My Mississippi Mattress

Greetings from the South where I am living with teachers from all over the world for two weeks, learning more about how to transition into a new culture, how to teach kids who have lived in several cultures and sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a classroom. Along with hearing humorous stories about cross-cultural adjustment and experiencing huge Mississippian thunder storms, the best part has been meeting my new team. Our school director was here for a couple of days and so we got to know him and ask him plenty of questions. Also, two of the teachers here taught at our school last year and have been able to offer us newbies lots of insight. Here's a picture of our school group here at PFO (Pre-field orientation).
From left to right, back row: Mandy, Joel, Dan, Byron (our director), Ken holding Jett, me
front row: Leslee, Becky, Jaden, Erin, Ava



Left: Becky and Joel, married 3 days before coming to PFO!
Right: Jaden prepares for a cultural transition
Bottom Left: Erin and Ken, a brave couple who are bringing along their three kids, willing to raise them in the country we are going to.

Blue Tubs, Cherries and Goodbyes

The days are dwindling and I'm almost ready to go. My life for the last week has revolved around two blue plastic tubs pictured below. Many of my belonging have to fit inside, both for me and my classroom. Not an easy task, but a great chance to learn to live with less. I keep telling myself that many people in the country I'm moving to probably wouldn't own enough to even fill two tubs that size. I am rich beyond measure.


This week I also got to take a break from packing and showed a movie about the country I'm going to to some friends. The Matteo kids and Hannah helped me make snacks and we had a fun evening together. Here's some pictures.



This has also been a week of goodbyes. I'm leaving for two weeks of training in Mississippi along with all the other new teachers in my organization. So some of my friends thought that it was high time for some crochet and cherry pit spitting contests before the summer gets away from us.

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