So Wednesday is my crazy day, but this Wednesday was crazier than most. Especially after I slogged through prep for Wednesday classes all day Tuesday, I woke up Wednesday a little tired. The morning starts off with praying with 9th class. This is one of my favorite things, but it was heartbreaking for much of the 2nd quarter: there were 2 weeks during which no one showed up. But a handful of them came, and sometimes their prayers cut straight to the point. It's awesome (and daunting) at times to see that the students I argue most with are also really serious about their faith. After that I eat a rushed breakfast and talk about life with Zhenya, my partner in music and one of my best friends, before rushing upstairs, grabbing the projector and giving 2nd class a slideshow tour of the USA. I hit all my favorite places: Wakulla Springs, Monterey Bay, San Antonio, Pops in Oklahoma, as well as the major cities and national parks. Because 2nd class' level of English is very elementary, I code-switch between English and Russian as I guide them through the US. Normally we would be doing vocabulary and conversation drills, but today is special because it's ENGLISH WEEK! After that I have Literature classes with 7th-11th Class, five in a row. Only one person in 9th class even bothers trying with the test, as none of them read the assigned material. This leads to conflict, and after they write their weekly free writes, instead of discussing the texts, I lecture them about their homework and how, there's something wrong here if not one person is doing their homework. Which leads to some yelling and one girl walks out of the class. Most of the other classes are doing okay. The girls in 7th class think that watching the movie Coraline is enough for them to get by, and almost all of them flunk their reading test. 10th Class is moving forward, slowly, but I have five students in four different books (because of their levels) so it's a little chaotic and we're just really getting started at the halfway point in the quarter. Guitar class is supposed to be at 2:20, but today there's an exhibition of some kid with cancer's clay models (really impressive figurines of cartoon characters), and so 5th class doesn't show up til 1500. Unfortunately, 6th class' three guys do show, but they skipped on Friday so they won't be taking part in the Thursday performance, so the whole thing's a wash. 5th Class wants to start at 1500, but I have to go to the Principal's office and talk out the incident with 9th class from the morning. It's a good conversation, but there's still a lot of ground and old habits between resolution. Unfortunately, this conversation also made me later than I'd hoped to be for youth group, so I walk across to the bus stop, grab a mashrutka, swing buy a grocery store and grab a candy bar and a sandwich and rush across to the church while eating.
I'm pretty much exhausted at this point, but my youth group peeps are awesome. I play guitar while our leader sings, including one Russian song we'd only practiced via skype once the night before. But it's a good worship time. After that we play the story game, (where you add a few lines to a story and pass it around the circle, hiding everything that came before) which I introduced to some people at small group who then suggested it for youth group. It was hillarious, and it was a big hit. After that, it was my turn to bring the night's main theme: love. So, after an intro that involved basically saying, "Look here, my Russian is going to be funny and incorrect at times, but I do this with my students at school all the time, and we make it work somehow" I talked through 1 Cor 13 and about how our cultural "love stories" are pretty opposite to Biblical love, about how God's love (and true love) is patient, doesn't keep score, and is a two-way street. Then we broke off into groups and discussed love and how we can love others better. I got a group of all girls, but it was a pretty good discussion, I know most of them pretty well since they're on the leadership team; I have like 8 awesome extra little sisters. Pastor G's probably better with the wild guys anyway, at least when it comes to wrangling in their discussion and understanding their inneundos. After YG, we stuck around and played and sang some songs randomly...this continued almost all the way to the bus stop. (Two weeks ago four of us danced the whole ten-minute walk...it was goofy, and hillarious.)
Today was Thursday. Zhenya managed to convince me that today could be better than yesterday, and I was able to really get into leading some English games in the foyer between classes for the 2-4th graders. Then I gave 2a the USA tour, had Lit Class with 5th and 6th classes (Most of them are really enjoying The Boxcar Children and Charlotte's Web), and had a mess instead of 7th class, which included me leaving halfway through the class to gather my guitarists for a final rehearsal of "Stand by Me" before we performed quite well in front of the upper classes (After our singers really messed up the Christmas concert, I think the audience was pretty blown away.) as part of the opening of "Language Month" during which all of us language teachers have to come up with cool events and contests. We're on an Olympic theme this year, and I'm preparing a UK tour to complement my US tour that I used last year. After finishing, I sat and helped some students with their homework and tried to post some of my overdue grades onto our online system. Then I grabbed another sandwich and candy bar dinner at the corner store in front of the S.P. Children's home. Every Thursday I try to do four classes: it involves some English, reading, flashcards, guitar, and typing, and as usual three hours isn't really enough time for everyone, and the big class of younger kids and K.'s English and O's guitar get the short shrift today. But it was good. I've been trying to tag team life-coach this other girl whom my roommate knows pretty well. Today it was trying to convince her she's not stupid and that stressing about standardized tests won't help her at all. These kids, especially K, are going to be the hardest thing to leave when I leave Bishkek. I enjoy working with them so much.
So then I came home around 2045 and wrote this note, cuz I thought, well, these two days are pretty good shot of a lot of the highs and lows. Now it's time for bed.
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