Its been chillly and rainy the past two days, but this morning the sun is out again. forgive my spelling as i'm typing without looking at the screen much because of its angle...
Last night at 5:00 (which is 9 hours before California's 5:00) was my very first lesson! I am glad to say i think it went quite well. we spent the earlier part of teh day having an orientation, planning our lessons and chatting as a group. i was a bit nervous before... it was diffcult to know what to expect on my first night... i didn't know my students, i didn't know how enthusiastic or antagonistic theywould be, and even more so i have little experience teaching, and never on the very first night of a class. i've never been my best speaking in front of groups, and even as some of you know better than others, my spoken words just don't always flow as well as written words do for me. Albanians expect their teachers to be expert enough to teach... so i didn't want to tarnish the reputation of the lincoln center or my God. before class i read the story of shadrach, meshach, and abednego, who were thrown in the fiery furnace for their obedience to God, but God preserved them--of course because he loved them and rewarded their obedience, but perhaps especially because he would not show himself to be a God who is not faithful, like the others of the day. and by his miraculous actions through average young people, he was shown as he is, great and powerful. so this was what i had to trust God would do for me, for his reputation (although a classroom is no fiery furnace ;) ). i was just a little bit awkward and nervous at first, but God made it all flow and the lesson went at least as well as i could have hoped! i had six students--originally i had four, but one did not show up, and then three more who registered only last night
showed up. they're all women, mostly in their thirties and forties, with one 16 year old. the focus of the class is conversation (speaking and listening more than reading and writing). i was glad to find that my students were willing enough to speak and practice...that will be helpful! ;)
Stef, one of the girls in our group, sat in to help me with reading dialogues, etc...it was nice to have her, she will teach her first lesson tonight. we were both excited after the end of the lesson and gathered our things and started downstairs, only to be stopped by one of my students, Mylinda (i'll use the english spelling). She is an accountant at a business here, and wants to improve her english so that she can better communicate with her boss, who is not albanian. pray that we will be able to meet her need and relieve this stress in her life. She asked if she could come to the english church service held here on sundays (for more english exposure), which we of course agreed to. she also asked if we would like to go to coffee right then, so we happily joined her! the restaurant was all smoky but it was worth it to spend time talking with her. although we have money set aside to take students to coffee, she would not be convinced to let us pay (as is typical Albanian fashion--they are extremely hospitable and generous people). she hopes to spend more time with us, and i am eager to help her and get to know her. We are all very excited to get started on our work, and it is going well so far. keep praying that it will continue to!
forgot to mention that on saturday we had a good time playing with the youth at the beach at Durres, even though there was stronger wind than we've ever seen and a tree fell on our empty bus ;) without much damage. it was fun to play games and get to know them, and try albanian pizza. (Laura's account of that day)
Well, i know that probably most of you, even if you enjoy hearing from me, don't like reading long emails, so i'll sign off for now. ;) love to you all.
So that you may know my God is faithful,
Jessie
P.S. we are filming minute-long video updates each week, but they'll be sent by snail mail to our school so it will be awhile til they're posted. i'll let you know when they are. (some are here, others may be on facebook)
P.P.S. for any of you who have heard of the protests going on here, don't worry for us. they are close to us i suppose but we are not affected by them in the least (we heard the crowds once)... and the protests don't seem violent or anything at all so far (only a hunger strike). but these things do affect albanians much--they really want to finally have a democratic government with elections free of corruption, so that they can join the european union--but it seems the government still has a long way to go. (Please pray for the government and people of Albania, as similar problems continue today... recent news video)
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