What's Been Goin' On?

Here are some of the new things that have been happening...

New Classes:
I have started teaching or helping with some new classes.  We divided our evening group classes into Beginner 1 and Beginner 2 to accommodate for different levels of English.  I teach the Beginner 1 class on Monday nights and Peter and Angela teach the Beginner 2 class on Tuesday nights.  We cancelled the class on Wednesday nights because there had been pretty low turnout on Wednesdays.  The Monday and Tuesday classes have been going very well though.  In the Monday class we usually have about 10 students.  We've also started reading some simple stories from the Bible to apply the English they've been learning.
I also help with lessons that Emily has been teaching at a preschool nearby.  Emily, Jessica, and I go to a 3 yr old class and a 4 yr old class for about 45 min each every Tuesday.  It is incredibly fun (all the kids remind of the little boy in 'Life is Beautiful') and it gets us more involved with the community here in Scandicci.
Also on Tuesday, I teach a class of three 12 yr old boys.  That's been fun but I'm trying to think of ways to make it more interesting for them so they don't get bored.

Friday Night Activities:
Last semester we had several events for our students here at the Bible School.  This semester we've started doing events like this more often.  Every Friday we will host a different activity to teach English and to get to know our students better.  The first Friday of every month we will have an English movie night.  The second Friday will be an American cooking school: teaching them how to make American food.  The third Friday will be game night and the fourth will be a book club.  Emily and I are responsible for book club.  This semester we will be reading The Pearl by John Steinbeck.  We already have about 10 students signed up to participate.

Physical Friday:

Coffee break during a physical Friday at the Bible School

We have had a couple of pretty productive physical Fridays.  A few weeks ago we saved the church a few hundred euro by trimming some trees ourselves.  Behind the church building there is a small patio with 3 very tall palm trees.  The neighbors in the apartment next to the church asked that we trim the tree because the palm fronds were falling into their parking lot.  You may never have considered it, but trimming palm trees is difficult.  David had to set up scaffolding under the tree so that he could reach the leaves.  You may also be unaware that palm leaves become tiny spears as they die.  Almost everyone accidentally stabbed themselves at some point.  Of all the injuries, Ermenita had the worst.  A branch fell from the tree and kit her leg.  The spike on the end went through her pants and got stuck in her leg badly enough that Mario took her to the hospital.  They gave her tetanus shots and she had to have stitches where they cut the spike out.  Apparently these trees are supposed to be trimmed every few months and some of the church members want to get rid of them (I think I would support that decision).

Ryan got the task of cutting the bars out of the window

The week after that we did some work around the Bible School.  College Church is buying us a new washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator (Thank you!) and we had to clear out space for the new appliances.  Part of this work included removing a cabinet and a door frame, and cutting the bars covering the window to the laundry room (the dryer won't fit through the door so it's coming in through the window).  It was quite an eventful day.



I hope to write more again soon!