Month: June 2016

Teaching in Nicaragua has not been like teaching in Oregon! I have never felt like such a bad teacher in all my life. My classes in the U.S. were always structured, I did my best to communicate well, and I held fast to the rule that no one talked while someone else was talking.

A few weeks before I arrived back into Nicaragua, I was asked if I would be willing to fill in for a teacher who had changed her mind about teaching. The need was for 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade English classes, and since I had nothing in my schedule other than Spanish and I have experience with those grades, I had no reason to say no to the request. I had been in classrooms in Nicaragua before and this is a Christian school after all.

I have now been teaching for almost five months, and I still come away from every Tuesday feeling a mix of dismay, discouragement, amazement and exhaustion. Every Tuesday, I teach 1 ½ hours in each grade; starting at 7:45 AM and ending at 1 PM. Instead of classes with Jack, Katelyn, and Megan, I have classes of Maria Fernanda, Guillermo, Luis Antonio, and Adolfo. Sad, but true, it has taken me almost all of these five months to learn everyone’s name. Many of them do not know my name either, though, so we are learning together! (See picture of student work)

Let me just say up front that the staff has been very kind to me, although I don’t think they know quite how to respond to me. I do not always have the words to communicate with the administration or the staff what I would like, and since I value communication it has left me feeling frustrated and stuck!

Individually the students have been respectful and responsive, but when you get groups of young people together who do not understand what their teacher is saying, and they know that their teacher doesn’t understand them, most kids take advantage of that (Both sides know more than we are letting on J)- these kids are no exception. I usually come away from each class feeling taken advantaged of and I really do not like that feeling!

Also Nicaraguan schools in general have looser expectations of quiet. They live in a country that is rarely quiet; there are loud announcements in the street, loud music in church, and loud noises around in the home. I feel like I have spent the majority of my Tuesday saying various forms of “Be quiet”, “Listen” “Stop Talking”, “Be Respectful”, etc…. It gets very wearing after the first few minutes let alone five hours!

Anyone who has been around kids, knows that the last thing you want to deal with with challenging students is anything that will distract them. In the course of the last few months, we have had an earthquake during the 9^th grade class, a bird fly in one window and fly full speed into a closed window on the other side of the room in 7^th grade, a six inch moth fluttering around in 8^th grade, the city fumigators coming through in 7^th grade, and intense humid heat and no fan in all the classes. To state the obvious, the distraction level is very high!

Another issue is numbers; the 7^th grade is 36 students, 8^th grade is 42 students, and 9^th grade is 25. The rooms are less than half the size of the classrooms I taught in both the US and Germany. Distraction is high, and trying to keep students from looking on each other’s papers has seemed nearly impossible.

My biggest frustration has been the limited communication that I am able to have. I know enough to know when something has been said inappropriately but not enough to call them on it. I get a lot of “innocent” looks after the fact!

The good news is that my Spanish is improving, but I have definitely been dumped in the deep end of the pool. Successes have been few and frustrations have been many. This past week, in 7^th grade, I dropped my whiteboard pen and walked out of the classroom- I needed a time out!

School here in Nicaragua runs from February through November, putting us very near the end of the semester. My commitment was for one semester, so now that I am seeing the end in sight the good things are coming in view- improved Spanish, when I walk around town I see more people that I recognize, I have received apologizes (prompted by strong Latino moms) for behavior and poor work, the 9^th grade boys can be very charming when they want something, I really do love saying the different names, I think they have all learned something, and honestly I think I really will miss many of these kids!

It is funny how even the rascals can be endearing when you know the time is short!

The good news is that there is not a lot to tell at this point in regards to our team. The bad news is that our team has been affected by this virus, and many people around us continue to be.

In the middle of May, Claire, one of our teammates, came to work with a rash on her face. She had been eating a lot of mangoes and her house had been fumigated, so she assumed that it was connected with either one of those. Over the next few days the rash got worse so she decided to go to the doctor, who took a blood test and confirmed with 75% assuredness that it was the Zika. The other options were chikungunya or dengue. He said that although the local government was not making it public, many people in the town were experiencing the same symptoms and they all lined up with Zika.

About a week later I got a headache, fever, and then a day later the rash- red, hot, raised bumps that start on the face and move south. This was followed by swollen, painful joints. This whole process took about five days and then it appeared that I was in the clear.

During this time Brandon, a fellow team member, came down with the virus, also. I did not know about his experience because I had been at home, and he was just returning from a short trip to the US. He had been infected here in Nicaragua but has started the symptoms in the U.S.

The morning that I thought the virus was behind me, I went to Spanish class and started to feel a weird feeling in my thumb joint. In the course of an hour it spread through my hand and wrist- a numb and tingling feeling. By the end of class, it had moved into my other hand.

Stephen had been talking to Brandon who had heard about the connection with Zika and Guillain-Barre syndrome; a syndrome where paralysis can be localized or spread throughout your body. The worst case is not being able to breath due to paralysis. Brandon was experiencing this numbing in his hands and feet.

I called Stephen on my way home from Spanish, and he told me about Brandon. I told him that I was experiencing that, too. The fear here is no 911 type services, being an hour from the first capable hospital, and not having a vehicle. Things that might feel minor in some cases become a little more serious. That is when Stephen contacted you all to pray for Brandon and me.

I headed home and throughout that day the numbing moved up my arms. We had read that if it starts in your feet then it is more likely to move throughout more of your body, so the plan of attack was to head to the hospital if that started. Brandon has a car, so we all stayed in touch in case we things changed.

Over the next few days my numbness subsided, and Brandon’s numbness took a few more days. Thank you so much for your prayers! I credit the quick turn around and encouragement during that time to so many people around the world lifting us up in prayer!

The after effect has been a lot of tiredness, still some random pain, and a lack of focus at times.

As many of you know, I was scheduled to leave for the U.S. on May 26^th for my niece’s graduation. I was able to go, and got to recover with my family and the comforts of America- air conditioning, cars, comfortable chairs, and good food!

The bad news was that the day after I arrived, I got a call from Stephen saying that he was starting the symptoms, and he was on his own! He slept through as much as possible. Thankfully, he did not get the numbing since he was by himself.

So the fall out for us here in Masatepe has been increased numbers of people getting the Zika virus in town and now it is spreading to other communities, I-Teams chose to cancel our five interns for the summer to keep them from getting the virus, and our two short-term teams that were coming in October have postponed until the dry season. These were disappointing results since I was really looking forward to connecting with these people.

The biggest change though is in regards to Hannah, Brandon’s wife, who is pregnant and was visiting her family in the US when Claire came down with the virus. She was due to return in the end of May. She will now be staying in the U.S. and will be able to deliver her baby there. It is hard to not have her here as part of our team, but it is a blessing that she has not had the risks that can come with pregnancy and Zika.

“We make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9). Sometimes there are things about that I do not like, but it is good to know that Someone Else sees the big picture and knows what is best.