Mission Accomplished!

I’m sorry I have not been in contact lately. I have been missing everyone so much it hurts, but we have been so busy and when we get to town we have a thousand things to do. I am hoping that things will stabilize here soon and I can get a regular rhythm going again.

We just made it through our first week of school! It was only three and a half days but it nearly killed us! The teaching went fine but getting the kids used to a schedule is a hard thing. I have ten Kindergarten students, ages 5 - 13 and Jen has four upper-grade students, ranging from first to fifth grades. We are trying to fast track the older Kindergarten students into Jen’s class, but we will have to wait and see how that goes.

Language has not really been a problem until I try talking to some of my younger students. One little boy, Kiki, is the cutest little guy, but I cannot understand a word that comes out of that kid's mouth! Jen and I have been getting a lot of Bislama practice lately trying to teach these kids English. Funny, how it works that way.

This first week of school has been so rewarding, seeing these little kids writing letters and sounding them out, something they couldn’t do last week. It has been so much fun teaching them and watching how each personality deals with the new information. Seeing their individual talents come out in different areas has also been great. I am discovering artists, leaders, and future criminal masterminds! (Haha). Pray that we will touch each life that is entrusted to us during this time.

Here are a few more pics:

Registration Day:

Since we don't have any sports equipment yet, here I'm teaching them to play Freeze Tag during PE time.

First day of school:

Jen with a student:

Flowers for the teacher:

Cleaning up and getting ready for the next day:

In local news, the American, Australian, and New Zealand military are here in force. They are working on humanitarian projects around the island. It is so great to see so many American faces! We have already met a military doctor from Texas and it was so good to talk to someone from home. They will be here for the next couple of months.

I’m sorry, again, that I have not been in better contact. I promise that I do try! I had better go for now since there is a line waiting for this computer here at the Internet cafe.

Nathan