This is my life!

Well, I really don't have anything especially special (was that redundant?) to talk about, but it's been a week so I must blog! :)

Monday was pilates day!  Shannon taught pilates classes back in Canada so some of us got together for a little pilates workout.  We did it on Shannon's family's rooftop balcony and it was a pretty tight squeeze for seven of us, but it was so nice to be able to look over the balcony and see treetops and the beach.  I felt like I could have taken a silhouette picture of Shannon (since she was obviously the best at pilates) and it could have been in a magazine with a picture-perfect background.

I think I went to play volleyball on the other end of the beach both Tuesday and Wednesday.  The competition somehow seems to be getting better and has been a lot of fun!  Thursday, I went to my feeding site and I really do feel like this is the feeding site for me!  Last week, I had some time to just play with some of the kids, and this week some of them seemed really excited to see me.  It gave me warm fuzzies!  Haha :)  Us foreigners (is that proper grammar?) also had our weekly Bible study.  Dan is here on the island this week and so we mostly listened to stories from him about his experiences in the mission field.  It's not like that was really our plan and he had prepared anything, but it just kind of happened.  Him and Tori have been in the Philippines for almost thirty years now, so we can definitely learn a lot from them!

I played volleyball again yesterday (Friday) and had been planning on playing today but found out that the guys I usually play with were going to be playing indoor volleyball.  There's another group of guys that they were going to play against for money.  1) I'm not really interested in gambling.  2) They didn't ask me to play, ha.  3) I haven't seen them play indoor to know if I'd be able to hang with them or not.  I was hoping to go watch today just because I'm interested to see what it's like, but I never really found out where they were playing.  Oh well!

School wise...I mostly really enjoy it, but there are ups and downs!  I get so frustrated with the way some of the teachers here teach and run the classroom sometimes, and also get frustrated with myself when I can't figure out how to keep the kids' attention even when I try to make the lesson as fun as I can.  Also, Thursday and Friday were preliminary test days.  School here is divided into quarters.  Each quarter has kind of like a midterm, or preliminary test (but it's not a big huge important grade), and something like a final, or the end of quarter exam.  For the classes I teach which are English and Math right now (and Bible, but there's only a final and no midterm for that), the kids did fairly well at Math and not so well at English.  I KNOW the kids know the material.  When we do different exercises and worksheets in class they have it down, no problem.  Then I give them this test and it all goes down the drain.  So, I guess we will just review it again and again while at the same time I try to get in their other lessons.  Or maybe I just go ahead and move on since I feel like they know the material outside of a formal exam.  I don't know.

Friday, the Filipino teachers gave their exams while the volunteer teachers worked on organizing the office and library.  Some kids go ahead and leave after exams and others stay to wait for their parents (things are different here in the Philippines!)  Towards the end of the school day, I went into my class because the kids were done with exams and a few were there playing.  A little boy named Mathew ran up to me and gave me a hug and said, "I miss you Miss Graham!" which is funny because one of the things I had just taught in English was adding -ed to past tense verbs (maybe I do need to review more :)).  Also, they pronounce my name more like "Gray-ham," but still, he was so sweet!  They had a blow-up globe ball, so I showed them on the ball where I'm from and pointed out to them where we are.  Mathew asked me if I would use my wings to fly home whenever I left.  So cute.  He's the one really smart boy in the class, but he was just being silly.

Then, later, after school was over and I had on my bag to leave, Mathew was still waiting for his mom in the "lobby" area, if you can call it that.
Mathew: "Are you going home Miss Gray-ham?"
Me: "In a little bit.  Are you?"
Mathew: "No."
Me: "Are you staying here at school until Monday?"
Mathew: "No."
Me: "So where are you going?"
Mathew: "Nowhere.  I'm waiting on my mom."
Me: "Oh, so you're waiting on your mom so you can go home?"
Mathew: "Yes."
Excuse me for not going step by step! :)  I guess Friday was Mathew day!  He was funny!

After school yesterday, the teachers had a social/bonding get-together thing.  We ate lunch at the school and then headed to the beach for some games.  Game one: a relay race balancing a little ball thing on a spoon and holding the spoon in our mouth.  The other team won.  Game two: a timed relay, running into the ocean and then squeezing out our shirt or shorts to try to fill a water bottle.  My team won.  Event three: sand castle building contest!  Three minutes and then Praise, the one who organized the games, was the judge.  My team won, which means we won overall!  It was a fun day!

This coming week I will have a new schedule.  Shannon wanted to give more responsibility back to the Filipino teachers since they're the ones getting paid and they actually teach less than the volunteers do, so I will no longer be teaching Math but will be helping give special attention to the kids who really need it.  I think I'm going to really like that because one of my favorite things about teaching has been when I can help a student one-on-one and see that light bulb coming on for them.  There are a couple of kids in the class who really need special attention, and then probably all but four or so struggle in one way or another.  Sometimes, I feel like they could do it on their own but just need someone to be there watching!  Hopefully those students will start to feel more confident about their abilities, and the other kids who are behind will start catching up.  It should be interesting to see how it all plays out!

I'm loving my time here, and am learning more than I am teaching :)

Here are some pictures from our social get-together!