Sept 3, 2009

Sorry it has been awhile since I've blogged. It seemed every evening when I started to do it the internet was down. So here it is early on Thursday morning.

We have been furiously getting ready for school to start. It officially starts on Monday but there is an open house (they call it a family tea) this evening. My classroom looks ready but my mind is a bit boggled with the curriculum I will teach...although I have only 3 students I have two grades (1 and 2) and a separate curriculm for each. The school has a lot of materials so it looks and feels a bit overwhelming. I'm sure things will fall into place as I get to know my kids and what they need and how fast they work. We had a teacher meeting yesterday and it seems the tone of the school is fairly low-key. The other el-ed teachers seem very nice...we are all fist timers here so we can kind of help each other out.

Along with grades 1 and 2 I have been asked to teach 2 art classes...I'm looking forward to that...but of course that means two more preps and no planning time...but hey, I'm here to work and I'm looking for any opportunities that God puts before me. Since Mike's schedule is quite a bit more open than mine he has decided to do the grocery shopping and cooking for our family. I sure won't complain about that. He is already the best cook in this family anyway.

We have set up a tutor for the girls so they can learn Portugese...they will be taking the class for an hour after school once a week. The 14 year old daughter of one of the new missionaries will be taking it with them.

I found out that one of the missionary women is going to hold a women's Bible study. She plans to do a Beth Moore book about John. I'm looking forward to that. There is also a baby shower planned this month for one of the missionaries who is having a baby. She doesn't seem a bit nervous about having a baby here.

Yesterday our electricity suddenly went off but in no time at all Mike had solved the problem and had it working again. He is amazing!

Our landlord, Senor Martine is out working in the yard and garden everyday. Two different days he called us over to where he was working and wanted to cut some fresh roses from the yard for us. They make a lovely and fragrant centerpiece for our little kitchen table.

Two days ago we made a trip to the AKIA store. We bought a few household things and had lunch there. We took Meridith one of the young single teachers with us.

Yesterday Mike and I decided to buy things for dinner so went to the local vegetable market for a few things and then walked across the street to the meat market for what we thought was some hamburger patties. After we cooked them we decided they were probably pork burgers. We looked up in our Portugese/Ingles dictionary how to say hamburger and guess what....it said "hamburger". I guess that will make it a little easier to order next time.

Today we are going to try to find this market/street fair we heard is held on Thursdays...it may be our last chance to check it out since we will be in school most Thursdays.

The girls are doing great...they even cleaned the house for us yesterday while we were working at school, then walked up the hill to join us when they were done. Kati joined one of the missionary families who has a daughter who will be in her class to go to see the movie "UP" yesterday afternoon. I think Kati and Tori may become good friends while we are here.

I don't know how often I will be blogging during this first couple of weeks at school but we will for sure share any new and exciting experiences we have. I talked to someone the other day who told us about a Portugese orphanage here in Lisboa...I want to find out more about that.

Bye for now.
N