It's Fall?

Last year at this time, I was back in Sycamore, IL.  The temperatures had dropped to the chilly fall weather and the leaves were changing colors and falling.  It was Pumpkinfest time and it felt like fall.  Although the temperatures have dropped some here, there is no changing of leaves or Pumpkinfest.  No Pumpkin Spice Lattes or warm apple ciders. Don't get me wrong, I love that it is still warm and I don't have to wear a coat to go outside, but I do get a little nostalgic every once in a while. After coming across some cans of pumpkin, I decided to attempt to get some feeling of fall here by making pumpkin bars. First problem, we have no electric mixer.  Not too big of a deal, I just got a nice arm workout attempting to blend together cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar by hand to make cream cheese frosting (yes it was messy, but delicious). You can't have pumpkin bars without cream cheese frosting.  Second problem, no cake pans. Not too big of a deal especially when it come to the third problem, which is we do not have a working oven.  We do have a Express Redi Set Go, which is like a little oven about the size of a waffle maker that comes with a pan in which you can make six little mini muffins at a time.  I decided if it could make muffins it could make cupcakes.  Like I said, it was six at a time and not only that but the cupcakes would leave a residue despite oiling the pan that I had to wash off after every round.  About two hours and fifty cupcakes later, I finally had my taste of fall, and it was good.  I classify myself as persistent.
Today was a whole new day for me with all new students.  Our math program is a dual language program, so our students switch every quarter from Spanish to English or English to Spanish, so today I got the group that was in Spanish and began teaching them in English.  The classes I had last quarter were all honors classes (supposedly the better behaved classes).  I knew I was in for a challenge, but it wasn't bad.  I was actually surprised by how much better my 10th grade geometry class was behaved in comparison to the honors geometry class.  The 11th grade was a little bit more challenging, but in comparison to the 9th grade honors class I had this past quarter they weren't nearly as difficult.  My honors kids have seemed to get a sense of superiority and kept asking me which class I liked better.  I declined responding because I really didn't think it was all that much different, and it will keep them on their toes.  I kind of like having a whole new group although it is difficult to switch after only nine weeks when I was just getting my students to where I wanted them to be.  It will definitely be a whole new adventure this quarter.
I made a trip to Monte Plata two weekends ago.  I was so happy to be back with my "family" there.  I really missed it a lot and it was really nice to be able to get out of the busy city for a couple days.  I'm hoping to be able to continue travelling back there whenever I have long weekends or free weekends.
This past weekend, I went to the olympic stadium which is right down the street to watch our high school boys play in a tournament. They are actually really good, and it was a good game.  After the soccer game we walked to another field in the olympic stadium to watch some friends of my roommate play in the dominican football league.  Its a six team (all named after teams in the states) league that plays every saturday on the saddest looking football field I have ever seen (the goal posts are just two posts on the top of soccer goals). They are pretty low scoring games and any time a pass is thrown it is incomplete or intercepted.  It never reaches the intended target.  The refs have their flags and they love to throw them, and field goals are not attempted often.  It's very different from da bears but it's still a lot of fun.
I appreciate all of your prayers.  I ask that you continue praying for the ministry here.  I see a lot of emptiness in my students and some of my colleagues, and every day I'm given the opportunity to show the love of God.  Pray for open ears and hearts.

"Retreat"

Yesterday our 11th grade students went on their retreat.  Every grade goes for a day to work on team building exercises to improve the dynamic of the class. Since I am the 11th grade advisor, I had the priviledge of going with.  Having experiences with such kinds of retreats in middle school going to timberlee, I was excited for the kids to have a chance to experience some challenging activities and grow together.  Let's just say my Timberlee expectations were not met.  The 11th grade class's behavior is challenging.  I really enjoy working with them because they like to talk and are willing to reason with you and draw conclusions.  Unfortunately the group running the program may have not been quite prepared to handle what was coming for them.  Most of the day felt like a mess, but in the end their were definitely some good things that came out of it.  It wasn't much of a retreat for us the teachers but we were able to have some really conversations with our students throughout the day.
As the students were doing various activities, I had the chance to talk with one of  the other teachers who was on the trip with us that I really had not had the chance to get to know before.  She had just gotten engaged the night before, so we got to talk about her future wedding plans.  Then we got on to the topic of our students and their behavior.  Although they attend a Christian school, the majority of them do not hold those beliefs and don't come from Christian homes.  A lot of the time, it is easy to place Christian expectations on these students because they are in a Christian school, but the reality is they have no base for good behavior.  They can control themselves to a certain extent, but they are human beings who when it comes down to it are looking to please themselves.  The other teacher and I spoke a lot about how we as teachers cannot change this; it has to be something from God.  Our responsibility is to pray for them, love them, live our lives as a testimony to them, and be open to speak when God opens the door.  It is such a huge ministry opportunity to be a teacher at this school.
The day was definitely not my favorite, and I may have a few suggestions for the powers that be, but it did allow me to build better relationships with my students.  It was also just a huge reminder of where my students are at and the spiritual needs that they have.  This job is definitely not just about teaching math.