Good work

I enjoyed my time teaching this summer and felt that it was a very good experience to continue to confirm my interests and good fit with teaching. Fortunately pastors get to do a lot of teaching type things, so I might make a half-way decent one. I already mentioned the biggest difference in the seminary as "nap time," but it was also very different from my seminary in other ways. First, the students all came from more rural settings where their work is mainly to help their families farm, and they were only in the big city for class for several weeks at a time. Also, we met in a church building, the size of a long, thin single-car garage, for about 8 hours of the day, but with several breaks for lunch, nap, etc. Also, there was only one grade for the class, which came in the form of a multiple choice test read to them (talk about difficult)...The students asked less questions that I expected, but when they did, they were mostly good for reflecting on how they could apply this material back in their own setting.

I may have mentioned earlier that I really enjoyed lecturing through an intepreter as I had my points planned out in short phrases, but then I had time after saying each one to think about what I had just said and decide what needed to be added to it to make it even clearer. The students all wanted to spend break time practicing their English with Rachel, so she was quite a popular person:) You can read her account of some of the fun mishaps that went along with practicing English...

In the evenings we were able to hang out with some friends from Pittsburgh (Rebecca and Tara), and they showed us around the "backpackers" section of the city and some eateries where people can go to practice their English conversation and possibly have some deep and meaningful conversations that they wouldn't have elsewhere.