As I’m getting to know my students better, I have come to realize what a unique teaching situation we’re in here at ICS-Rio. I’ve taught third-culture kids before, but I’ve never had such an intensive experience with them as I can expect here in Brazil for the next 18 months.

Third-culture kids (TCKs), both missionary kids and the children of businesspeople, tend to behave differently than children who grow up in only one country. They are a hybrid of their home countries, their parents’ values, and the culture of the countries in which they have lived as expatriates.

One of the most striking things about TCKs is that they tend to be more mature than their American age-mates. Here in Rio, I’ve been astounded by the level of conversation some of these teenagers are capable of, and their mature behavior. They’re still teenagers–but they’re cosmopolitan teenagers who have had to adjust their behavior and thinking to a new culture–sometimes many new cultures.

At the same time, TCKs can be remarkably ignorant of the world beyond their personal lives. As a result of moving many times, shifting schools and educational programs, many of my students have never heard of ideas that are common knowledge among American students. It may be that I see this more strongly because I am a history teacher, but I find that I cannot rely on my students to have much prior knowledge of any topic, or even a good understanding of current world events. It will be hard work to get some of the high schoolers ready to attend college when their previous educations have been so disrupted.

My students here are wonderful, and I am enjoying them greatly. They are kind and funny, and many of them have hearts that are truly seeking after God. I’ve recently taken over a 7th grade history class from our acting principal, Rachel, and it has been fun to see the exuberance of some slightly younger faces.

Many of the kids at ICS-Rio are not Christians–more than I expected. One of my greatest challenges here will be teaching my classes, especially Bible, with the grace and wisdom necessary to draw these young unbelievers toward the Lord.

Techinically, Carnaval doesn’t begin until Friday. They got a pretty good start on it yesterday, though, right outside our window.

The video does no justice to just how noisy it truly was.

Please keep ICS-Rio in your prayer over the next few weeks. There’s some good news, in that it sounds like the other teachers who have been waiting for visas will be joining us soon, but there’s a pile of bad news, too.

Bert Unger, our director/principal is having to leave on Monday, returning to Canada to be with his wife as she undergoes surgery for a heart problem. And Bert had not even been here for six months–he was interim director, as the previous one–the one who hired us–is on furlough. Now, we’re not entirely sure what is going to happen.

For the time being, Rachel, the lead teacher at the high school, is going to be taking on the responsibilities of director, assisted by… well, pretty much everyone. Lorraine, in particular, is taking one of her middle school social studies classes. We don’t know how long this is going to be the situation, or what, exactly, the situation is going to be like.

What we do know, though, is that we’re going to be needing plenty of prayer.

Well, it has been a wet and wild week. Since Saturday night, it has rained more or less constantly, and the temperature has stayed in the sixties and seventies. It’s hard to believe that we spent our Saturday in the nineties, sailing a blue ocean on a crystal clear day.

As a Christmas gift, ICS-Rio took all its employees on a cruise to Ilha Grande, off the coast of Rio to the South. About 90 people went, and we had a great time. The boat was about 40 feet long, with benches in the back for sitting and a padded center section for lying in the shade or sun. The day was beautiful, and the Atlantic was calm. At one point, we stopped and just jumped off the boat to swim in the ocean. Here I am, among a crowd of my fellow employees and their families.

We stopped about halfway through the cruise near Angra, at a little cove with an old pirate church.

These boats were like ours:

The beach wasn’t the only thing that was good about the cruise–the food was also great. The school provided coxinhas, Guarana, sandwiches, and two huge chocolate and maracuja cakes. And Romeo e Julieta.

By the end of the day, we were pretty happy (and sunburned) campers.

Last week, I posted my rejoicing over the Seahawks game being on TV. This week, it’s been bumped by… guess what? If you guessed soccer, good for you. If you guessed anything other than soccer, you’ve clearly never been to Brazil.

Fortunately, I found the game streaming online. So, while last week I could watch the game but not understand anything the announcers were saying, this week I am entirely dependent upon them. Fortunately, this time they are not speaking Portuguese.

Go Hawks!

UPDATE: On second thought, I’m thrilled that I wasn’t able to see that game. Sigh. There’s always next year…

This is yesterday’s dinner. Beans, rice & meat, served with vegetables–it’s kind of standard around here. And picturesque.

