You know those moments that cause us to pause and say: "Wow! I'm here!" or "Can this be real cuz it's better than I imagined!?!?" It could be while watching a sunrise at the coast or curled up in a dorm room watching tv shows on a computer with friends. I don't know what causes these moments to come, usually they are lead up to by pretty ordinary events, but I do know these moments are dear and a glimmer of pure happiness. They may seem disjointed, but here are some from this past week.
The color green is an interesting color. It is lush and full when seen outside, but at a juice house it isn't the go to color of preference. Instead shades of oranges and reds tend to dominate that scene. However, when everyone at my table ordered mango, I decided to gamble and try the other option: avocado. You probably just wrinkled your nose and exasperatingly reread that. I did the same thing. However, after putting in my straw, muttering a "Hakuna Matata" I slurped my way into bliss. Surprise! It's is sweet and creamy and thick and pure avocado. Figuring they served it with limes for a reason I squeezed that in too! Oh my the tang with the sweet was amazing! Soon those who had played it safe were trying and wishing they had had avocado. We found out the locals have them mixed. The next day we tried that (lesson planning and teaching takes it out of you once you've already had language class) and decided that separate they were good, but together they are even better. Would I have tried this back in the States? No way! I would have questioned why the manager had put it on the menu. But here I am drinking avocado mango juice with lime and wondering why more people aren't drinking it. Guess it's an Ethiopian/Butajira thing.
Practicum started this week! My schedule looks like the following (and will for another three weeks): 8-10 Tigrigney, 1030-1230 Lesson Planning 1400-1600 Teaching two sections with 15 minute break 1600-1730 Reflection. This week I have been co-teaching with another PCT. Our cohort (4pairs) is teaching Grade 9 to students who just finished Grade 8. The rainy cold weather couldn't keep hopes down as we planned our first lessons. However, it did prevent many of the students from coming. Even starting thirty minutes late we only had enough for five students per room on the first day. It was frustrating to have planned for larger groups and having to adapt to so few. The second day we got up to 7 in one class. What is important to focus on is the few that are here. As our leader said: "You plan for the hordes, adjust for the few, and focus on the fact that five students learned something they didn't know this morning." As the week went on classes stayed about the same size, but the classroom atmosphere grew. On day one it was like pulling teeth to get students to participate. On Friday we had to remind students to raise hand and wait to be called on. There were so many hands up in one of my classes I couldn't write all the good ideas on the blackboard. Yes we are using the ever reliable chalk and blackboards. We do have some poster paper which can go along way. It has required a change of mindset to planning lessons with technology to planning without it. The textbooks are government based require some adapting to make them more exciting and applicable to students. Although it can be frustrating, when I'm walking out of the school grounds all covered in dust I can't help but smile. I'm teaching. There are students learning. Students who are eager to share their life goals and ask about yours. And this is their summer break so they don't have to be here. How cool is that?!? Having students care so much about learning they take two hours to learn from foreigners during summer vacation.
Outside of my compound a couple girls came up to me to ask me how I am and what my name is. After telling me, they awkwardly stood around realizing that language is a funky thing that can separate people. I ask one of the few Amharic verbs I know: cherfera (dance)? The girls giggle but one puts her hands in mine and we twirl around for a while. Others start joining in. I sneak away for a second to take off my backpack (put it inside the compound) with my water bottle, and am hurried back out by more kids. Soon we are doing ring-around-the-roses type games. The children start singing and laughing as we spin around and around to lyrics I am still lost on. I catch on to when we all fall down in one, lean back in another, and call out names in a third. Neighbors and friends start laughing as they watch us (probably 15 kids under the age of 12). They (the children) caught on really fast to the Hokey Pokey and asked to do it again and again and again an... Then I got called in to have a rest. Children are so precious. They didn't care that I couldn't sing with them or was twice their height. We just had a glorious time simply enjoying each other.
It's the simplest things that can make the biggest difference sometimes. My host dad, Sammy, lives in another town where there is more work. I've talked to him briefly once on the phone when he called the family. This week he sent a bag with someone that was delivered on Tuesday. There were clothes, shoes, and toys for Baba. Soap and other things for Aster. Then Aster pulls out something and goes "This is for Jessie." And hands me two soft mangos. It felt like Christmas when Mulu cut me off a chunk of the juiciest mango I have ever eaten. Mangos are really expensive, but Sammy had sent us many. It felt so good to feel part of a family. I don't feel like a guest anymore, but someone of the family. Mulu taught me how to make an amazing bread and make the giant serving plates out of would hay and thread. The neighbor gave me an orange and told me I am "well loved" while I spent the afternoon and evening playing, singing, drawing and laughing with her four year old daughter. Relationships are the fragrance of life that never goes away.
Friday after school, I went on a walk with two PCT friends. After going on a long walk around Butajira we climbed up the the third floor of an abandoned building by our houses to sit and talk. (I am not Dauntless.) Even though thundered rumbled, the sky was amazingly blue through the gathering white clouds. We talked about TV shows, movies, favorite places, high school, life and language classes. Looking out on the blue hills and green lushness around me, it struck me how peaceful and content I really am. There are people I didn't know a month ago, who I look forward to seeing every day. There are dishes that are enjoyable and normal after only a couple weeks of eating them. There are places that I am starting to call familiar. Butajira is a beautiful place with so many people to meet. How cool is it that this is my home for another nine weeks!?!?!
