More Experiences For The Foreigner

Those of you who are teachers, have you ever had students ask you to wear a certain outfit for their next class? Yes, you read that question correctly. And because I know what you want to ask, I'll answer: yes, my students did ask me that. lol On Monday at the end of class with the Yellow Group (the one that's all girls between 9-13) a few of them asked me if I could wear my green dress for their next class. Haha! They were referring to a dress that had green and gray circles on it that I had worn a few classes earlier when we were talking about fashion. The dress illustrated a few points of the lesson and apparently this class really liked it. lol I didn't wear it for their next class, but I still thought that it was a humorous request. :)

On Tuesday, I witnessed an accident. From the first time I saw the ridiculous traffic here and found out the "everyone has the right of way" state of mind, I knew I would see an accident sooner or later. I did. I was riding my bike to church on my way to class. I ride in the bus lane because it's safer on that particular road (because it has 2-3 lanes in each direction and is always very busy) for bikes and scooters/mopeds/motorcycles to do that. Anyway, I was going one direction and there was a scooter coming the other direction. There was a cross street between us and just as the scooter reached it, a car whipped around the corner onto the side road from the main road. The driver didn't signal, honk, or even slow down. He just flew around the corner. The scooter driver (SD) slammed on his breaks, I heard his tires screech and saw his back one skid to the side, and then I saw him hit the back end of the car with a crash. It wasn't a really loud crash, but it attracted a little bit of attention.

Mr. SD fell with his bike to the ground. Luckily, the car stopped. I've heard that there are way to many hit and runs here. But the SD got up and just kind of looked around. I think he was a little stunned. I thought about stopping to ask if he was ok. But just as I realized I didn't know how to ask and that he wouldn't understand me, the car driver got out to check things over. I decided it would be best if I just kept riding, so I went passed. But I was thinking to myself, "Holy crap! I can't believe that just happened!" The last thing I saw was the SD kind of shake himself off and look at the car driver like, "What were you doing?" Then the car driver started talking and he didn't look happy. I figure they argued. Most people who get in accidents do from what I'm told. I didn't exactly want to witness that. No need to get the foreigner involved, right? ;)

I had one class that was particularly fun this week. On Wednesday night with the Blue Group (the intermediate/advanced students) we were practicing asking questions like "Will I....?" and answering "I will have to....." or "I won't have to...." and using that same structure for you/he/she/we/they. Our example from the lesson was a little skit with a guy talking to an army recruiter. First of all, things got funny when one of the questions in the example mentioned cleaning latrines. They thought latrine was a funny word for toilet. I agree. lol :) But things really took off when I gave them situations. I picked a student and said they were recruiting for something and they had to tell us what we would have to do. They had to convince us to do it.

The two boys, Ledio and Eraldi, had to recruit us to go camping with them. We had to sleep in a tent, go hunting, go fishing, make a fire, play lots of fun games, we would be gone for three days, and we were going in the winter. lol Kesi recruited us to work at her amusement park. We could ride as many rides as we wanted, we could be loud and crazy, we'd have lots of fun, we couldn't break anything, we had to clean up, and we wouldn't be paid. lol Olsa recruited us to come to her party. There would be good music with a DJ, great snacks, only people over 18, it would go from 7pm-11pm, there would be alcoholic drinks if people wanted them (drinking age is 18 here), there would be no smoking and no drugs, and there was no dress code. She recruited everyone. :) We did a few others too. It was fun because for as many things as they told us, there were also other questions to ask so they got lots of practice asking the form question and answering with the form sentence that were the target structures for the lesson.

Talking about everything that goes on at church--classes, Activity Night, church, etc.--brought me to a realization: I have not yet described our facility to you. Our church is really more like store front property that's on the ground floor of an apartment building. So we only have that one room of space. It's just one open room and it has to be converted from a church to a classroom. We leave everything up and put our marker board in front of the alter and use the "lectern" (podium) to hold our rosters and lesson plans. Since the altar is hidden, we use it as a desk to hide the rest of the stuff we'll need for class. Behind the alter is a dark green curtain. It provides a better backdrop for the church and there is a cross hanging from the ceiling against the curtain as well. Behind the curtain is our storage area (buildings and homes don't have closets here) along with the bathroom.

In the front, near the altar there is a keyboard and a guitar. There are 4 small tables set up facing the front of the church. There are three chairs at each table. Behind the tables, there is a little bit of space so it's not super crowded upon entering. On one side wall is a large bookshelf packed full with plenty of books, Bibles, lessons, and coloring books. There are cupboards on the bottom of the bookshelf which hold the communion supplies, extra alter candles, lanterns for when the power goes out, extra computer supplies, and coffee supplies. On the same wall, next to the bookshelf is a desk with the computer and a small printer/copier. Along the back wall, next to the door are two extra chairs. And across from the computer, on the opposite wall, there is a coat tree/umbrella stand.

On that same wall, since there was lots of space, I put up a big wall calendar like the one I had on my floor in the dorms when I was an RA. Some of you remember that. Each day is the size of a half sheet of paper. The date is in the left corner and the days of the week are labeled with the name of the month above. All the labels are in English and Albanian. I change the calendar for each month and change the events. I write the days when we don't have class, I mark activity nights, church times, choir practice times, and other events that come up. I also put people's birthdays on it. Just another way to get to know people and make connections.

That was really the only available wall space. The bookshelf takes up one wall, and there is a map on one side toward the front and a banner on the other side near the front. In between there are sort of "pillars" on the walls. It's just an area where the wall sticks out an extra two inches and is about two feet wide. One has a clock, the other has a picture of Jesus. Overall it's not a very big space, but it's functional. It gets very full on Activity Nights, but that's exactly what we want! :) So far it serves a good purpose.

And though there's only a small chance, I remain hopeful that we will be able to paint it over Christmas break. That would help a lot! It hasn't been painted for years and there are all sorts of dingy spots and marker marks on the walls. Since buildings are cement here, I can't just wash the walls as I would at home. Plus, the color scheme could be a lot more flattering. Right now it's light blue and and light orange/dark peach. We'd like to do something that would flatter the nice dark green curtain. The altar cloth matched the curtain and has gold-yellow runners on it with dark green crosses. Emily and I have a few ideas for color schemes and Agron is a good artist so he has a good eye too. There's a paint shop close by so he said if it gets the ok, we can go there and have them mix samples for us to try. I'm not holding my breath, but I do have my fingers crossed. ;) Just kidding, but I am praying that it can happen. Our building is functional but a new little make-over would make it more appealing and inviting. And impressions do count when people are "church shopping."

Anyway, that's all for now. I can't wait to be able to give you the low down on tomorrow's Halloween shindig! I've heard many costume ideas so we'll see what comes up. :) So as I say to my friends here, shihemi neser! (pr. she-HEM-ee NAY-sare) (aka. See you tomorrow!)