Day One of Teaching

(No names or identifiable photos of Heartstream guests can be included in the blog.)

Chris: “One day Jesus told a story about a man who got hurt and got help.  He was walking to Jerusalem when some robbers came and stole his money and pushed him down.  Can someone tell me what happened next?”

A 5 year old living in Cambodia: “Yes. God took care of him.  He gave him breakfast, lunch and dinner from the fish and bread that a little boy had.  There was lots of extra food.”

And that was the highlight of my day :).  Today I began my work with the kids of the guests of Heartstream Resources.  I felt like the beginning was rocky, but hearing all the thank you’s from the parents improved my outlook.  I am so used to secondary students that the 1 to 7 year olds were a shock to my system. That said, we built a tent, made magnets, acted out the Good Samaritan, and ate little tarts with some unrecognizable fruit provided for our snack time.  There are no pretzels or animal cracker type snacks to be had here.  all the kids were picking off the fruit and throwing it in the grass.  I thought it was delicious...

So the meals deserve some mention.  The chef is top notch.  I am accustomed to thai food from our local Bangkok Wok and I am pleased to be able to say that it tastes just the same here. I have had thai tea, chicken coconut milk soup, and pad see-ew among other things.  I actually had the pad see-ew for breakfast this morning.  The cereal here looks weird and I hear that the milk is from a water buffalo?!  I even had one dish that I often get at our friend’s japanese restaurant (Fried Gyoza from Issei Noodle) and it even tasted the same!  That says a lot for the american establishments.

So my job is to entertain/teach a group of 5 kids.  They come from fascinating families serving in Nepal and Cambodia.  I also have gained 2 more teenage assistants from Malaysia and the Philippines to add to my original pair from the US and Thailand. Our total then is 9 kids and me.  In general, we spend 2.5 hours in the morning doing quasi-educational things and 2 hours in the afternoon exploring the grounds and swimming.  I was quite stressed about the swimming with so many non/moderate swimmers, but I am thankful to say that it went well.  I wish the parents of the babies would always come to pool time like they did today, but at least I had some time to figure out the routine.  

I especially enjoyed the conversation I had with one of the dads from Cambodia.  He is writing his dissertation on keys to successful reintegration of sex-trade victims.  Wow. His wife works for an NGO serving girls in this situation.  I asked what he believes to be a key factor.  He said they need to feel a sense of worth/belonging to community and they need to have a job where they feel valued.  He noted that sometimes this requires relocation since they are considered “contaminated” by their communities.

This evening I ate dinner with the family from Nepal.  They come from Scotland and England but are working in a christian software company in an effort to improve the technical training of the local people while also living a christian lifestyle among them.  I was able to share some thoughts on ways to improve their language acquisition rate.

My boys like this dragon topiary
that they can see through my window
when we skype.

Following dinner, I did a CPR/ First Aid review with my 4 teens.  I am glad that we had the chance to go over these skills because the time allowed me to see each kid’s comfort level with emergency care.  I have some ideas about who to call upon if there is an unfortunate event.  

The day was packed!  I was either in a meeting, eating, caring for kids, or cleaning up from 8:00AM to 11PM.  I am so thankful that this morning I got to talk to Nate and the boys before all the craziness began.  Skype is a beautiful thing.