Sometimes I think the day and week is flying by. I feel like I am on 24/7 to learn something new in one of the languages. I mix up thoughts. I trip on rocks in the road and children laugh at me. I haven't worn jeans since Addis. I make cootie catchers for kids and draw ridiculous pictures. But so many moments cause me to pause and realize I am where I need to be, doing what is fulfilling and having a fantastic time doing it all.
The color green is an interesting color. It is lush and full when seen outside, but at a juice house it isn't the go to color of preference. Instead shades of oranges and reds tend to dominate that scene. However, when everyone at my table ordered mango, I decided to gamble and try the other option: avocado. You probably just wrinkled your nose and exasperatingly reread that. I did the same thing. However, after putting in my straw, muttering a "Hakuna Matata" I slurped my way into bliss. Surprise! It's is sweet and creamy and thick and pure avocado. Figuring they served it with limes for a reason I squeezed that in too! Oh my the tang with the sweet was amazing! Soon those who had played it safe were trying and wishing they had had avocado. We found out the locals have them mixed. The next day we tried that (lesson planning and teaching takes it out of you once you've already had language class) and decided that separate they were good, but together they are even better. Would I have tried this back in the States? No way! I would have questioned why the manager had put it on the menu. But here I am drinking avocado mango juice with lime and wondering why more people aren't drinking it. Guess it's an Ethiopian/Butajira thing.
Practicum started this week! My schedule looks like the following (and will for another three weeks): 8-10 Tigrigney, 1030-1230 Lesson Planning 1400-1600 Teaching two sections with 15 minute break 1600-1730 Reflection. This week I have been co-teaching with another PCT. Our cohort (4pairs) is teaching Grade 9 to students who just finished Grade 8. The rainy cold weather couldn't keep hopes down as we planned our first lessons. However, it did prevent many of the students from coming. Even starting thirty minutes late we only had enough for five students per room on the first day. It was frustrating to have planned for larger groups and having to adapt to so few. The second day we got up to 7 in one class. What is important to focus on is the few that are here. As our leader said: "You plan for the hordes, adjust for the few, and focus on the fact that five students learned something they didn't know this morning." As the week went on classes stayed about the same size, but the classroom atmosphere grew. On day one it was like pulling teeth to get students to participate. On Friday we had to remind students to raise hand and wait to be called on. There were so many hands up in one of my classes I couldn't write all the good ideas on the blackboard. Yes we are using the ever reliable chalk and blackboards. We do have some poster paper which can go along way. It has required a change of mindset to planning lessons with technology to planning without it. The textbooks are government based require some adapting to make them more exciting and applicable to students. Although it can be frustrating, when I'm walking out of the school grounds all covered in dust I can't help but smile. I'm teaching. There are students learning. Students who are eager to share their life goals and ask about yours. And this is their summer break so they don't have to be here. How cool is that?!? Having students care so much about learning they take two hours to learn from foreigners during summer vacation.
Outside of my compound a couple girls came up to me to ask me how I am and what my name is. After telling me, they awkwardly stood around realizing that language is a funky thing that can separate people. I ask one of the few Amharic verbs I know: cherfera (dance)? The girls giggle but one puts her hands in mine and we twirl around for a while. Others start joining in. I sneak away for a second to take off my backpack (put it inside the compound) with my water bottle, and am hurried back out by more kids. Soon we are doing ring-around-the-roses type games. The children start singing and laughing as we spin around and around to lyrics I am still lost on. I catch on to when we all fall down in one, lean back in another, and call out names in a third. Neighbors and friends start laughing as they watch us (probably 15 kids under the age of 12). They (the children) caught on really fast to the Hokey Pokey and asked to do it again and again and again an... Then I got called in to have a rest. Children are so precious. They didn't care that I couldn't sing with them or was twice their height. We just had a glorious time simply enjoying each other.
It's the simplest things that can make the biggest difference sometimes. My host dad, Sammy, lives in another town where there is more work. I've talked to him briefly once on the phone when he called the family. This week he sent a bag with someone that was delivered on Tuesday. There were clothes, shoes, and toys for Baba. Soap and other things for Aster. Then Aster pulls out something and goes "This is for Jessie." And hands me two soft mangos. It felt like Christmas when Mulu cut me off a chunk of the juiciest mango I have ever eaten. Mangos are really expensive, but Sammy had sent us many. It felt so good to feel part of a family. I don't feel like a guest anymore, but someone of the family. Mulu taught me how to make an amazing bread and make the giant serving plates out of would hay and thread. The neighbor gave me an orange and told me I am "well loved" while I spent the afternoon and evening playing, singing, drawing and laughing with her four year old daughter. Relationships are the fragrance of life that never goes away.
Friday after school, I went on a walk with two PCT friends. After going on a long walk around Butajira we climbed up the the third floor of an abandoned building by our houses to sit and talk. (I am not Dauntless.) Even though thundered rumbled, the sky was amazingly blue through the gathering white clouds. We talked about TV shows, movies, favorite places, high school, life and language classes. Looking out on the blue hills and green lushness around me, it struck me how peaceful and content I really am. There are people I didn't know a month ago, who I look forward to seeing every day. There are dishes that are enjoyable and normal after only a couple weeks of eating them. There are places that I am starting to call familiar. Butajira is a beautiful place with so many people to meet. How cool is it that this is my home for another nine weeks!?!?!
Sometimes I think the day and week is flying by. I feel like I am on 24/7 to learn something new in one of the languages. I mix up thoughts. I trip on rocks in the road and children laugh at me. I haven't worn jeans since Addis. I make cootie catchers for kids and draw ridiculous pictures. But so many moments cause me to pause and realize I am where I need to be, doing what is fulfilling and having a fantastic time doing it all.
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