Hola from CELA

This week, the camp went to Mexico! It was a unique experience teaching about a culture that is so close to my own regionally, yet is so different culturally. I suppose the same assumptions that my colleagues made that I would be very knowledgeable about Mexico because of its close proximity to my own country is the same belief that I held a few years ago in regards to countries in East Asia.

Mikey made our lesson plans this week and boy were they detailed! He had so many resources for our class and wrote a great curriculum for the week. I was very happy to have a lot of information to begin with and the flexibility to adjust it for my class. Some of our lessons included traditional Mexican food with a segment on cooking nachos, Pinatas and the creation/destruction of a class pinata, Mexican music and dance, and a lesson in Spanish (which was quite interesting since I know about as much Spanish as the average American).

I had class B this week for classes. It was an adjustment yet again to see the dynamics of this class: the kids who can speak English well, the kids who can't speak at all, and of course the kids who just want nothing more than to enjoy their summer free of classes.

One of my favorite classes was cooking the nachos. Most of the kids had never heard of Mexican food and certainly never tried it. It was fun for me to introduce one of my favorite styles of food to the kids in a way that they could experience it. Each child had the instructions for making the nachos, so together as a group they worked together to assemble their pan of nachos. I was happy to see that all the kids loved the nachos, with several of them being salsa monsters! One boy insisted that salsa tasted incredible just on its own, but the rest of them enjoyed dipping their chips in the spicy Mexican sauce.

For the Bible School portion of the week, we taught the story of Jesus healing Jairus' daughter and the woman. The teachers first told the story in a skit, and later we had the kids act it out. We had a pretty good group of actors I must say! The Bible verse portion went well, we played Sparkle once again so it was a familiar game for the kids which I think helped them learn it better.

The ladies at CELA have been so welcoming and hospitable to me and Cana. Every night this week we spent time with a different teacher from the department, eating dinner and visiting an area of Chiayi. It has been great to form a close bond to each of these teachers and learn more about their lives in this part of the world.

On Friday was our field trip. This week we went to an amusement park that has models of famous buildings from around the world. The English name for the park went something like "Tiny World." Each teacher had a group of about six to spend time in the park. My group was determined to ride all the thrilling rides in the park which included a raft ride, rollercoaster, and their favorite the tidal wave raft ride. We rode this tidal wave four times, kids screaming and squealing with delight each time. The kids were insistent on wearing rain ponchos while riding this water monster. I was the lone wolf in riding it without gear, I wanted to get wet, it was really hot outside. It was so great to see the kids laughing in surprise as I walked off the ride soaking wet. I really enjoyed this opportunity to be an ride buddy for the kids and spend time with them in a more informal setting. I learned more about them in this one day than in three weeks of teaching. Fun times with the kids!