Adventures in the Rain!

First off I would like to apologize to all my teachers for any misbehaviour during my school years. I would also like to thank each of them for all their HARD work and exhausting hours they put into lesson planning and preperation, not the mention the actual hours spent teaching.

I cannot explain how exhausted, but happy I feel at the end of each teaching day. I am enjoying each one of my students, each has a unique personality and I am loving learning how to reach them. 

I would like to share a letter I wrote to the parents of my students during my first week of school. 

Dear Parents,

Year one had an adventurous morning today as we had our first swimming lesson… in the rain. Everyone did wonderfully, finishing early because the light sprinkling of rain turned into a downpour. As you will notice when your children come home today, they are in new clothes. This is because it rained on us again as we were walking back to school.

We did our best to change them as fast as possible and keep them warm, I am praying no one catches a cold from today. Please keep an eye on your children this evening, my apologies for any inconveniences.

Those of you that provided a change of clothes, thank you. Those without clothes in their bags were provided with a set from our extra clothing bin. Please return these clothes to the school. Please also check your children’s bags for the wet items that have been sent home and replace the set of extra clothes.

I am sure your child will fill you in on all the exciting details! Please feel free to email me with an questions and I will be happy to answer them. I can promise you, at all times your children were safe, just a little wet.

Thank you,

Miss Emily Miller

I will be honest, this lovely adventure almost sent me into panic mode as I had 18 screaming, wet, running 5 and 6 year olds. I can happily laugh about it now, but when it happened I had no idea what I was going to do! 

Thankfully I have a wonderful staff that helped me regain control of my class and get everyone out of their soaking wet clothes and into something dry. 

Welcome to Year 1! More adventures to come!

Welcome To Bangladesh!

Welcome to Bangladesh!

I have arrived in the hectic city of Dhaka, after nearly 28 hours of travel. This is where I will spend my foreseeable future teaching Year 1 at Grace International School. The staff is really lovely and I have two fantastic roommates, Lauren, from Colorado and Samantha (Sam) from South Africa. (Pictures to come soon!)

I have spent the last three days meeting a ton of new people, seeing and organizing my classroom and, of course, the never ending lesson planning for the coming year. School starts tomorrow!! I cannot believe it, I do not feel at all ready, but at least my first week is planned and I really am so excited to meet my students.

It is very different living in this
area of Bangladesh with the most foreigners. In Khulna, where I was in the past, I was usually the only foreigner around. But here I can go out shopping or walk the streets with minimal stares. It is actually quite nice and I have been able to enjoy a Rickshaw (pictured below) ride between our school campuses.

My apartment is wonderful, we are on the third floor of a 6 floor building, in the DOHS (Department of Officers Housing) area of Baridara, Dhaka. It is quiet for the most part and tightly packed with buildings, as is most of Dhaka. We have four bedrooms for the three of us, a kitchen and large living area/dinning room, air conditioning and a balcony. I think it is lovely and am so happy to have a place to call my own. Niva is our Bangladeshi Aya (house helper) and she is the sweetest thing! I look forward to spending more time with her and getting to know her more.

Niva was a life saver when I arrived as one of my duffle bags had been left out in the rain at the airport and was completely soaked through! She immediately took my soaking clothes to the roof and hung them out to dry. And then 20 minutes later she took them down because it started to rain. So Niva and I got to know each other really well within a short time.

I will be posting a video of my apartment and classroom to my YouTube Vlog soon...ish, so be sure to check back for that.

Many Blessings to All,
Emily

Flying Above Bangladesh, The Land of Rivers

Rickshaw

Delays, Waiting and the Adventure Ahead

It is hard to explain the disappointment of watching your departure date come and pass without you being able to hop on the plane and head off. Well my departure date came but my passport did not. It was still at the Embassy waiting for the official visa that will allow me to work in Bangladesh. As of now, I know that I have the visa! But my passport is still in the mail. I am hoping to fly out on Monday the 4th, because of the delay I will have lost my prep week and go straight into teaching. Your prayers are greatly appreciated as I wait for my passport and prepare my lessons for when I arrive.

Even with all the uncertainty, I feel blessed to have had these few extra days with my wonderful family. I spent the last two weeks in Colorado and Idaho with both sides of my extended family. It was a great blessing to be able to see my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. You can check out my Vlog for some videos of my time cliff jumping and tubing.

Until next time!

My cousin Mariah and I having a great time in the Jeep

Cousin Tony and I getting ready to take the plunge off the cliff

Cousin Alex, He is the Craziest