International Bazaar '13

The countdown has seriously begun around here for me. I have now planned every classroom day until we leave, as well as every home day until we leave. Basically, it's a whole lot of exam prep and grading. So, don't be too surprised if I'm even more quiet than normal over the next couple of weeks. Though, to be honest, it is really hard to stay focused during these last few weeks, too. The weather is beautiful--a high of 80 today, we are SO excited to get back to the States, and SO excited for school to be out!

This past Saturday was the International Bazaar at school. After two days of rain, it was beautiful out on Saturday...maybe even a little too warm! Eric was only there for a couple of hours...long enough to play a silly game with one of the clubs. He had to try to speak in an Irish accent, so that she could guess what accent he was using.

There was quite an assortment of food. Eric had food from Braii Republic. I sampled some Kenyan and Brazilian, but inevitably ended up with my favorite, Turkish. The kids had good 'ole American pizza, but at least it supported one of my students' clubs. Afterwards, they were excited to have popsicles, while I had the world's most amazing French croissant.

I knew I wouldn't have a very good vantage point once the parade actually started, so instead I took this picture of the kids lined before the Parade of Nations began. More than 38 countries were represented. The kids were so cute. My kids wore their (two year old) American flag shirts (Kennedy insisted), but they didn't want to walk in the parade.

After four hours in the sun, we were ready to cool off, and I needed to get some work done, so we headed up to my classroom.

There, the kids stood and watched the remainder of the cultural performances for another hour while I printed, made copies, and prepped for the week. They were perfectly content to watch from above!

After an exhausting day, we finally got home around 4:30 or so. The kids really wanted to go to the musical put on by the fifth graders that evening, but I told them that we could only go if they took naps, since it didn't even start until 7pm. Cade was out when I went in to wake him up around 5:30. We had a quick dinner, and then headed back to school once Eric got home from his baseball game.

I think the kids and I spent about 7 hours at school...way too long for a Saturday! But, the bazaar was fun, and the fifth graders did an amazing job putting on Annie. We are so blessed by all of the amazing opportunities we have here!

Spring Means Baseball!

The cherry blossoms have come and gone, but I still have pictures of them to share, so we can enjoy them for one more day! All of these shots were taken at school with the exception of the last one, taken in our apartment complex. We have another busy week ahead of us with the start of May. The goodbyes are beginning already, starting with our beloved HR director and his family this week. We also have the start of the spring festivities at school with our staff picnic this week as we celebrate Korean Labor Day on Wednesday.

Eric's baseball season has begun again. And that means the busy season has begun. All three of them wait all week for Saturdays. The other day, before I got out of bed, Cade came in and told me I needed to get up so that we could go to Daddy's baseball game. I reminded him that it was Friday, so it wasn't game day. Daddy had gone to school, not baseball.

By the time I got out of bed, Cade was dressed. When I went to his room, I saw that his baseball clothes--the shirt that he calls his baseball jersey and a specific pair of pants--were on his bed. He had even been dressed for baseball, just a day too early.

At the end of every game, Cade gets to play catch and maybe even hit a few balls. He's always a bit impatient for the game to end for that reason.

After the last game, he was eager to go play catch, so he had his glove and ball ready when the guys came off the field. He asked me if he could go down to where Eric was, and I told him that he could. He put his hand on his hip and leaned into it and told me, "He's in a conversation, I think. I'll wait a few minutes." I was so impressed with his patience, his language, and his understanding of the situation. What a kid.

This year, a lot of the guys in the Seoul Baseball League are raising money for Not For Sale (NFS)--one of the bigger anti-human trafficking organizations in the US. There are a few MLB players that are spokesmen for NFS, so it has trickled into baseball.

Not For Sale is a great organization--they are probably the most well-known organization in the US because they work so hard to create awareness of human trafficking in the US and around the world. They are probably most well-known for their evaluation of supply chains, allowing consumers to be more aware of what kind of company they are buying from. They even have an app, Free2Work, that allows you to scan the barcode of your product and find out how responsible a company is, in terms of forced labor and labor trafficking. This way, when you are trying to decide between two products: Hanes or Fruit of the Loom, you can scan the barcode and determine which company you would rather support, based on their ethics rather than just their price and quality.

One of the organizations that is not as well known is the International Justice Mission (IJM). This past winter, during our high school spiritual emphasis week, we had a speaker, Brian, from IJM come to the school for a week. As it happened, we were just beginning The Kite Runner in class, and we had been discussing human trafficking, drug trafficking, and prostitution in Afghanistan. I was able to have Brian come into my classes for a day and talk to my students about trafficking all over the world--and more importantly, how they can get involved in stopping it.

Brian really did a great job of explaining to the kids how extensive the problem is in the world, as well as how easy it is for them to get involved and do something. He talked to them about the numbers worldwide and the rate at which it is being eliminated and told them that theirs can and should be the generation that sees the end of human trafficking globally. The world is much smaller for these TCKs who have been to many of countries where trafficking is occurring on a daily basis.

Of course, some of my students were not convinced. We've been talking about slavery since the beginning of the year when we read Uncle Tom's Cabin. We've also talked a lot about the impact that one person can have on the world, and some of them simply believe that they can't have an impact on the world--not without a lot of money or a lot of people listening to them. We talked about Vivienne Harr--an 8-year-old girl on a mission to end child slavery with her homemade lemonade stand.

After spending much of the school year talking about this, we knew it was time to actually DO something. Which brings me back to baseball. This year, Eric and I are donating money to IJM for every strikeout that he has. It's a fun way for us to get involved in a mission that we care about, and it's a great example for our kids and our students.

