Alright so we are almost done with our third week of school and it is crazy to think how fast it is going. I can't believe tomorrow is Friday, especially since this was our first full week of school.
Anyway, tomorrow we are leaving for a Student Council retreat. It will be Jackie and I as the advisors and the representatives from the student council. The idea is to get out of the city and plan the whole year. Some of the things on the agenda are:
- Ways that the student council can reach out to the community (service ideas)
- How the student council can affect the whole school, rather than just the high school
- Fundraising events
- Lock-ins
- Banquets
- and plenty more (pretty much there is something scheduled every month
We found out what exactly our service projects are going to be for the school as well. Jackie and I will both be going with the 10th grade class to go to one of the poorest communities in southern Bogota to evangelize to the street kids and some other families. I am super excited to get down there and work with this ministry. Then on the fourth Saturday of every month I will be going with the high school guys to a farm where we are going to work with street kids that are brought to this farm to learn how to enter society (it is a ministry that is run by one of the teachers at the school) and Jackie will go with the girls to a ministry for pregnant teens in Bogota (some as young as 11).
School is going well and I think we are both getting more comfortable with what we are doing. I am enjoying being with the little kids a lot more than I thought. Jackie also had one of her best lessons so far the other day in Science. She did a fossil activity and she said the kids loved it so it was awesome to see how happy she was after that.
We are also still settling into our apartment, we did get internet but we are having problems setting up our wireless, so hopefully we get that fixed soon so I can update more.
Please pray for the Franklin Graham festival which is in Bogota tonight through Saturday. Also, continue to pray for Jackie's health, she is still having stomach issues and today she woke up feeling bad (she went to school though and stuck it out). We are just not sure why she is having so many problems - altitude, food, water????? The water is actually okay to drink in Bogota from the tap but we don't really do that a whole lot. So, anyway just pray that things get better for her.
Hope everyone is enjoying the last days of August! God bless you all and I hope to update you more tomorrow!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
We moved!!!
Well, after 2 1/2 weeks we were able to finally move into our new apartment! This is where we will be living for the next year, so we moved in and started making it home yesterday. We were able to purchase some stuff from the school and another teacher, as well as getting some furniture from free the school. As soon as we get everything set up we will try and send some pictures.
Alright so what else have we learned while we have been in Colombia?
- Towels are also expensive..much more than the states. We brought some down with us since we heard they were expensive (good thing we did!)
- Car alarms are very sensitive here - I have counted for the last few days and we are averaging hearing about 12 different alarms a day (not counting our time at school since there are not many cars around us at that point). By the way we woke up at 5:15am this morning to two separate alarms.
- Peanut Butter is a luxury down here - I think all peanut butter is imported because it costs about $8.50 - $9.00 for a little jar (needless to say Jackie and I are hitting up Costco when we come home from Christmas and we are going to bring a big jar home!)
- Fruit is very very very cheap here! You can buy about a weeks worth of fruit for the two of us for about $10-$15. Just the other day we bought a pineapple, 3 granadillas ( a Colombian fruit) and 8 bananas for about $2.50.
- You can get all the fresh bread you want! - Everywhere you look there is a bakery making fresh bread. Right across the street from our apartment there is a bakery (that we have gone to a couple of times already) where we bought 4 croissants, 2 rolls, 2 arepes and water and a pop for $3.50!!!!
In the end a lot of the money balances out since there are some things we are used to back in the states that cost a lot more here. Then you find the Colombian treasures that are cheap by American standards.
School is busy! We are just into the second week and things are starting to slow down a little bit since we are getting used to how everything works around here. One thing I love is how everyday I walk through the school (inside and outside) and I know every single student (except for the Pre-K and Kinder students). Not to say I have every name memorized but I am getting there.
It is great to teach PE but I am also really enjoying being about to be in the classroom to teach Health.
Jackie had a great birthday this past weekend for a couple of different reasons:
1. We moved into our apartment
2. She was able to talk to her family
3. It was a long holiday weekend
4. On Tuesday we had a little birthday for her at the school - they brought in a cake and a bunch of the students and her aide gave her gifts which she was not expecting.
Jackie is also enjoying her classes and she has really impressed a lot of the staff here with how good she is with the students and in the classroom.
