When I went to bed, it wasn't raining, which is a fairly rare occasion, but I woke up at about 1:30am to crazy thunder. Not gonna lie, it was pretty scary. It was like I could hear it rolling down the island and I would just wait for it to get here and rattle the Jungle Barn. It was SO LOUD. I was imagining all sorts of crazy things, like the island flooding or the Barn getting struck by lightening. I imagined "our mission" for the next few days changing to help with drowned homes. I found comfort in the fact that Dan and Tori are also staying here at the Barn for a few days, so if anything crazy was happening they could have come to get me. I was also thankful my room is upstairs. I prayed that everything would be okay and that it would stop (because I really was pretty scared!) and eventually the thunder died down and I fell back asleep. That is, after I had to move my bucket into my room under a certain spot of the ceiling. There are random times when raindrops just gush in. It sounds like a waterfall, but I guess a bunch of drops just come all at once.
I woke up this morning, and believe it or not, the sun was shining and the tide wasn't even up. There were just some puddles and the sand was wet, but other than that it was a bright, happy morning! I guess last night was just a typical tropical island "rainfall."
Now, school time. I don't recommend ever having first graders sit and take a test for four hours straight. Especially these kids, who are not very disciplined. And again, especially not these kids, whose second language is English, and three fourths of the test was in English. Jhing basically read the test for the kids, which is maybe pretty normal for first graders (I really don't know), and there were parts, for instance, where the kids had to circle the right word based on a picture or to complete the sentence. Since I've talked about the "this, these, those, and that" topic before, I'll use that as an example. Jhing would try to keep the class at the same pace and would explain what was happening in each picture ("she is pointing at one flower"; "he is holding many pencils," etc.), and tell the kids to circle the correct choice. A few smarties in the class had no problem. Then there's one boy who struggles A LOT and is just, well, clueless. I feel so bad for him. And then half the kids don't see a problem with getting out of their desk to go look at someone else's paper. Also, a portion of the class just has no idea what's going on and decides to circle all four choices. Some kids are off in la la land and don't even know what number we're on. Some kids are guessing at answers and have all the questions answered before Jhing is halfway through them.
If the kids would just be disciplined, staying in their seats and following along, most of the issues would be fixed. This is really why they try to have American teachers in the classrooms as well, so that we can implement our teaching style. Not that Americans always have it right, or even close to it, but in certain areas, we certainly can help improve things at least at this school. Granted, it's not every kid that causes problems, but there are definitely more problem children than there should be. I can only imagine what public schools here are like with 60 kids in a classroom with one teacher. Yeesh.
I was able to go home and relax for a little while after school before heading to a new feeding site I hadn't been to before. I was going to go yesterday, but the lady in charge of this one was afraid it was going to rain (it didn't) so she moved it to today (and we almost got rained out). I really enjoyed it! I went with Olivia and we did basically the same thing as two days ago, telling about the Battle of Jericho, singing, and providing a meal. I got to see a part of the island I hadn't seen before and go on a road I didn't even know existed.
Olivia and I went straight from there to the Kropp's house for Bible study. They provided desserts (we all chip in every week for food) and I unfortunately missed out on some seemingly amazing cinnamon rolls because I was in the restroom, ha! They thought all the adults were served, so they allowed the kids to get their pick. However, there were also muffins that were delicious! The Kropps got all of this from a bakery near D-Mall, so I imagine I can get my cinnamon roll some other time :) They said the workers' eyes got really big when they placed their order. They were excited to make that much money all at once! Bible study went well, and Dan and Tori are both here and have a van that they drove us back to the Barn in.
Day two of testing is tomorrow, but it's a shorter day. I will be meeting with Jhing after school is over to talk about my teaching schedule. We'll see how that goes soon enough!
Feeding site: kids coloring their picture for the Battle of Jericho
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