You can read more about IJM at ijm.org, but this was the organization we chose, both because of the personal connection that I made and because it is one of the organizations that is actually out in the world, doing something to end human trafficking. IJM has offices in more than 16 cities around the world, including many in South Asia: the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and India. They work to get victims out of the situation, then provide rehabilitation and aftercare for them. Additionally, they are one of the only organizations that works to ensure that there is perpetrator accountability, as well as structural transformation in the country in which they are working. If you would like to get involved with our newest mission, you can check out Eric's page here. 

Fun Fest 2012

So, earlier in the year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone a bit and volunteer for one of the shifts to take pictures at our first school event of the year: the back to school picnic. I really struggled with it. It feels to awkward to take pictures of other people's kids, especially when their parents are standing right there.

As much as I struggled with it (I think I only ended up with about 15 pictures that I thought were usable), other people had nice comments and I did feel like I learned some things.

Since Fun Fest is a little busier--each elementary school classroom hosts a game booth--I thought this event might be a bit easier to photograph, and I was right.

I took a few more shots of my own family this time, but still not many.

I have been doing a good job of volunteering for the earliest shift, so that I have the light working in my favor, but I still have a lot to learn. Especially considering how fast these kids move!

I also have a really hard time figuring out how to get shots of kids looking at the camera without telling them to "smile" and look at me, but every once in a while I get one that works!

This was a shot of my students as they prepared to stand and smile for me. I like this one a lot more than the one of them with their arms around eachother looking and smiling at me!

I was glad that the kids were finally healthy enough to go, although Kennedy is still having her moments (see top picture!). She was very excited to see her friends again after almost a week without them! It's the simple things in life!

Day 8: Singapore

I've got to get through this! I'm almost there!

On our last morning in Indonesia, I got up early and took pictures of the sunrise right outside our room.

We had packed our bags the night before because we had to leave Telunas right after breakfast.

Of course, we had to get in a few group photos before we left. One of the staff members was willing to take my camera up to the high dock so that she could get a picture of all of us together.

This was my group of 7th grade girls. Apparently, I kept closing my eyes. Nice.

This is the staff at Telunas that took care of everything for our group. They were awesome!

We were so excited to arrive at the ferry terminal in Batam--there were legitimate bathrooms with toilets and toilet paper!

This was the not-so-outstanding ferry we took from Indonesia to Singapore...no legitimate bathrooms here! Good thing the ride is only about 2 hours!

Once we arrived at Harbor Front in Singapore, we boarded a bus that took us back to the Praise Haven retreat center where we had stayed on our way to Indonesia. My girls and I lucked out again and ended up with two smaller rooms and a bathroom for just the six of us.

After we'd dropped off our bags and changed our clothes, we headed out for an evening in town for dinner.        I took these pictures from inside the ferry with dirty windows...best I could do!

We took the girls to a huge mall where they were able to shop, hang out by themselves, and get the dinner of their choice. We were all relieved to have a little space, I think!

I enjoyed a delicious dinner of prawns, fruit salad, and breadsticks. It was so exciting to choose what I wanted to eat!

Day 7: In the Village

Day seven was pretty similar to day six. We had our normal routine and free time in the morning and then we went to the village again in the afternoon.

This was the crowd of kids we found when we arrived at Jang island. They were so excited to see our kids!

This was my second day in the classroom, but it was the first day for my five 7th grade girls.

They were not pleased when they heard that they had to teach simple and compound sentences to the 4th and 5th graders. We had just covered this a week or two before we left, so they were prepared, though!

Most of the girls finished the day saying that they did not want to become teachers.

They couldn't figure out how to make simple and compound sentences fun and engaging, either. Somehow I don't think they have any empathy for me, though!

Apparently, teaching the same lesson three or four times in a row is "boring". Who knew?!

Nonetheless, I think they enjoyed working with the kids and seeing their enthusiasm for learning!

At the end of the day, we presented each of the teachers at the school with a bag of supplies that we had brought.

Our students had run a school supply drive, as well as doing a bake sale, and a walk-a-thon to buy supplies for the school. The teachers were very grateful, and our students were very proud to hand over the fruits of their labor.

It was really an amazing experience. I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it, and I'm really enjoying hearing my students talk about how much they enjoyed playing with and working with the kids at the school.

I don't know if I'll ever get to go on this trip again, but I do know that I will never forget how much fun it was to work in this school and experience the Indonesian culture.

Day 6: In the Village

We've had a busy, stressful, warm, sickie weekend. I'm the only one that is sick right now, but it still makes it hard to get anything done. We did do a couple of fun things, but I need to get through this Indonesia trip, so more on our weekend later!

On our 6th day, we switched up our routine just a bit. The kids had their free time in the morning, and then we went to the village in the afternoon. The Indonesian students were testing all week, so they wanted us to come in the afternoon when they were out of school to teach English classes.

Two of the female group leaders didn't want to teach the classes with the girls, so two of us taught classes for two days with two different groups.

We were teaching 1st-4th grades on this day, so we were introducing basic English words such as body parts, jobs, and clothing.

The boys had fun making up their own dances while the girls did old stand-bys like "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes".

I was in awe at some of the furniture in the classrooms and how few materials they had to work with. When we passed out paper for them to write on, they were stunned. Then a couple of the boys stashed it in their desks and asked for another sheet. This was one of the chairs in a classroom.

They were so excited to learn that when the classrooms filled up, they stood in the windows and doorways. It's incredible when you think about how so many students in the world take free public education for granted.

It was pretty entertaining to watch the girls struggle a bit with how to teach a concept and to see them try to adapt to the level or to the previous knowledge of the kids.

It was nice for them to get a little taste of what life is like for us five days a week!

And it was great to see the smiles on the faces of the kids!

Those who weren't in the classroom were continuing work on the wall in the hot sun and making some good progress!