Anyway, we hope everyone is doing well and we can´t wait to update you more, especially once we start our work with some of the ministries down here in Colombia. God bless you all and have a great rest of the summer!
- Car alarms are very sensitive here - I have counted for the last few days and we are averaging hearing about 12 different alarms a day (not counting our time at school since there are not many cars around us at that point). By the way we woke up at 5:15am this morning to two separate alarms.
- Peanut Butter is a luxury down here - I think all peanut butter is imported because it costs about $8.50 - $9.00 for a little jar (needless to say Jackie and I are hitting up Costco when we come home from Christmas and we are going to bring a big jar home!)
- Fruit is very very very cheap here! You can buy about a weeks worth of fruit for the two of us for about $10-$15. Just the other day we bought a pineapple, 3 granadillas ( a Colombian fruit) and 8 bananas for about $2.50.
- You can get all the fresh bread you want! - Everywhere you look there is a bakery making fresh bread. Right across the street from our apartment there is a bakery (that we have gone to a couple of times already) where we bought 4 croissants, 2 rolls, 2 arepes and water and a pop for $3.50!!!!
In the end a lot of the money balances out since there are some things we are used to back in the states that cost a lot more here. Then you find the Colombian treasures that are cheap by American standards.
School is busy! We are just into the second week and things are starting to slow down a little bit since we are getting used to how everything works around here. One thing I love is how everyday I walk through the school (inside and outside) and I know every single student (except for the Pre-K and Kinder students). Not to say I have every name memorized but I am getting there.
It is great to teach PE but I am also really enjoying being about to be in the classroom to teach Health.
Jackie had a great birthday this past weekend for a couple of different reasons:
1. We moved into our apartment
2. She was able to talk to her family
3. It was a long holiday weekend
4. On Tuesday we had a little birthday for her at the school - they brought in a cake and a bunch of the students and her aide gave her gifts which she was not expecting.
Jackie is also enjoying her classes and she has really impressed a lot of the staff here with how good she is with the students and in the classroom.
Anyway, we hope everyone is doing well and we can´t wait to update you more, especially once we start our work with some of the ministries down here in Colombia. God bless you all and have a great rest of the summer!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
First couple of days of school
Alright so things have been crazy the last couple of days. My schedule is all over the place and I never quite know how to organize everything. For instance Tuesday and Wednesdays are my busiest days (in a school day that has 8 periods I have 7 classes on Tuesday and 6 on Wednesdays). Also, it is very rewarding and exciting but also challenging to go from teaching 1st graders to 12 graders in just one period and then back to middle school.
Even though it has been crazy I have been loving it. I have been putting a lot of work into trying to change the curriculum for PE as much as I can so we can get the most out of our students.
Jackie is doing well and loving teaching more then aiding. It is nice to have her own classroom and she is starting to get to know the students better. She doesn´t seem to be nervous like I think we expected since she does have a tendency to worry, but she looks very comfortable teaching.
We are both excited about the school year and look forward to updating everyone on what is happening. Next month we will also be starting all of our ministry work as well, so we can´t wait to let everyone know about what else we are doing.
Moving update:
We are moving on Saturday now (hopefully!), but we are not very confident since our moving date has been changed about 4 times. We will move in eventually though, so thank you for your prayers for finding and moving into a place.
Prayer requests:
Financial and prayer support
That we would continue to have a smooth transition into the school year
That we would continue to get over the culture shock and missing home
That our move would go well
Thanks everyone and we will update you again soon!
Even though it has been crazy I have been loving it. I have been putting a lot of work into trying to change the curriculum for PE as much as I can so we can get the most out of our students.
Jackie is doing well and loving teaching more then aiding. It is nice to have her own classroom and she is starting to get to know the students better. She doesn´t seem to be nervous like I think we expected since she does have a tendency to worry, but she looks very comfortable teaching.
We are both excited about the school year and look forward to updating everyone on what is happening. Next month we will also be starting all of our ministry work as well, so we can´t wait to let everyone know about what else we are doing.
Moving update:
We are moving on Saturday now (hopefully!), but we are not very confident since our moving date has been changed about 4 times. We will move in eventually though, so thank you for your prayers for finding and moving into a place.
