Isn't Been 6 Months?!

IT'S BEEN 6 MONTHS?

Written on 12/13/2014

It's true. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure if it had been 6 months or 7 because I am still confused about when I got here. Turns out 24 hours of travel and then anti-motion sickness pills will confuse you a lot. Also, it was pretty much a whirl-wind of 6 months.

When I think about it as a section of my life...I graduated, moved back home, moved half-way across the world, learned a new language, moved into a new home and a new community, made new friendships, started a new job, went on a vacation, went through two different tranings....

BUT, I finally feel like the whirlwind is starting to settle, or at least my brain is a little bit as I start to really feel comfortable in the place I am.

Over these past six months.....

• I've gotten to the point where I can (somewhat) hold a conversation in a Language that, until I got my invititation to serve in Madagascar, I didn't really know existed.
• I conquered the kitchen and learned how to cook rice, make peanut butter, roast coffee, make spagehetti sauce, clean shrimp, curry vegetables and beans, and make GUMBO!
• I have struggled through my first trimester of teaching English when I don't really know the first language of the children. Its gotten a lot easier, but I still have a lot to learn. I can already feel them being more comfortable with me, and my next steps are to get a better control of my classroom and be able to play games without my classroom turning into a small circus. I'm hoping that with games and fun excercises the students will absorb more English.

I'm currently writing this blog to take a break from grading...and let me tell you....its been rough. It's partially just that students are used to test taking because its their first year of middle school, and partially because English is difficult. But these test scores make me question my skills more than ever. I'm hoping that by telling my students we can have fun but we need to be serious and asking them to take responsibility for their learning that maybe it will push them to take that control. Still not sure how I'll do that! But there are some students who are very determined and it shows in their tests!

• With the above being said, I appreciate my teachers, role models, leaders, coaches, and everyone else to has mentored and encouraged me more than ever. Thanks for taking my little sponge of a brain and filling it with knowledge and positive thoughts about myself and where I can take my life. Wouldn't be here without y'all!
• I've become part of a community. The other day I was walking from my house to the Cultural Center and students were saying "Good afternoon!" to me and adults were saying hello. I had multiple people stop to chat with me. And that's when I realized I've really become a part of this community. It feels so so good. I'm really proud of myself. :)
• I have made friends, both Malgasy and American, that have been a part of making me grow over the past 6 months. Friends from different parts of America, who grew up in different ways in different cultures. And friends from Madagascar, who of course grew up in a completely different part of the world, but yet we aren't without are similarities.
• I've held a boa constrictor, had a lemur jump on my head, become more comfortable with the cockroaches that live in my home, and still panic everytime I see something move quickly in fear that maybe it is a spider.
• It's been a great 6 months. And its hard to believe I have 21 months left! It sounds like a lot...until I think about all I have planned! Here is a glimpse of blogs-to-come...or what I am planning to be doing in just the next 6 months!
• Teaching 2 more trimesters of English.
• Start an international exchange between a Girl Scout Troop in America and our Cultural Center's Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Club.
• Start teaching English classes for middle school children and adults at the Center
• Start a class to prepare for: Write On! International Writing Competition...and then hold the competition in late Feburary so students from my community will send their writing to first a National Competition and then, if they win the National Competition,, an International Competition!
• Go on Vacation for Easter Break for my Birthday :) Woot Woot! 22 here I come!
• Apply to be a trainer for the next group of trainees! (fingers crossed)!
• And thats only the things I know will happen...or at least think will happen...! I can only imagine what I will do that I still have no idea about!