Playing Teacher

English teacher, me? Aye! Well you know sort of- minus the paper qualifications  :) ! I'm happy to inform you all that the Orphanage (La Granja) I've been volunteering at, has accepted our proposal (cell group) to teach English at the school. Praise God ! This orphanage is funded by the Catholic Ministry and houses children aged 2 to16 years. The director of the home, was so happy that he even offered the 8 of us provisions for the kids - exercise books, pencils and all the photocopies that we might need and even a choice of two rooms!

 No seriously. That's huge and will help us tremendously.

  How true is it that God opens up doors ( he shuts them too, but opens the right ones :)  Firstly, as we met over brunch [over numerous cups of coffee - by the way, I highly recommend Cafe Melba ( I'm a coffee junkie ) I haven't had a Flat White for the longest time, I think Melbourne was where I had the last real good one. Oh, Melbourne,  you simply have the best coffees and places to tame those craving] for a series of discussions, pondering sessions and brain storming all in one. We were all full of enthusiasm but in desperate need to have some sort of structure. Both for the proposal and for adequate material to jump start the project. Shortly after, God provided (barely a week into it) Coincidentally, the local newspaper is currently providing English language resources for a small extra weekly fee with the daily paper for beginner English - we get everything we need which includes even an interactive CD, stickers and more! All too perfect. Meanwhile, The Ministry of Education in Chile are changing up their syllabus with a new text book. So that leaves us with plenty of books to structure our lessons from  using the un-used textbooks and hopefully provide these lovely girls with them in the future (English is only taught for an hour a week in a class of 40 or more students in public schools) Then, we had to think of decorating the potential classroom (admittedly, we were a bit too excited and suggested it - and of course El director was overjoyed and kept mentioning it ) In this,we had to put on our thinking caps again- we initially figured maybe we'll do some drawings and make posters but with time constrain it would certainly prove to be a mission and at the same time would be challenging to keep things "professional looking". However, during one of our discussions, it dawned to me that a month back, while tagging along with my sister- in- law (Carola) during her long school break ( I believe teachers have the best lives!) we stopped by at a house. That house turned out to be a little resource shop especially for teachers.  How valuable that little info has served us now! - we found beautiful colourful posters and an ample of other extra helpful things that would most definitely make our little classroom pretty and educationally presentable.

Everything we do, everything we see and everyone that walks into our lives have a purpose. I believe this with all that I know - one fine day if I have the opportunity, I have many stories to share :)

 Looking back, many other things have really come together quickly for us and personally, I've always wanted to teach; and to teach children? These girls? How perfect. I fell in love with them from my very first visit. The other day, upon my return from the Orphanage, I mentioned to Luis how lovely it would be to keep one of them! (jokingly of course)
So the next time, as I was heading there, Luis turned around and said to me, " Don't steal an orphan!" 

Ah, my life, you know how to make me smile. I adore you.

So everything aside, with our recent move and getting adjusted, this project has certainly
landed in such an excellent time in my life.

 God hears prayers.

So things have come together; with a time and date set, our little group is all prepared to have our first practice for the class soon. Of course, I got my mental self into a frenzy by volunteering to teach the first class on the 2nd May!
I'm sure it would be challenging, but at the same time I'm pretty prepared for an extremely exciting
journey with these precious beings. Everything about this project stirs me.
It's consuming me these days in a good way.

Will definitely keep you all posted. 

Below are a few photos from our recent visit. God bless you all !

With the director of the home with the accepted proposal. We were missing Anke & Silvia that day.

This photo was taken inside one of the little cabins which holds up to 8 girls. Notice the touch of pink !

Rocio presenting the "Tia" (Auntie) who looks after this cabin with a few gifts for her personally this time. Each cabin has an "elder" who takes care of them.

To give you a picture of an example of a room. I like how disciplined they are. This was around 10am in the morning when they were at school. They did make their beds ! Look how orderly their shoes are too. They have enough, mostly the basics though - they share that closet between the 3 of them

I was fascinated with all the pink and how neat this girl is too. Hoping I didn't forget to straighten out the dent I made on her bed! :/

Us with the Tia :) Each cabin is like a little house with rooms upstairs, living room with a television set, a kitchenette, dining room,  bathrooms and toilets. Minus the heaters for winters and fans for summer. Something we're working on desperately to get them before winter takes over Santiago again. 

"There was a little girl we saw with rashes and cracks all over her lips and portions of her face last year, and when asked,  she replied it only happens in winter"- Rocio

 The poor girl was too cold