Back to school!

We have all started school again! Once again, the term started out pretty slowly, with a lot of students absent. We aren't expecting too many people until Monday, at least. PAWI has gained another teacher! She was apparently here a couple terms ago, but last term she was on maternity leave. She is the science and Spanish teacher. Since everything seems to take more time in Trinidad, we have not gotten grades yet. However, the teachers have slowly been handing back tests. This is one of the most exciting things that has happened this term, because we can not expect all the teachers to be back in school and teaching the first week of the new term.
~Roxy

Like Roxy said, we have had 2 mostly uneventful days of school. Yesterday, I got 5 out of my 10 tests back. But, I only had one actual class (with the science teacher Roxy mentioned). Even that class was somewhat unclass like. Mostly the students were asking the teacher questions. I didn't use a pen or a notebook all day! Today, during math, we actually did some productive work, but then the teacher said he needed to go do something and to finish those 2 problems and he'd be back in 5 minutes. Well, it was probably close to a half an hour later when he actually came back. But, by that time that class was over. The teacher I was supposed to have was sitting in the chair she had been sitting in all morning which was on the other side of the board (which is serving as a wall since there is no actual wall there) where she had been teaching the form sixes. So, we didn't have anything to do for the rest of the morning. That teacher was still there when I came back from lunch. After lunch, we had just started Social Studies and the teacher for that was about to give us some notes when my parents came to get me and Roxy since they had a staff meeting at WITC and wouldn't be able to come pick us up when school was over. That's okay. I bet we didn't miss much! There was a girl who came yesterday but she was upset that they actually had to write something down and it was only the first day, so she didn't come again today. Why would you come to school if you weren't expecting to do any work? You might as well stay home then.
~Olivia

Our classes at WITC don't actually start for a couple of more weeks. I've been spending most of my time this week planning and getting my syllabus ready. Right now, there are a couple of classes being taught as "modules." These are intensive classes that meet every day for two weeks. We are not teaching any of the modules. However, we did go to the college for a faculty meeting today. We now know that we will again be teaching classes on Wednesday evenings. We also received our class rosters. I have only two students registered for my homiletics class, one of whom was in the philosophy class I taught last semester. They are the only two theology students in their second year, which is when homiletics is typically taken. This was information that I gleaned from the listing of all the students at the college that was also distributed at the meeting. Until now, I had never known for sure what the enrollment of WITC was. According to the full roster, there are right around 50 students this year. But although it is a theological college, only seven of them are actually getting degrees in theology. The vast majority of students will get their degrees in either social work (19 students) or psychology & counseling (16 students). The only other degree offered is in Christian education, which currently has only one major. The other students are pursuing certificates or are listed as "special" students.
~Richard

Beginning second semester for us all leads me to reflect on the difference a few months make. Looking back to August I mostly remember that as moving month. Every time I have moved in my life, even though they have all been places I chose to move, there is a certain amount of stress that accompanies the settling in period. Everything from figuring out the best place to buy groceries to building new relationships takes some effort that one doesn't expend so much in regular life. Add a new culture to the mix and it is both an exciting adventure and an exhausting maze of things to puzzle through. That's what last semester was. When the term began we did not yet know where the girls would be going to school in spite of much time and effort. They actually began a couple of days late while we were figuring it all out. Because of the typically slow starts here, that didn't turn out to be a problem, but we had not yet learned that. By contrast, this week we did know that. So, we gave them the choice of whether or not they wanted to go to school this week or start next week. They chose to begin. They chose this in large part because what had once been new and scary for them was now a place where they had friends and had come to enjoy being.
As for Richard and I, knowing what we are going to teach and attended a couple of faculty meetings and having a schedule of how many weeks are in our semester, having all this with 2 weeks to go before class begins feels like luxury. I too have been spending time this week choosing a text and planning my syllabus. It feels good to get back into the routine and begin this work again. I am teaching Theory and Practice of Social Work III, so all my students will be returning from the prerequisit class I taught last term. It is nice to know the students and rejoin them. I will also be supervising the thesis of one of those students. Although I am teaching material I have never taught before, I still feel so much more prepared than I did last term. Looking back it is nice to feel the difference. There is a coziness about where we are at the start of this term. Even the water situation is a return to what it was in August. Although it has gone on longer this time and although every day after waiting on hold they tell us they hope to have someone out to fix the leak in a day or two, our resources for handling it are so much greater than they were when we arrived. We know our neighbors better, we know places we can go for help and we can understand conversations and the meanings behind them better. We are so grateful to be able to spend the kind of time here that allows us those opportunities. It is a such a blessing to be able to really live here.
~Barb