This is Lorraine’s classroom. Mine looks significantly different, it being a lab. These photos were taken with our nifty new cell phone, provided by the school. And right now, I’m listening to music on it. I told you it was nifty.

Today we went with the other married couple at the school across the Lagoa Marapendi on their apartment’s little ferry (”bolsa”, which also means purse…). This is a view of Union Church (the pointy thing) and the high school building (the square thing just behind the trees) from the boat ride.

Across the lagoa is the beach! Finally!

Also across the lagoa is a great little restaurant. Lorraine got a sandwhich called “Nhoc Croc” (pronounced “nyoc croc”). It’s melted cheddar cheese mixed with shredded chicken and topped with little pik-nik potato things. It was really really good. I had a parma ham sandwich, which was also good.

On the way to and from the bolsa, there were many crabs, like this one, eyeing us suspiciously.

If anyone is particularly curious about any aspect of our lives here, let us know, and we’ll see what kind of pictures we can take.

Well, we’ve finished up our first week of teaching. So far, so good. I’m really enjoying it, which is good. The kids seem to be learning things (this week, about the scientific method), and that’s good. Jeana asked in the comments if there were any funny stories from my first day. There were not. There is no time for funny stories in my classes, for we are way, way behind. That’s what happens when you have substitutes for a full semester. Fortunately, I’m entertaining enough that they don’t seem to notice.

Of course, there was the mentos/coke explosion in 7th grade science. But that was less ‘funny’ than it was ’startling’ and ‘messy’.

Lorraine is back in her element, and is loving it. The kids here are generally bright and willing (she tells me), which is a refreshing change from the kids we had last semester. Those were generally dogs and cats.

The real test for me will be next week. All week I’ve been doing essentially the same thing with all my classes, 6th grade through 11th. It’s worked better than I had any right to expect, but now I have to move on to actually teaching different classes different things. On Monday I’ve got, in order, chemical formulas and equations, the Book of Acts, ecosystems, biochemistry, sponges and cnidarians, and landforms. Then Tuesday I have labs, which, considering my severe lack of supplies, will be a challenge. And then I have a whole new batch of things to teach on Wednesday.

And I am told that things kind of go on like that until school ends.

School has been going well. More about that soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to share our view of tonight’s sunset with you.

Tomorrow is my first day of school since I graduated from Bethel College three and a half years ago. And it’s my first day teaching since, well, ever. That is, if you don’t count counseling, mentoring or working in the writing center and science tutor lab. And I don’t count it, not really. But I think those experiences have prepared me fairly well for whatever it is I’m getting myself into tomorrow morning at 8 AM. (Earlier if you count the staff meeting, which I do.)

Now, my task is a bit harder than that of your typical new teacher, because I have absolutely no idea what in blazes these kids have been learning for the past semester. To cover myself there, I’m teaching everyone, 6th grade through 11th, the Scientific Method. I remember learning about it as a kid, but I don’t remember it being super important. Which it really is. Hopefully, I’ll be able to communicate that to them tomorrow, as well as do all the other “new teacher” stuff I’m supposed to do.

Meanwhile, Lorraine’s a veteran of all this, and is entirely unfazed by any of it. She could teach a Mongolian horde a two week unit on the Constitution and Bill of Rights at a moment’s notice, and have their warlord declare that it was his favorite class since he first learned to pillage. So she’ll be fine.

I think I’ll be fine, too, but I’ve never done this before. So what do I know?

The Seahawks, if you don’t know, are playing a playoff game right now. I had planned to listen to the game on the live radio stream, something I’ve done before. But for some reason, that wasn’t working. I tried just about everything, and had pretty much resigned myself to watching the uber-slow Yahoo Gamechannel.

But then I decided, we have “ESPN Vivo” down here, it might be on there. I might as well check, though they’re probably still running soccer, as usual.

Nope–good old American football, and the Seahawks, to boot! OF course, it’s in Portuguese, but I need to brush up on that anyway. I now know that “fumble” in Porguguese is “fumble.”

I’m looking forward to hearing the Portuguese for “destroyed by Patrick Kerney”.

UPDATE: WOOOOOOOOOOOO!! GO HAWKS!