Chapter 7, in which I have a new beginning of sorts

I am rather poor at this whole posting a blog on time thing. My audience should just expect these to come when they come, and likely at irregular intervals, and the only sure thing is that they will likely never be when expected.

That being said, I have had quite an interesting last few weeks. Thanksgiving was a huge success, with around 60 people coming to celebrate. Unfortunately I didn't get my interview that day, but I was able to go to the school the Tuesday afterward and was asked to begin working three days a week beginning that Wednesday. So now, rather than having hardly anything to do some days of the week, I have the pleasure of waking up soon after 6 in the morning to take a bus and go work with the elementary school, that is, classes 1 through 4. Thursdays I will also be helping out with an after school homework help program in which there are several English-speaking students. I am really excited about my new work, and I have already seen the ways in which I have been able to support and encourage the teachers with which I am working. At this point I am basically learning names and sort of there as crowd control, but as time progresses I may be given additional responsibilities.

In Germany Christmastime is a huge deal, and I attended two Weihnachtsmarkts, or Christmas Markets, last Saturday. At one I helped with a raffle and was able to peruse the handmade items and purchase some delicious Bratwurst. That evening, Johanna and I attended a youth service at a somewhat local Mennonite church and hung out with their youth group afterwards. It was a lovely chance to spend time with some Germans my age.

This past Tuesday evening, we handed out little felt shoes that we made on the past two Mondays filled with chocolate and a Bible verse. This was a little thing for Sankt Niklaus Tag, or Saint Nicolas day, and we went out into the streets to bless people with a free gift. I had several people who asked me more about why we were doing this and what an FSJ was, so I happily explained to them about wanting to do something for out city and about our church. Some people couldn't believe that we were simply giving out something for free, and one or two even tried to pay us! All in all, it was really neat just to see people's faces light up and to realize that my German is actually improving quite a bit.

I'll try to update again within a reasonable amount of time, but no guarantees.
 This is the Christmas market in Kaiserslautern, where one can find quite a few delicious treats as well as buy interesting gifts.
Here we are making the shoes, and I of course was relegated to outlining the pattern due to my skill with a marker and lack thereof with a needle. We sat around and drank tea and listened to music while we worked.

I thought I took some more pictures, but apparently I'm not great at that. Until next time.

Comments

  1. SherrrieDecember 11, 2017 at 10:19 AM

    Great news about your job at the school! Keep up the good work Micah! Merry Christmas! - Sherrie

    ReplyDelete

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