Being passive or aggressively non-violent!

According to Walter Wink there is a big difference! He says that Jesus wasn't passive or pacifist, he was aggressively non-violent. Passive suggests that you let people walk all over you and that you don't stand up for yourself. I was faced with a situation where my non-confrontational, pacifist ways were challenged.  I believe I have mentioned a few times that we have had struggles with the organization we came through, InterExchange, and with the org they set us up with here, Greenway. There have been numerous things that were promised, or part of our package we paid for, that have not been met, and everytime we try to contact them there is no response, or a very insufficient response. Cailin and I knew that we needed to send an email that wasn't full of smiles and flowers, but I knew I wanted to be careful how I came across! I thought I did a good job of being to the point of what our needs were that weren't being met, and that they were not holding up on their end of the deal.  I could have really got nasty with them, but I restrained! It has now been almost a week and we haven't heard back from them! This makes me even more mad! It's been funny because Cailin, the gal teaching with me, was raised way different than me and has no problem being confrontational! We agreed that there are things we can take from each other....I can calm her down a bit, but she teaches me to be upfront with my issues and not hold things inside!

  We spent a few days writing objectives for science that matched up with the standards and indicators, set forth by the Ministry of Education.  We then had to separate those objectives according to the different lesson plans and figure out how much material we can cover in a period. In all my teaching experience, I've never had to do this process from scratch. All the materials I used in the Sioux Falls district were pretty straight forward and told you exactly what to do and the teams I worked on had lesson plans from previous years that they just touched up on.  I have learned that this is a very long and detailed process! For one afternoon activity we taught them "The eensy weensy spider." It was our coordinator James' idea. I'm not sure if  the point was to teach them a bit of English while having them learn a fun song or what.  We also did a musicl chairs sort of activity, except the students held different objects and when the music stopped they had to ask and answer different questions. I realized that you have to work hard to keep these little 1st graders entertained. I think it's crucial to do fun activities that sneak some learning in.

This is a typical picture of how big of loads people carry on their 3 wheeled transportation.

These trucks are EVERYWHERE in mass quantities! They are hauling sugar cane.

This picture is for you Emily! I thought of you right away when they had these crawdad looking things!

James and I were talking about the weather one day.  A few weeks into our stay here it was quite nice, almost cool....and it was still in the 80's! James said that when it gets to be about 25 degrees Celsius, people say it's wintertime out. That would be about 77 degrees for us! Lately we've been having hot weather...in the 90's. I'm fine if it's just hot...but if that humidity sneaks in....I feel like I'm melting!

This past Friday I had a little scare.  I didn't have time to get all the vaccine shots I needed before I left. I need my Hep B shots # 2 & 3. Well, it was time for my 2nd shot. Thankgoodness James came to the hospital with me or it would have been a mess with communication! I had to see like 7 different people before I actually got my shot! I talked to 2 different people, then talk to the doctor for a minute, then talked to another lady, then went and paid for my shot, and took a piece of paper down to another window and got a little box with the vaccine in it, and THEN went to a room where someone administered the shot! We were having quite a few problems at 1st communicating about which shot I needed. I'm still kind of convinced that I maybe didn't get the right shot! It only cost about $12.50, so that was nice.

Whoever reads this I just want you to know....that EVERYDAY you should appreciate your toilet! Over here, you have to flush your own toilet, you don't throw your toilet paper in the stool, and most of the time there isn't even toilet paper in the bathrooms....you have to provide your own! Also, there aren't alot of Western toilets.  Mostly just squat toilets.  So, I know it's just a toilet...but be thankful for what you have!