New Beginnings

                My first week and a half here has been fabulous. The community at my school, Doulos Discovery School is incredible. As I have often bemoaned, even simple, day-today challenges that people face can be so much more difficult and draining when abroad, and the staff here are so committed to being that support for each other and showing grace to one another in any way possible. I very much miss everyone from home, but I have spent little time feeling lonely because of the strength of the community. Jarabacoa is also a really nice place and quite different from Santiago!! It’s been a bit of an easier transition that I had expected-the town is much calmer, which means that it’s not as easy to get anywhere you want to go but I’m surrounded by beauty and seeing a gringo isn’t such a rarity here so even though I’m still one of the tallest and blondest women here I don’t stick out quite as much (except in my house or when I do stuff with my host family, in which case I get the blessing of being the minority once again-a reminder of the diversity that I come to crave when I’m away for it for too long).

For the first week I stayed with two different couples that are on staff at Doulos and they hosted me with so much grace and I had a wonderful time. I am certainly glad to finally have (mostly) unpacked my suitcase and have a little space of my own now that I’ve arrived at my homestay.  It’s a tiny little house with a lot of people. It’s an adjustment getting used to freezing cold showers again and ants getting in everything but it’s a place filled with a lot of love.

We had our first day of “school” today. For the high schoolers, it was a retreat to the Young Life camp, Pico Escondido. I got to go on that and it was a lot of fun! We played some games, praised Jesus, ate and just spent some good time with the students. It was a little intimidating to just be thrown into such an informal setting the first day with my students, but it was fun and a nice way to ease into the school year for them!

The school is really small-there are about 250 students in Pre-K through 12^th grade so each grade has only one class. I am teaching 10^th-12^th grade Math, which is Geometry, Advanced Algebra and then a split class of Pre-Calculus and a more basic, Algebra-skill-boosting class. The general format for the core classes like Math is that we teach all morning, have lunch from 12:30-1:00 and then have the afternoon to plan. This is really nice for me because having so many preps is going to be a challenge in my student teaching!

My cooperating teacher is so great. I was a little nervous about having a guy at first, I must admit, but he is going to be a really great teacher to learn from. From what I’ve gathered so far from student reactions and what other teachers have said, he is the favorite teacher in high school. He’s a lot of fun and a really laid back guy but still really challenges his students and has high expectations. That’s the kind of teacher I’ve identified myself as and am really excited to learn from him how to balance those things, because it’s a tough role to play! This demeanor is also really going to help me in my student teaching experience and he’s already shown himself an advocate for me, whether in allowing me to try new things that might fail or in defending my time and protecting me from the other desperate teachers who need this document translated or another volunteer for X,Y and Z (it’s a really busy place with a lot of needs and a lot of great places to jump in and help). I know that he wants me to succeed and is very encouraging.

I’m so excited to see what this semester holds. I have already grown so much through this transition, even despite my fear that I wasn’t strong enough for it. I know that it’s going to be a very challenging semester, but I also know that I’m going to grow a lot. I’ve come here to learn and be challenged, but I also think that God brought me here to heal.

I've likely forgotten to mention some details that you may have questions about, so please feel free to ask about anything you would like to know more about!