A week of teaching!

Hello again everyone! I know it’s been a little while since I’ve updated, but long story short: I’m just finishing off my race and transitioning to be back home very soon. I will continue to write these blogs but they may be more recaps of my experiences rather than writing while on the ground. For this blog I want to tell you all about our amazing time teaching in one of Chiang Dao’s local schools. This ended up being such a good time full of many fun games, strong connections, and maybe a little bit of exhaustion sprinkled throughout it all. For our first week we got to teach the elementary and highschool classes English (as you can probably tell this is a very valued subject over on this side of the world). Schools are extremely eager to have teams come in to help further their students’ knowledge of it, and we were welcomed there with open arms! For these children having a good basis of the language will open so many doors of opportunity, allowing them to later on provide for their families and themselves in ways they wouldn’t have been able to without it. It was truly an honor to be able to come in and help facilitate this teaching, and it was so much fun being able to get to know and goof around with all the kids! I have to say though, I have never had more respect for full time teachers because controlling a class full of 8 year olds? That is no easy task let me tell you. Our day would begin at 8am, teaching 3 classes for an hour each till lunch, and then the same again in the afternoon. I primarily taught the younger classes, which was very interesting as we were given absolutely no guidance on how to go about it or even what to teach. This was actually very fun as we were able to incorporate a lot of fun games, dances and songs into our “lessons”, while also including biblical truths in what we were teaching. However this stretched us in many ways as well, as we had no other supervision in the classrooms and it became difficult to control the classes without a Thai adult who could discipline when necessary. This meant that there were many times where we would lose their attention and were not listened to when we tried to get a hold of things. Children as we all know are not always easy, and there were multiple occasions where we were mocked, laughed at and disrespected while trying to teach. I must admit that it was very easy to become exhausted and frustrated with the situations we sometimes found ourselves in, but this is where God calls us to stand out and be His hands and feet. I found that through this hardship the Lord was teaching and growing me in patience and love towards others, even if I felt like I had nothing left to give at times. It was a good lesson in the art of self control and unconditional love no matter how you may be feeling internally about a situation, and I’m so glad that He walked with me through that. Don’t worry though, because our week of teaching was also so full of amazing and sweet moments! We had so much fun with the kids and one another, playing all sorts of games inside and outside the classrooms. During our lunch break I would play soccer, spin kids around ( this is their favorite game), and run around goofing off with all of them till I simply couldn’t anymore. The kids would constantly run up to you, give you massive hugs and want to climb into your arms, I sometimes had so many surrounding me I was nearly bowled over! Overall I would say that this week was challenging but so rewarding, and my goodness did we sleep well afterwards! I have loved seeing how human connection transcends all language barriers; because whether I spoke their language or not, I really came to know and love all of the children I met at this school, and they will always have a place in my heart.