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!).
Showing posts with label spanish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spanish. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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!
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!
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