Thursday we had spent quite a bit of time at CISP helping organize the library. Then Friday we spent the whole day organizing Phyllis’ classroom. Yes, she went with the idea of being a part-time teacher with no classroom responsibility but things don’t always happen in the manner that one anticipates. In the Czech Republic the mission community’s motto is “Be flexible.” Phyllis is now officially the 1st-2nd grade teacher at CISP.
Even though life in the USA can be frustrating, one generally knows the outcome of most situations he/she encounters before charging into the situation. Here, the outcome is seldom known until you are in the middle of the situation. Construction is still going on at CISP and there seem to be several unanswered questions as to points such as (1) who will teach what, (2) what teachers will actually come to teach, (3) where are the bathrooms in the school (this one needs more explanation which will not be given at this time, (4) where is John’s classroom, (5) exactly what will John teach, (6) will mission organization X allow teacher Y to return to CISP or will they assign them elsewhere in the world, (7) when will teacher z arrive due to visa problems.
Most of these questions would have been answered weeks before school started in the USA. Here these are questions still pending. There is a least one teacher whom we need desperately who had not yet raised sufficient funds to come and teach here. His mission organization just yesterday said he could come and continue to raise funds from Prague, but if he runs out of money he will need to go back to the USA and try to raise funds from there.
But to put things in perspective, a parent who was given a tour of the school yesterday, was told that things are in disarray at the building and she would have see beyond the clutter and dust was not the least upset at what she saw. Her response was something like, “This is nothing! I am from Russia where there is construction in the schools every summer. This school is much closer to being ready than the typical school in Russian would be.” Hence it is all in your perspective. To me we are in a pickle so to speak. To this Russian woman things looked quite good. Fortunately Phyllis and I have been at schools in Africa before in which there was usually some chaos on opening day that would send a typical USA school administrator into a frenzy. Here we will do the best we can with what we have in the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Anyway the good news is that Phyllis’ classroom is in reasonable condition. We moved all (yes all) here books, supplies, shelving, etc from a temporary storage area to her class room yesterday. I had to carry a student table and couple chairs up from the basement storage area – quite a jaunt. Most of the stuff we moved by commandeering the overhead projector table – which has wheels – and pushing it one load at a time about one hundred feet from one end of the hall to the other. We must have made about a dozen trips.
Next Monday and Tuesday we have New Teacher Orientation. We will be the only two teachers there. Next Wednesday – Tuesday will be Teacher Inservice days. September 2nd is Parent Open House during the day. September 3rd school officially opens. Right now it looks fairly certain that I will teach Physics, Calculus, Pre-Calculus and Algebra 2. Phyllis will officially teach a combined first-second grade classroom that has twelve students in it. She has nine fist graders and three second grade students. Five of her charges are ESL (or ELL – is English the second, third, fourth or what Language that they speak ).
We had a lovely dinner last night at the home of a couple who are in a situation similar to us. They are retired and generally depend on retirement income for the majority of their support. They have been here one and a half years – which makes them the longest reigning full time staff who have come specifically to teach at CISP. Yes, there is considerable turnover in the full time staff. Several part time and one or two full time staff are in Prague with mission organizations that have assigned that family to other tasks on the mission field, but one spouse is working full or part time at CISP just to keep it going.
Back to the dinner, since six full time teachers were present, it was also a staff meeting of sorts. We hashed out issues, learned more about each other and were told horror stories of registering with the Czech Foreign (Immigration) Police – something we will do after getting our proper visas. It was a great time and reconfirmed some of the reasons why we are here – because the needs are so great and people with whom we will work are all dedicated, interesting, wonderful people.
Once we got back home last night we spent some time blogging, writing emails, watching a little Olympics on TV and made a telephone call to talk to Steve and Kaley on the phone. At least communications is easy and we have good internet and phone access here. The difficulty with trying to call people in the USA is the seven hour time difference. We talk mostly to people who are home during the day as it is generally too late for us to talk to you after work or school unless we stay up quite late as we did yesterday.
Today we are going to take our first road trip outside of Prague. We think we are going to a city called Podebrad. We are essentially being given a tour by Rebeka and possibly her roommate. We are to meet her at her closest metro stop at 8:00 AM today. The rest of the day is still a mystery to be revealed later. We have heard that the Czech countryside is very beautiful.
All-in-all things are going well. We are quite comfortable living here. We can shop and find our way around town. We have our apartment in a very livable conditon and find it comfortable. We are learning to sleep through the sounds of the night. Our apartment is in a very central location that allows us to walk to school (some of our colleagues and students communte up to an hour each way). We will keep you informed of our future happenings
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