Prayer requests:
Financial and prayer support
That we would continue to have a smooth transition into the school year
That we would continue to get over the culture shock and missing home
That our move would go well
Thanks everyone and we will update you again soon!
Monday, August 10, 2009
First (half day) of School!!!
Before I tell you about our day I just wanted to take a minute to ask all of you to pray for our continued financial support. We are not there yet and we are just praying that we will be able to raise enough support for our housing and other expenses while we are here. Thank you.
Alright, so we are starting out slow at school. We had 2 hours on Friday, a half day today and our first full day tomorrow. So, today I just got ready again for class to start since the students only have their 6 core classes on half days. But, Jackie was able to see all of her 5th and 6th grade classes.
She was cracking me up when she came in after school when she said, "I love my 5th grade class and the 6th grade class is going to be the death of me." It was funny because she said the 6th grade class just talked so much and she is going to have to work on that. I told her it will get better and it will just take some time. But other than that she had a good first day of school and hopefully she will continue to have a smooth transition.
We were also asked to be the student council advisor's which we accepted. We are looking forward to working with the students in this capacity.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day for me since I have PE for 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th/8th and Health. My schedule is crazy with all the classes on different days since everyone has PE 3 days a week. The good thing is they combine the 7th and 8th grade together as well as 9/10 and 11/12.
Thank you for your continued support! God is doing great things down here and we are hoping we can be a part of His work.
Alright, so we are starting out slow at school. We had 2 hours on Friday, a half day today and our first full day tomorrow. So, today I just got ready again for class to start since the students only have their 6 core classes on half days. But, Jackie was able to see all of her 5th and 6th grade classes.
She was cracking me up when she came in after school when she said, "I love my 5th grade class and the 6th grade class is going to be the death of me." It was funny because she said the 6th grade class just talked so much and she is going to have to work on that. I told her it will get better and it will just take some time. But other than that she had a good first day of school and hopefully she will continue to have a smooth transition.
We were also asked to be the student council advisor's which we accepted. We are looking forward to working with the students in this capacity.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day for me since I have PE for 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th/8th and Health. My schedule is crazy with all the classes on different days since everyone has PE 3 days a week. The good thing is they combine the 7th and 8th grade together as well as 9/10 and 11/12.
Thank you for your continued support! God is doing great things down here and we are hoping we can be a part of His work.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Downtown Bogota and Monserrate
Today we went out with some people to the school to downtown Bogota and up Monserrate which is a mountain that is right next to the downtown area. We took a cable car up the mountain (about 10,500 ft) and visited a catholic church on the top of the mountain as well as some shops that are up there. Once you get up the mountain you can see most of Bogota and then you look on the other side of the mountain and it is just green.
Anyway, if I get a chance I will try and out some pictures up, until then you can see them on facebook.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
Anyway, if I get a chance I will try and out some pictures up, until then you can see them on facebook.
Hope everyone has a great Sunday!
Friday, August 7, 2009
First day of school!!!
Well, we just finished with the first day of school...although it was only 2 hours long. Basically all the students just met in their homerooms and got textbooks and signed the honor code, etc. After that was over we had an all school picnic. Most of the kids were here and a lot of their families came so it was a pretty big picnic which was awesome.
Now we are just working on some stuff for the first week of school on Monday. We are also hoping to be able to move in to our apartment on Monday as well. It is a holiday here in Colombia so a lot of things shut down, which is why we can´t move in this weekend.
Thanks to everyone for praying and keep us in your prayers as we try and get the rest of our support.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Now we are just working on some stuff for the first week of school on Monday. We are also hoping to be able to move in to our apartment on Monday as well. It is a holiday here in Colombia so a lot of things shut down, which is why we can´t move in this weekend.
Thanks to everyone for praying and keep us in your prayers as we try and get the rest of our support.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Welcome to El Camino Academy
Well everyone I just wanted to take a minute to put some pictures up of El Camino Academy.
There wasn't a whole lot of exciting stuff happening today, but we were able to get a lot of work done. Jackie is going to start decorating her room as much as she can tomorrow, which will help her feel more comfortable in the room.
