2 Thessalonians 3:13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
What an amazing day! We taught at the preschool with Jonas and Emma, sharing the 4 classes amongst us. It is great to have a break, but I am already missing the kids. Each time Emma and Jonas teach a class for me, it seems to be a mixed blessing. I am so happy we can help to provide a smooth transition for everyone, but I really miss singing and being with the kids, which makes me realize how hard it will be to say goodbye next week. I just can’t believe we leave in less than a week now, time just flies by.
I remember thinking that a whole year is a really long time for this journey and wondering how much impact we can have in just two months, but now that we are living this journey each stop seems to go by so quickly and yet each time it is difficult to say those goodbyes. We have become so connected to the people around us that we find it hard to leave. I didn’t have any idea the level of grief that my children would feel each time we had to leave our new friends. I notice it more with Anjali who, for whatever reason, has this idea that she is not supposed to feel sadness or that sadness is a bad emotion. This journey will give us the opportunity to not just teach her about the emotion of sadness, but also to show her how to handle it. I shed tears in Germany and I am certain that those times will repeat when we leave Thailand. We can hopefully show her that it is okay to cry and that sadness does not have to be a negative emotion; that we can use this emotion to feel closer to those people we are leaving.
I digress. During the last class at the preschool, the kindergarten children and teachers all made Krathongs. So I sat down with the kids and teachers and helped make roses out of banana leaves (which I had no idea could be done!). It was a lot of fun learning the different Krathong techniques from Rinya and watching the children make their beautiful floats. Tomorrow morning, the school will walk down tot the Nan River to release their Krathongs.
Teaching at the primary school was fairly uneventful. I have been teaching the 1st and 2nd classes (basically 1st and 2nd grades). The first grade class is very engaging and are actively participating in the lessons; however the 2nd class is only engaged during a game. So I have to get pretty creative with the lesson plans each class because if I don’t have a game to play the kids are falling asleep, staring into space, or playing with something in their desk. What makes it even more difficult is that I don’t have any idea what the teacher wants me to teach prior to getting to the class. When I walk into the classroom, she gives me a piece of paper with vocabulary words or her lesson plan for the day and I am charged with coming up with interactive games and activities to go along with the lesson she just handed me. Talk about quick thinking! At first I struggled with this, but I have gotten accustomed to it and I seem to be doing just fine. I have figured out that if I separate the class into 2 teams, I can make anything into a game–so that’s what I do. Today was pretty fun and the kids seem to be pretty engaged with our lesson of animals–we played charades, hangman, and practiced writing sentences with a/an/the (the kids had to fill in the blanks–2 teams made it a race!).
After returning home from school, we finished our Krathongs and made sure they were ready to go. We also talked with Wat about staying here in Wiang Sa for the festival as driving to Nan was just going to be too much and would mean that the kids were going to be up way too late. We wanted/needed them to be somewhat rested for our last day of teaching on Friday. I am really excited about the festival. I have been told that it is beautiful to watch all of the Krathongs floating down the river and the lanterns floating in the sky makes for a picture perfect evening.
Here are some pictures of the day, including the kids making the Krathongs at the school and then the ones that we made at home.
Sara's Daily Scripture and Journal 