February 22nd 2010 – Alisha
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 05:38PM We have a ‘student intern’ here at La Casa Pastoral. Her name is Alisha and she is a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Des Moines. I put the words ‘student intern’ in quotes because she really is not a student. Perhaps we need to find a better name for our individuals who want to spend time in Berlin.
By saying ‘spend time in Berlin’ I don’t mean that our visitors come here for a vacation. We’ve had several young people stay at La Casa Pastoral over the past years. My son was among those numbers. Paul actually spent two summers here. Most of our interns volunteer their time teaching English at one of the nearby schools. Paul spent his mornings at Brisas del Sol (Kindergarten – 4th grade) and his afternoons at the local high school with not only some high school students, but also a couple of teachers who wanted to learn. Some interns alternate time between one of the little elementary schools nearby and the physical therapy clinic around the corner.
Alisha has been with us for two weeks now. Her first week here, we also had my sister visiting and a woman from Spain who was getting reacquainted with people here and working with the Pastoral Team. We did a lot of traveling for Chon. We visited a couple of the cantons of Berlin, visited a couple of co-op projects to the south and west of us and we visited El Mozote. So Alisha was able to tag along on those trips.
At this point, she has survived her first full week of teaching at the local “boys” school. This is a kindergarten through 9th grade school. And yes – just boys.
Everyday has been an adventure for her. Seemed like her schedule changed daily. But I think it is set now so she can better prepare for her classes. She seems to be enjoying the work and the children. I have a feeling it will only get better for her. She is very organized and has great lesson plans. And now that she seems to have a routine and is more comfortable with how the day should look – I think she will soar.
I’m excited for her.
And she gets to be here for four more weeks.
Not all of her time is work. She has managed to catch a couple of naps in the hammock … she started out reading, but the inevitable happens. It can’t be helped! ;o)
And one of these days, we’re going to take a walk up to the cross. Not sure how she convinced me I wanted to join her on that. And Saturday she asked Cecilia if she (we) could walk to Alejandria with her. All we need to do is find sne to walk back with us. But that should be easy enough.
Reader Comments (1)
Hi Kathy!
I recently began reading your blog again. I traveled with the delegation from St. Kate's last January and met you in Berlin. I love being able to continue to follow all of your work. It was great to hear from this year's delegation as well when they returned. They mentioned you had some recent graduates teaching English there. After your most recent post, I'm now following Alisha's blog too. I think that is amazing what they are doing and I would be interested in doing something similar. If and when you find a spare moment in your busy days we could get in contact (I included my email) and you could give me more information about teaching in El Salvador I would greatly appreciate it.
I'm keeping you all in my prayers.
Un abrazo fuerte.
Natalie