Update on teaching

Hello and happy almost Friday,

We've been teaching for three weeks now. Our days go very quickly and time seems to be flying here. We are still so thankful to be living here and continue to soak up each day. We were actually just talking the other day about living here, right where we feel called to be. Mitch brought up the fact that we need to remember to continue to seek God's will, even now when we feel we are where we need to be. He mentioned that moving to Managua was only the first step, not the final step. Now that we are here, we need to continue asking God what He has in store for us. That was a good reminder for both of us as we are starting this new phase of teaching.

We're both settling in to our new teaching roles. Lauren is enjoying being an assistant, with all that that brings - free evenings, extra time to cook, time to read, more time to write blogs, and do all the other things that she often put to the side during her teaching days in Virginia. Although Lauren doesn't have work to bring home, she sees the work ahead of her this year in working with the teacher of her kindergarten classroom. Right now, she's helping a lot with classroom behavior management and will begin this next week with implementing small group times in the classroom. Every teacher at NCA has, or is working toward, a degree in teacher education; however, the methodology taught here is much different from what we were taught in our courses. The techniques we learned at EMU are not often seen in the majority of the classrooms, and we are adapting every day.

Speaking of classrooms, Mitch is in a lot of them each day. While he's figuring out his role and responsibilities at the school, he also has to oversee the other 4 teachers in the English department. Since he is the coordinator, he spends half of his time teaching and half of his time advising. He teaches 3 classes each morning: 5-6th grade advanced, 7-8th grade advanced, and 9-11th grade advanced. In his afternoons, he observes the other teachers and offers feedback. Though his work comes home with him after a long day at school, he doesn't seem to be overwhelmed at all. We both feel so encouraged by our school community, and it's a great place to be.

The past 2 weeks, we've also made more of a point to get over to CINAFE, Fortress of Hope, after school almost every day of the work week. We walk Emre over and sometimes stay for 15 minutes, sometimes an hour. We get to help the kids with homework and just hang out with them. Without the obligation of teaching English each afternoon there, we are really relishing the time we have to continue building relationships outside of a "classroom" setting.

This past weekend we enjoyed such a great, short trip to Granada with some new friends that we are making here in Managua. It's definitely different not having a close friend group nearby, but we're comforted by our little family of 2, and a dog, as well as our family at CINAFE and our school community at NCA Nejapa.

Thanks for thinking of and praying for us continually, we'll write again soon! And next time, we'll try to attach some good pictures of our school :)