arrival

About four days ago I arrived to Managua's International airport. Thankfully I arrived with no real problems. The airport in Managua is surprisingly very nice--far nicer than Miami (which is not hard to believe if you have been there!), and I've heard it's the best in Latin America. It is very nice.

I still haven't started teaching, and I won't until February 6. That's great because it gives me some time to relax and prepare before things really get going. On my first day here, the director of the school took me to the Nejapa Campus (where I will teach, as opposed to the main campus of NCA). It was good to see it. The classrooms are enormous. Glen Carlson helped built them. At some point I will have to post some pictures. Right now there are two completed classroom buildings. Construction is almost complete for a building which will conain a library, computer lab, and main offices for NCA Nejapa. There is also a small building out of which they will serve food for lunches and snacks. All of the construction is supposed to be done before the beginning of the year, but I heard something about a delay due to funding. There are also plans build two more classroom buildings which will house the high schoolers as the school grows. Each year they will add an additional grade though high school. Last year they had grades 1-8, and this year they will have 1-9.

Next week Monday the teachers at Nejapa will meet together for the first time this year. I guess we'll start planning and going through some things together. It will be interesting to see how able I will be to participate. I'm the only one on staff that doesn't speak Spanish, and few of them speak much English.

If you would like to pray for me, here are a few things you can pray about:
* Not having taught before, I anticipate that designing lesson plans will be difficult for me. Pray that I will have the determination and creativity to come up with some good ideas before school starts. The next two weeks will include (or should include) a fair amount of planning. Hopefully it will be productive and eventually effective. Also pray that I stay positive in the face of feeling inadequate and incapable! :)
* I have heard that enrolment is down from what was expected and planned for. As the school is very new (one year behind them), they are still trying to figure out patterns and the best way to operate. They had a lot of interest initially, but are finding that rate of enrolment has dropped. Pray that we get enough new enrolments to be able to offer the students the best service possible.
* In general, you can pray that the Lord will prepare me to be in relationship with the students and other staff. Pray that he will fill me with a spirit of love and patience, as well as a desire to serve.

More later.