The title of this one is an extremely common Brazilian phrase meaning ´Let´s go!´ Tomorrow I have my first class and begin what will be my normal weekly routine.
As my own worst critic, this last week was a little disappointing. I´m not feeling as prepared and confident as I would like to be for the weeks ahead. I actually feel like my Portuguese has gotten worse this week. A lot of the songs I thought would be really good for teaching teens at Arte e Vida English now seem less appropriate. I dropped and broke a phone charger several hours after it was purchased and given to me. I took the wrong bus on two occasions, the first of which landed me in the ghetto at night. (I have led a movement amongst my host family of referring to these occasions as my adventures. Not gonna do that again!...Hopefully...) On the bright side, I spent some nice time with God this week, danced my first semi-scandalous Brazilian dance, learned the Portuguese verb for to fart , got a cute haircut, attended a nearby Presbyterian church that I really liked (and didn´t make a fool out of myself), and was given a fantastic guitar to borrow for the rest of my stay here. The guitar arrived at the end of the day in which I realized that a lot of the music I had chosen wasn´t going to work in the classroom. It helped me lift up my head--if not a single one of these recorded songs does what you need it to, you can now play any song you want! And I´ve been playing lots of ´em! This guitar´s so great! My fingers hurt really bad!
So is the cup half empty or half full? And as my friend Tommy Shelton would add, What´s in the cup? Is it a cup of gold or a cup of poop? This is an all to often neglected dimension of the question. I don´t know really. I think I´ll just get a new cup for next week and leave the old one on my dresser until someone else finds it and either takes it to a pawn shop or throws it away in disgust. Please wish me luck and pray for me as I begin teaching! I want to be an excellent teacher. ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
yay you reference Tommy Shelton! sounds like you are seeking the right attitude about the situation, sister. hold your cup out to the Savior and He will fill you up! and yay for practicing so much your fingers are killin'--that means you'll rock their faces off! hehe. :) sendin you much love and prayer~
ReplyDeleteHi Claire!
ReplyDeleteSending you much fellow serviceshipper (is that a word?) love from Panama! I hope this week brings you many blessings, and whatever happens know that you are doing something few people ever get the chance to even dream of!
It gets lonely here in Panama too, although there are always people around. When I figure out how to get over that feeling, I will definitely let you know lol
When I get lost in Panama, I like to focus on something beautiful or unique about wherever I end up, and be thankful that- if I wouldn't have ended up here- I would never have had the experience of witnessing or seeing something so beautiful/unique/awesome. Hope that makes a little bit of sense... try it!
Keep your head up! Look forward to some more posts from you :)