Teaching amidst the jasmine and painting up a storm

So, this month in Myanmar, we had the privilege to teach English for the third month in a row. And this month I actually taught all day for the first time so it’s been really fun. Our team is divided up into 3 groups. The other two pairs are teaching at two different orphanages that the church sponsors. My trio teach at a boarding house on a farm. The students attend a bible school and board there. I’ve co-taught with two of my teammates Kep and Christa and it’s been so good to brainstorm together and take turns teaching different concepts to our kiddos who range from 10-16 years old. They are well-behaved and engaged and willing to learn, which makes it such a joy to teach them. They’re on a break from school so we’re teaching the students who are staying at the boarding house during the break, the majority of which are orphans. We are surrounded by jasmine fields and a vegetable garden, complete with pigs and dogs and chickens. The students pick the jasmine flowers twice a day since it’s the season for them from May-June. They pick them when they’re still buds and then make them into necklaces to be worn or put on the dash in the car for a nice fragrance. It takes us a little longer to get to our teaching location but it’s nice because we get set time daily to just do whatever on the way there and back (reading, dance parties, napping.. to name a few 😉

On a typical day, we start off with a bible story and the kids act it out as we tell it and it’s fun to see them get into their parts, especially the ones who are farther behind in class (our younger boys). They really enjoy having their time to shine. Our faithful translators (twin 13-year-olds) are truly a Godsend as it would be extremely hard to teach without them. We teach vocabulary, grammar, verb conjugation, and more. We teach them songs and bible verses in English and they’ve performed them at church. We have dance parties to music they’ve never heard from the 90s/ early 2000s and educate them 🙂 We eat lunch outside and have such good food (they even made fries for us one day) and then they bring us coffee after lunch- a little pick-me-up! We play hangman and watch movies and have worship sessions where the talented students play guitar and sing worship songs in Burmese and it’s so fun to watch them come alive!

I’ve really enjoyed forming relationships with the students this month and we didn’t get to see them the last week due to school registration and things they had to do to start back for the new school year the following week. So, we helped paint a college bible school as a team. It was nice to be able to do ministry together as a team for the last few days and the food they prepared was amazing. And the weather was cool and rainy and such a nice break from the hot temps. It’s definitely seeming more like rainy season with this typhoon over us and the power goes out pretty much everyday for long periods of time, which is frustrating but kinda fun as well.

But all in all, I’ve thrived teaching our students this month. It really was hard not getting to say goodbye to them or teach them this week. I’m gonna miss my babies! So, I’ve learned that the older kids (middle-high school) is definitely my forté and is all I’ve taught the past 3 months. I taught the younger ones one day and let’s just say, I have a lot of respect for people who teach the younger ones because their attention spans are so short and they have sooo much energy. I’ve also been told I have a gift for teaching, which is ironic because I swore I would never be a teacher. BUT, maybe teaching abroad could be an option.. food for thought. The Lord likes to have us do things we never thought we’d do. Who knows what He has planned for the future. I do know one thing: He has good things in store 🙂  So, for now I’ll just take it month by month, country by country and enjoy the journey!