After ten days the honeymoon period here at Zuni Christian Mission School is starting to wear off. I love my kids but now I know they can be naughty as well as nice. But they're so interesting! One little girl seemed quiet at first. The longer I'm in the class I realize she's still quiet, but very bright too. She often remembers answers that the other kids don't. Another little girl seems to be chronically off-task -- until the last bell rings, the room empties, and she perks up and finishes her work quickly. We've been trying to "catch her being good" more often, and she's starting to bubble to life a bit more during class too. Then there's the boy who caught my attention from the very first -- it's his first year at this school. He is in second grade but has been held back at least one grade already, and he reads a whole grade level behind. We give spellings of words if students request them, but they have to tell us what letter they start with first. I caught him one day staring hard at our alphabet border. "What are you looking for?" I asked. "I'm looking for the kangaroo. This word starts with a 'k' sound and I need to know what the letter looks like." I pointed to our Koala bear and he quickly found the right page in his spelling book. Hmmm... does that mean the public school taught him badly, or does he maybe have a learning disability? Who knows, but we'll keep watching and teaching. There are two ladies from Michigan here for the next month or so; they have come to tutor. He is getting extra reading and math instruction from them each day, so hopefully he will be able to catch up soon. He's the neatest kid though! From one of the families that often does not send lunch.

I am teaching almost half of the morning time, and a bit less of the afternoon time. Next week I'll add a bunch more afternoon lessons. So I have LOTS of planning to do this weekend! I'm excited, though; a lot of it is choosing literature the kids would like, and it's pretty fun to go through all the books. And somehow I need to come up with some science concepts that 1st/2nd grade kids need to learn. I'm a bit at sea regarding that problem. Better do some internet research -- and, of course, talk to Kathy.

I'm starting to have some discipline responsibilities too. That overwhelms me a lot -- I hardly know some of the kids, but since I am an authority figure (i.e. an adult), I need to know and enforce the school rules. So far that mostly consists of telling kids to be quiet during class, walk around the school, and not jump down three stairs at once. I've had a few language issues, too, though, which are harder for me to judge. Although I know it would not be appropriate at my house, these kids hear a lot of things and don't necessarily know which ones are worse than the others. So we give warnings, then punishments.

Sarah is a fantastic housemate; it's been fun getting to know her a little and our cleaning styles are very similar. Keep things neat, but cleaning only happens if we're in the mood. :-) Which I haven't been yet. It's only been two weeks! She has a very comfortable little house -- three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a decent-sized kitchen and living room. Pretty much the two of us rattle around using only half of the house. Compared to an apartment at Dordt with six inhabitants, this is immense! I still love our little grocery store. It's called Halona Plaza and is on the street corner across from the school. It's fun to shop in because all the sections are kind of on top of each other, and I always think that some kind of food is not there... only to find it as I walk around the backside of the display. I love little stores. :-)

Yesterday we went for a walk to the cemetery -- sounds morbid, but really it's just a pretty direction to walk because you're out of the village almost immediately. Sarah and I watched the sunset and avoided dogs as we walked. And, I'm sorry to say, I was quite out of breath by the time we got to the cemetery and turned around. I decided to blame that on the altitude (6622 feet above sea level, I believe I heard) rather than my out-of-shapeness. Speaking of altitude, thanks for all of you who prayed about my headaches: I should have updated earlier. I posted on Wednesday that I was having headaches, and the next day -- I was fine! No headaches since then. Praise the Lord! One day I almost fainted after supper because I forgot to drink enough that day... but that lesson is learned and I now have a rule that I have to drink a quart before I'm allowed to leave school in the afternoon. It works well. ;-)

The only other news I have is all about vacations. I get to go to Catherine's for Thanksgiving! And I'm not going back to Idaho for Christmas; my family and I will meet with my Aunt and Grandma in Maryland, then go to see Mom's side of the family in Ohio for New Year's! I'm excited.
Please keep me updated on your lives too -- I love reading emails and now that I've figured out the computer situation, I can reply to them too!