First week of Work

Well I have completed my first week of work. I am working with children in a before and after school program that ranges from 1st grade to 6th grade. This week they had me go to training sessions in the morning and in the afternoon went to the school age center to work with kids. The last training videos they had me watch were mostly made during the Ronald Reagan president term in office. You can usually date the videos because the men’s and women’s lenses in the glasses were so large, when they were done using them you were able to send them to a 3rd world country and use them for house building materials. Another hint was that the jeans were stone washed and rolled on the bottom, and more perms than the eye can see. I could also date the videos because the high tech graphics. At the time it was pretty sweet to rewind everything really fast and put some fast piano music to it.
When doing CPR training, I told my instructor my manikin was ok and didn’t need attention or it was to unsafe and I am unable to give him CPR. That didn’t fly and I had to perform CPR on Adult, Child, and infant manikins a couple of times. Now I am CPR certified and First Aid trained!
A couple of my training course that I had to take, were also attended by Germans. The beginning of one of the classes the teacher made us do some Yoga like stretches and breathing. She wanted us all to get into a zone and close our eyes. I had to peak around the class to see what the German thought of this and she had a very dumb founded look on her face. She was half heartedly doing the stretches and had her eyes opened and with a look that seemed as if she was wondering why the teacher for food handling was making us “reach for the sky and breathe in and out slowly”. I took this class with all women about food prep and handling and at the end they all decided to do the next class at a buffet, you can only imagine how side track they got talking about recipes of their favorite dishes.
The Afternoons that I had with the kids was very fun and encouraging. It is great when you play basketball with little kids and they ask you if you played professional and are compared to an NBA player because I can bounce a ball between my legs. I just simply reply “No, I had to give it up early in life, so I could come here”. The kids are also amazed at my Lego building experience. I tell them it took time and some practice, but they can build like me some day as well. I have also had the great opportunity to share why Julia and I are here and have been able to have some great conversations. Please continue to pray for us as we work our Jobs and continue to work within the church. It’s great to see God continue to provide and bring people into our lives that we may be a light to and share the Gospel with.