only, she never did. It turns out that she did not make her connection in Tokyo and is currently still there, waiting for a flight out tonight.

I was able to purchase a SIM card at the airport (so I now have an Indonesian cell number--email me if you want it, haha), which just totally makes me feel more secure as I roam around, knowing that I can reach someone if absolutely necessary.

We took a really nice taxi from the airport to the home of the director of the teacher's college, about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The home was like NOTHING we anticipated.

First of all, this is place is like a mansion. I am so not joking. There are two of us to a room, but we have huge king size beds, flat screen TVs and our private bathrooms. It's also air-conditioned. The back yard has two fish ponds, half a basketball court, a pool and multiple trees lining a grassy yard and a patio with a approximately 5 tables surrounded by chairs. There's a spiral staircase leading to the room I share with Janine and a balcony that connects all the upstairs rooms. I can't even describe it...it's amazing. And the woman and her family are so nice and so generous--so eager to make our stay pleasant. We're spending the afternoon lazing around the pool, trying to distract ourselves from the beds that call to us so persistently...

And the training. Today was the first day, the first time we've had to put all our hard work and planning into action. We all got up around 6am (after 24 hours of travel--imagine!) and got ready for the day. A driver came to pick us up at 7.45am and we were then shown around the building that houses the teacher's college. We met many of the faculty and staff and then were shown to our room for the day and allowed to set-up. The room was perfect--the tables were situated just in the fashion that we wanted to model and there was lots of wall space for the various posters we were going to use. There was some uncertainty as to the English proficiency of the students we would be working with, so we were given a translator. She was awesome too!

It went REALLY well. I was to model a pictorial input, but done in Spanish, a language that no one in the room knew. The idea was that even though they don't understand the words that I'm saying at first, the pictures that are associated with them make the meanings clear. When I got up there and started speaking in Spanish, the whole room kind of gasped. But as things went on, as I would say words in Spanish, they would repeat them, and you could hear students getting their English equivalents ("Oh, condensation! Oh, oceans!"). They laughed as I moved through the drawings and did hand motions and pointed to words and repeated them, and when I finished, they clapped for me! I was the last strategy of the morning, so they'd been listening for 2 hours straight, and they clapped! I cannot even express the warmth that moved through me. It was an amazing feeling. I then explained why and what I had done, and the students were nodding their heads in understanding before the translator could even get to what I had said. Then we did what is called "reprocessing" where the students were given little cards with words from the poster on them and asked to come up and stick it in the appropriate location when they hear their word called. Every single one of them did it correctly, and they loved it when I said "que bueno!" after they posted their word. Then they clapped again. It was awesome. I was pretty nervous since I was going to be talking about the water cycle in Spanish, but God's provision was once again evident. All in all, I think there were very few ways in which the training could have gone better. We're up again tomorrow, and I hope it goes just as well.

We ate lunch after the training (It was delicious) and then went to a mall nearby and wandered around. We're now back at Connie's amazing house and Janine and Grace are waiting for me to join them in the pool, so I'd better sign off for now. So far, so good--but keep us in your prayers!