~The End of the Semester~

We did a lot in the last couple weeks of school! Here's a glimpse..

Once a week, we read to the kindergardeners. Our classrooms connect so it is good to get to know our neighbors!

We were studying Australia so the boys got their faces painted like Maori warriors..

Also, once a week when possible, the 6th graders come read to us!

It was our turn to lead chapel so we told the story of the Candy Cane and kicked off the Holiday Season.

This was after the chapel... I'm on the right, in the middle of all the girlies.

When Colombians do a manger scene, they practically do the whole town! This took up about the space of 1 car in someone's garage..

The elementary put on a Christmas Musical... my girls were beautiful angels!

Some of my boys were Bucket Boys living on the streets.

All of elementary...my girls are on the left. All the pre-k and K were sheep!

The rest of my boys were Wise Men on the far right.

Except for these two who got to be Mary and Joseph.

The musical was about a Colombian family from a tribe coming to the big city of Bogota and while struggling to fit in, they discover a church where they learn about Jesus. These students learned a song in that native language. It is called Chiva'nare oiku'mu Jesus.

The Bucket Boys are the poor kids who play buckets like drums on the streets to earn money.

We studied the Rainforest all 2nd quarter...

So we finally got to show the rest of the school what we learned!

We did a total of 4 presentations. We had Kindergarden, 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 4th grade come into the rainforest and they got to hear some reports about some of the animals, smell the rain, feel the heat, taste the fruit, hear the sounds, and see a slideshow of pictures taken from the Amazon here in Colombia. At the end, they got to look around the room and see the book/magazine display and posters, and try to find as many animals as they could!

Field Day! Getting ready..

Getting into teams.. Teams consisted of 5 students, one from every grade from Pre-k to 4th.

Mrs. Pinzon and I lead a game called "Veneno" or "Poison."

Christmas celebration, and sharing of "Secret Angel" gifts

The students studied these verses, one a week, and then at the end, they were able to say the whole thing from start to finish completely memorized!

We had a great semester! Thanks for praying for us =) We hope our next semester is even better...

We have a lot to look forward to!

If you are interested in supporting me in Bogota, Colombia, you can send a check made out to RCE International (Resourcing Christian Education) at PO Box 4528, Wheaton, IL 60189. On the memo line, write Account # 11916.

You can contact me through this blog, or email me at lavigne.marissa@gmail.com.

*Blessings*

**Merry Christmas** from our family to yours =)

I just got an email from one of my 3rd graders...

The subject line reads:

thanks for not givin as homwork

	Inbox		X

This is the message:

I think that you are a very good ticher and god bless you.

Hahaha! That's precious!

Oh Colombia...

Colombia makes me laugh! For example, here in the store window in the mall, you will see banners for the Pittsburgh Steelers behind the mannequins...first of all, they don't really play North American football down here. Second of all, I don't know what the Steelers have to do with the clothes they are selling or the other Christmas decorations in the window on the other side...

Here in my apartment building, I found this that someone put on their door. Ok, it doesn't snow here, so why is there a snowman with a sign that says, "Let it Snow?" Plus, it's in English!

And the decorations at the mall are the best..hahahhaha! Here is a sheep, a drum, palm trees, and some grassy decorations. Besides these, there were gingerbread men, reindeer, snowflakes, nutcracker characters, drummer boys, and some dancing girl in a bonnet. A very eclectic display if you ask me! I never realized how much influence the US has on other countries...I think its mostly because of the movies.

2nd quarter!

Just wanted to share some pictures and prayer requests! (Especially because your prayers are working! My students are working harder and behaving better!) We just sent progress reports today for 2nd quarter. This is almost our last full week of school until next semester because we celebrate Colombian AND United States holidays. (It sounds nice but the only problem with that is we have to make up the school days...like the Saturday half day we had last week!)

Ok, these pictures start more recent and go backwards in time...

Christian Character Day! Here we have a Mary Magdalene, 3 Pharaoh's Daughters, and a Queen Esther.

Isn't she a doll?

Boysssss =)

I think this was from the Teacher's Retreat in Villeta. Rose and meeeee

We were studying Rome, so we got to make Roman Pillars out of clay!

Another group drew a map of the Mediterranean Sea area.

Then the groups switched.. More pillars!

Walking through the mall with a pumpkin because the grocery store is inside the mall...it was so heavy!

Hard at work on position posters

Save the trees because the endangered Spotted Owls live there? Or cut down the trees to help cure cancer??

It was completely silent during reading time. I had to document it so I knew it was real!

Below is a video of 4 of my girls...they always come to me with silly little things they put together during recess time. It always makes me laugh, so I finally got one on camera!!

"Miss Lavigne, look!"

Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for your prayers. I've been struggling financially, but already people are stepping forward to be a part of this great experience. Stay with us on this, God is going to bless you! Also, God has provided me with a chance to get paid for teaching English. I teach for 2 hours after school, twice a week. It is fun and challenging because teaching adults is completely different than teaching kids!

Prayer Requests:

-For Jackie and Kyle B. as they return to the States early because of health reasons and are no longer able to stay at ECA

-For my Spanish to improve so that I can more easily communicate with the people God is placing in my path

-For my 3rd graders to continue to grow and learn and that I can be a good example for them

Rain Day!

