Encouragement...

This is a great culture for encouragement...at least I'm finding it that way.  I probably couldn't list all the positive things that happened today, but I'll name a few. 

This morning, at chapel, one of the Honduran teachers came up to me and said that I have a good singing voice.  I appreciated it...especially because there are a lot of people who sing here.  Then during Geometry today, one of the two students was not in school today, so I asked the girl in class (my senior) if she wanted to go over the lesson or if she wanted to do something else, since I'm going to have to re-teach it anyway (we're beginning proofs...not something you want people to miss).  So instead we started talking.  She agreed to help me learn/become more proficient in Spanish, so today was kind of our first lesson, where she was mostly asking me basic questions to see what I know and what I don't know.  Some of our conversation was in English and some was in Spanish.  Later, another student said he heard that she was going to be helping me, and asked why I needed help, because my Spanish was already good.  I told him (in Spanish) that I know only a little Spanish, I can say a few sentences at a time, but I have to think a LOT to speak in Spanish and I want to get better.  He pointed out that what I just said was more than a few sentences and he didn't think I needed much help at all.  I disagree, but I appreciated the thought anyway. 

By that time in the afternoon, I was doing pretty well, it had been a good day, and I was enjoying being here.  To round it off, one of the teachers (actually a substitute teacher) stopped by after school to tell me that one of my students had told her in conversation that they really liked math and science this year, and he thought I was a really good teacher.  That kind of made my day...it's always nice to be appreciated. 

I always want to follow up a "depressed" blog post with a more upbeat one...which sometimes takes a few days, but fortunately this time around didn't take that long.  I am doing better than last night.  I still miss home and people there, but it's not nearly as strongly as last night, and today did a great job of encouraging me and reminding me just why I'm here.  [And it's Friday...and we all know how I feel about Fridays!]  Have a great weekend!