Tonight though we were able to go out with 6 of the new teachers and one of the other staff members to a place in the mall called Crepes and Waffles...it is a very popular restaurant down here in Colombia.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Jackie's classroom (not decorated yet)
The teacher's office and Jackie's classroom
Upstairs hallway for junior high and high school and The path leading from the new building to
the old building
Jackie working at her desk and The basketball court
One of the two quad areas outside and The addition to the new building
There wasn't a whole lot of exciting stuff happening today, but we were able to get a lot of work done. Jackie is going to start decorating her room as much as she can tomorrow, which will help her feel more comfortable in the room.
Tonight though we were able to go out with 6 of the new teachers and one of the other staff members to a place in the mall called Crepes and Waffles...it is a very popular restaurant down here in Colombia.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Jackie's classroom (not decorated yet)
The teacher's office and Jackie's classroom
Upstairs hallway for junior high and high school and The path leading from the new building to
the old building
Jackie working at her desk and The basketball court
One of the two quad areas outside and The addition to the new building
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
3 Days until the Students arrive
We are getting anxious, nervous, excited and ready for the students to get to school in a few days. I think we have had so many meetings and so much time to work that now we just want to get started. It has been great to here all the speakers, find out all the information about the school and start to meet those we will be teaching with, but it has been weird to be in a school all day long without students.
It has been awesome to see what missionaries have been doing down here. Every morning a different board member (most of whom are missionaries) tell us about their ministry to the people down in Bogota. Here are just a few quick highlights of some:
1. Reaching out to the recyclers - these are men and women who pull around or ride carts with horses and the pick up things to recycle. They mostly live in a community together and they have a lot of drug trafficking and teen pregnancies in these areas. This one couple has been going to this community, developing relationship with them, bringing the students from ECA to help and telling them about the gospel
2. Giving loans to the poor - this ministry supplies loans to the poor of Bogota to start their own businesses and get on their feet. Hopefully they will then pay back their loan and be able to have a business that flourishes.
There are many others and we cannot wait to help with some of them as we get more involved in the school.
Alright so what happened today? Well after our meetings and orientation at school we met up with a couple from a church down here that we might be working in. The funny thing was they have a neighbor who works for a publishing company that is putting out some curriculum for students to learn English...so...they need some native English speakers. We went and tried out today and we hear in a couple of days if we need to go in and record some scripts. Jorge joked with us that we have only been in the country for a week and we might be famous...hahaha. Anyway, it was pretty funny, since I did my regular voice and the other voice was supposed to be a crocodile speaking (obviously this is for kids), but I have no idea what a crocodile would sound like. It was fun and we will let you know if we get the "part".
We are hoping to move into the apartment we selected by this weekend, but at the latest sometime early next week.
It has been awesome to see what missionaries have been doing down here. Every morning a different board member (most of whom are missionaries) tell us about their ministry to the people down in Bogota. Here are just a few quick highlights of some:
1. Reaching out to the recyclers - these are men and women who pull around or ride carts with horses and the pick up things to recycle. They mostly live in a community together and they have a lot of drug trafficking and teen pregnancies in these areas. This one couple has been going to this community, developing relationship with them, bringing the students from ECA to help and telling them about the gospel
2. Giving loans to the poor - this ministry supplies loans to the poor of Bogota to start their own businesses and get on their feet. Hopefully they will then pay back their loan and be able to have a business that flourishes.
There are many others and we cannot wait to help with some of them as we get more involved in the school.
Alright so what happened today? Well after our meetings and orientation at school we met up with a couple from a church down here that we might be working in. The funny thing was they have a neighbor who works for a publishing company that is putting out some curriculum for students to learn English...so...they need some native English speakers. We went and tried out today and we hear in a couple of days if we need to go in and record some scripts. Jorge joked with us that we have only been in the country for a week and we might be famous...hahaha. Anyway, it was pretty funny, since I did my regular voice and the other voice was supposed to be a crocodile speaking (obviously this is for kids), but I have no idea what a crocodile would sound like. It was fun and we will let you know if we get the "part".
We are hoping to move into the apartment we selected by this weekend, but at the latest sometime early next week.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
I can't believe we are in Colombia!
Those were the words Jackie and I said to each other about half way through the day. Some hours of the day if feels like we never left home and other times, like today, everything feels so surreal. One reason we had that feeling today was because we drove through more of downtown Bogota, experienced our first church service and drove through the mountains. Needless to say it was a full day.