It took us an hour to get to school today because the streets were flooded! When the teacher van got to school, it was already the time when school was supposed to start but nobody was here! The police were turning all the cars around on the road and only letting buses through. Eventually by around 9:00, I had 14 of my 22 students, but that was the biggest elementary class that showed up. We combined with the 9 4th graders for 2 hours, and everyone was sent home at 11. More rain is expected, so we will see what will happen for conferences tomorrow!

Here are some pictures from our day...

Those of us lucky enough to ride in the teacher van didn't have to get out and walk in the rain after the taxis and cars were turned around

This is out the front window of the van...deep water!

Ok, so yesterday, I was telling everybody about this dream I had where there was a huge rain storm and nobody was allowed to leave the school...well it kind of came true!! All the kids were "blaming" me all day! A couple of them wrote this on the middle/high school message board upstairs! They said I'm not allowed to have any more dreams =)

This is all of the elementary school that showed up (about 1/2 of every class) so we had them all in the same room for chapel

3rd and 4th grade playing Heads Up 7 Up

Mad Libs! They always want to use my name in the silly stories...but they are learning parts of speech without even realizing it!! =)

Busy Busy Busy

We finished our whole first quarter! The first week of October was a week vacation for the kids, but we had professional development Monday-Wednesday. I made my first report cards with a bazillion subjects and skill sets I had to grade, not to mention comments too, had CEU meetings every day, and had to begin writing up the entire 3rd grade curriculum online as an update for the school. I didn't finish it, but I have until February when the school gets checked for that sort of thing. I also went to school 2 more times during the weekend staying until 6 one night and 7 another!

Now we have parent teacher conferences this Friday and Saturday, and then the weekend after that is the Teacher Retreat that got postponed when everyone was sick back in August. I like that it is later though because now I know everyone a lot better and I think it will be more fun. I have a few more pics of my students and other things going on here, so I'll post them as soon as I get a chance to breathe!

It is pouring rain right now and has been coming down since at least 3:00 today. (It is 8:45 now). We are into rainy season and the mosquitos are out! I have a ton of bites! The rainy season doesn't last too long though and I've been told that December has the most beautiful bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, and perfect weather.

Don't worry, I've been having some fun outside of school lately too! A bunch of us teachers went bowling in Chia recently, my roommates and I went to the touristy down-town area for an afternoon, and this weekend we are planning to have some fun carving the giant pumpkins down here and making every sort of edible thing we can think of with them (bread, soup, pie, etc).

Please pray for my 22 third graders

-for continued health (or healing in some cases)

-for learning obedience and self discipline

-for practicing acceptance and friendship

Thank you so much for continuing to join me in this! You are very important to the successes that God is allowing us here at ECA--

<3

Back to Chinauta

Last Saturday, I got the privilege of going to Chinauta with my church in Castellana...the same place that I went in June my first time in Colombia. There was a day-long camp going on for students from the public schools who were invited to hear about Jesus. It was the third of three weekend camps, and the high schoolers watched a drama, a dance, a video, and a talk that required participation...all things to draw them in and relate to their world. Then they had small groups and lunch, and for the afternoon there was pool and game time. Since I was not really staff and just there to observe, I decided to become the photographer. It was great! It was incredible to be back in the same spot that I was in when I got that feeling in my heart to come back to Colombia. It's not something that I can describe.

This took place on Sept. 19 which is the Colombian version of Valentines Day. It is called El Dia del Amor y Amistad. (The Day of Love and Friendship). Colombians love holidays and celebrations so the whole month of September is dedicated to this.

As for my class, we have 2 more days this week, 5 next week, and then a week off of school. The first quarter of my first year will be over!

I still can't believe I'm here. =)

P.S. Colombians don't know what lemons are.

Uh Oh

Prayer Request:

El Camino was closed today and tomorrow (Th-Fri.) because we had so many teachers and students out sick. (For example, there were only 4 out of 22 first graders present!) The person who made that decision has never closed the school for health reasons in all of her 18 years so I figure it's a pretty big deal =)

Also, our teacher retreat that was supposed to be this weekend was rescheduled for October. Please pray for the health of our students, and for us teachers and staff as well, so that Monday morning everyone will be at school and ready to go!

-Thank you-

What is Passion

My friend Jonathan Saliba made this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOrROd9cuY

It really gives a great picture of Colombia and it has a lot of meaning for me because there are many people in it that I know and love. I've been to these places and walked these streets; both the beautiful areas and the difficult to look at. Pray for these kids. Those newly born again, and those still searching for the truth. The distance doesn't matter; prayers know no bounds. Keep watching God work because you are making a bigger difference than you think.

Half Way Through Our Third Week!!

Ok, so the grading papers part of teaching is not the best, but check these out!

The students are learning their Bible verses in sign language every week...

"he took up our infirmities.."

I came out of my classroom before school and found a circle of children from all different elementary school grades outside my door with our 3rd grade class hamster Tiny running around in the middle! (See the video at the bottom of this post!)

Our building is under construction and they let our class go on a little tour with hardhats and everything! We are building in phases as we raise the money. It was cool looking at the finished part of the building from the other side of the window.

We even got to go to the second floor!

Worship time for the Teachers before school--

Tiny the Hamster is a big hit around here.

Being a teacher just means that I am forever a student =)