Back to School, Back to School...

Tuesday was the first day of my intensive English I class (7:00-11:00), and it's been going well! Earl and Hank (my rooster neighbors) have woken me up at 4:02, 5:14, 5:56, and 4:36 consecutively. I just love roosters. Said no one ever.

My students have all turned out to be slightly lazy but wonderful. Half of my students are 16-20 and the other half are 28+.  We've have an average of a whopping 10 students per day, which is much easier to handle than 31 high schoolers.  The dynamic in the classroom is wonderful because they were shy at first, but my Spanish mistakes (and great personality.... and humility) made them more comfortable messing up in English! (It probably helps that I have tripped and almost BUSTED IT twice a day. Day three and I'm already that crazy teacher.)

It's been very clear that the Lord has been walking with me daily. Day one of teaching was rough because I knew no one, I ran out of material with an hour and a half left in the period (but managed to stretch it out... What's that you say? A Teacher of the Year award. Why, you're too kind!), my supervisor was too busy to speak with me, and I felt very overwhelmed and on the verge of homesickness. All before 11:00am might I add.  Thankfully, I got to go home and have lunch with my fabulous host mom.  She is the sweetest, most loving person ever. She reminds me a lot of my grandmothers who will drop everything to come cook a meal for you or bend over backwards just to make sure you were comfortable. The Lord has given her such a good, servant's heart!  I felt at home as we had a religious talk where I had to explain to her that Protestants are Christian's, too.

Our chat over lunch was wonderful but still didn't help me feel quite satisfied, especially since I'm trying to find a new home church. And WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, we went out that night, our taxista was listening to Christian music, I asked if he was Christian, and he gave me a flier and his card for their (non-Catholic) church. Say what!? The Lord can be so sneaky.

Day 2 of teaching went even better than day one because I only ran out of material with an hour left in the class. I was still on the verge of homesickness as I haven't had many people to build personal relationships with (which has left me just sitting at home most afternoons) when I met other people in my program who all welcomed me with open arms... One of whom is from Snellville!  They have let me in on their observations and what life is like in Trujillo, and I'm getting much more accustomed to everything.

I've made quite a few observations for observations myself, and just to share a few...

1. I am super tall in Peru. I went for a run the other day, and I saw 7 people the whole time who were taller than me. One of whom was one of my old UGA professors.
2. Peruvians are loud. They are making me get accustomed to lots of noise. All the time. Between having 10+ people in the house at any given time, the roosters, and the taxis always honking, I'm having to figure out when I can get some shut eye.
3. Peru is going to help me get over some of my slightly OCD and germophobic habits (PTL!). No one ever knows what's going on so nothing can be done perfectly. People can't drink the water. My sheets don't quite fit my bed. We don't have hot water at the sink, so killing germs isn't really an option. I found out upon arrival that Trujillo is a desert so there is dust everywhere, and my shoes are quite covered in dust already. It's been nice knowin ya, sperries.  All of these are among other things, but I really am enjoying my life here!! I am still grateful for the experience.

For now, that's all the boring business about school. There should be more exciting adventures soon as we are going up to the mountains this weekend!