We went to the Pinzon's church, where they did worship for 40 minutes without stopping, then we took communion and prayed and ended with the sermon (all in all the service took 2 hours). Yesid (Mr. Pinzon) introduced us as his guests in front of the church. After church we went to a BBQ chicken place which was pretty good and we had a traditional desert from Colombia (a plantain with cheese in the middle and some sauce from a Colombian fruit...after we were done we wish we took a picture because it was like a foot long!
After lunch we went to the house of one of the church members, Mercedes, who is battling cancer. She was a sweet older woman and Yesid led us in another communion. After that we stood around this lady and put our hands on her and prayed.
*** A couple of interesting things about the church and being at Mercedes house ***
1. Jackie and I thought our church prayed a lot...but the Colombian people love to pray and pray for a long time.
2. The church was extremely emotional and the ushers had to start handing out kleenex during the first song. The emotions didn't just end after the music, they carried over into the prayers.
3. When the pastors or other leaders pray all you can hear are people in the congregation also praying.
4. At one point someone in the congregation shouted "Cristo vive" and the rest of the congregation also broke out into repeating this.
5. Needless to say the Colombian church is something everyone should experience because it really makes you realize how important their faith is to them...we could all learn a lot from them.
6. I am really going to have to study Spanish hard so that I can understand more of the sermon (Jackie was trying to translate for me, which helped a lot)
Once we left Mercedes house we started our drive up the Andes mountains (I included some pictures below). The drive totaled about 2 hours and it was amazing! We got to see most of Bogota from one look out point and then saw different towns and such as we drove through the mountains. After that we went through the town of Chia where we stopped at a mall and got some ice cream at a place called Crepes and Waffles (which according to the family is one of the American teachers favorite spots to eat).
Now we are home and getting ready for the second week of orientation...enjoy the pics!
Jackie and I with Bogota behind us
Jackie and I with the Pinzon family
Mountains!
Mountains and lots of cows...they are everywhere!
We went to the Pinzon's church, where they did worship for 40 minutes without stopping, then we took communion and prayed and ended with the sermon (all in all the service took 2 hours). Yesid (Mr. Pinzon) introduced us as his guests in front of the church. After church we went to a BBQ chicken place which was pretty good and we had a traditional desert from Colombia (a plantain with cheese in the middle and some sauce from a Colombian fruit...after we were done we wish we took a picture because it was like a foot long!
After lunch we went to the house of one of the church members, Mercedes, who is battling cancer. She was a sweet older woman and Yesid led us in another communion. After that we stood around this lady and put our hands on her and prayed.
*** A couple of interesting things about the church and being at Mercedes house ***
1. Jackie and I thought our church prayed a lot...but the Colombian people love to pray and pray for a long time.
2. The church was extremely emotional and the ushers had to start handing out kleenex during the first song. The emotions didn't just end after the music, they carried over into the prayers.
3. When the pastors or other leaders pray all you can hear are people in the congregation also praying.
4. At one point someone in the congregation shouted "Cristo vive" and the rest of the congregation also broke out into repeating this.
5. Needless to say the Colombian church is something everyone should experience because it really makes you realize how important their faith is to them...we could all learn a lot from them.
6. I am really going to have to study Spanish hard so that I can understand more of the sermon (Jackie was trying to translate for me, which helped a lot)
Once we left Mercedes house we started our drive up the Andes mountains (I included some pictures below). The drive totaled about 2 hours and it was amazing! We got to see most of Bogota from one look out point and then saw different towns and such as we drove through the mountains. After that we went through the town of Chia where we stopped at a mall and got some ice cream at a place called Crepes and Waffles (which according to the family is one of the American teachers favorite spots to eat).
Now we are home and getting ready for the second week of orientation...enjoy the pics!
Jackie and I with Bogota behind us
Jackie and I with the Pinzon family
Mountains!
Mountains and lots of cows...they are everywhere!
Financial Prayer Request
Please be praying for our financial support and that God would provide the funds we need. We are about 70% there. Also, pray for the financial support of the other teachers here since not everyone is fully supported just yet.
Thank you and have a great day,
Kyle and Jackie
Thank you and have a great day,
Kyle and Jackie
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