Our last school year in Laos... well... it was a bummer. And that's not Laos's fault. The world blew up, and here we are.
August 2019 found me moving from my beloved EY up to Grade 5. Funny how life just gives it to you. It wasn't my top choice, but there were good reasons to do it. It was a new experience for me. I had a new team, a new partner teacher, a new to me grade level. It was all new. Except some of the kids in the class. Because I had been at the school for so long, I had known some of them since they were in EY. They were just the year ahead of Beni, so, some of them were in EY with her and were friends with her way back when.
Grade 5 kicked my ass but it also was awesome. I learned so much. I grew. Growth was my word for the year. It wasn't always easy. Sometimes it really sucked. I felt overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what expectations to have. Grade 5ers can do a lot more than EYers. My expectations had to change a lot. All the units were new to me, and so was everything else. I mean... except the being with the kids.
I can connect with kids. When it comes down to the one on one with them, that's the heart of teaching, and that's where I shine. I don't always have the right strategy or know exactly what to do one step ahead of where they're at, but, I can sit down with a kid, any kid, and I can connect. I can find out where they're at. I can ask if they need help. I can offer support in moving forward- even if I don't always know right away what that looks like. I can connect with kids and make them feel seen and heard, and hopefully add a smile and a laugh into their day.
So that was the start of the school year, and on it went. But then this virus hit. And bam, everything was different. Everything was unknown. How do we do this, what do we expect? How will the kids do it? How do we CONNECT with kids who are halfway around the world, who don't have an internet connection, who don't have support for learning at home? How do we do all of this?
My team made it happen though. And the team at home supported in a massive way. We stayed home. Everyone was at home. It was great for being able to spend more time with Johans, who was the first of my babies to have me at home for almost no time at all. That was hard. But, because of the pandemic, I was able to put the pump away and go back to nursing full time. I got to put him down for naps again and to hang out with him while I tried to work with one hand (impossible). Joel took the wheel with the other kids learning because doing Grade 5 from home was intense. We were at our computers for the whole day. If Joel hadn't been there doing literally EVERYTHING with Beni and Zintis, they would have accomplished nothing during online learning, because, I couldn't have done it. The one thing that made it so that we could do what we were doing was that we stayed in Laos. So, we all basically stuck to a 7:30-3:30 schedule more or less. I was able to walk away from my computer a bit after 3:30 and do normal things like cook and clean and be with the kids, but, it was still hard. There was ALWAYS more to do. I'm lucky for the partner I had, who was always doing more than her share without complaining because she knew I was busy with a full house. We were all exhausted by the circumstances, but, somehow we pulled everything off.
We knew our time in Laos was coming to an end. We knew Joel's green card was coming through, and we had put in our notice. But lord, we had planned to say goodbye. You know? We planned to have parties and celebrations, speeches, and toasts. We planned to see family in the region one more time before we left. Hit one more Thai beach before we left. We had so many plans. And then the pandemic ruined them all. Luckily, the pandemic didn't reach community spread in Laos, so after a few long weeks of complete isolation except to food shop, we were able to choose a small bubble of people to hang with again. So at least we got to spend some time with those we really loved. And Joel was able to go golfing again.
But, everything was still uncertain. Although Laos was going really well, there was a feeling of impending doom. There was no way to trust that things were actually ok and going to be ok. Flights were shut down. Movement in and out of the country was shut down. This complicated things for us, for needing to be able to leave as planned, when the school year ended. So when a chartered flight came up, leaving 2 weeks before school ended, I convinced Joel we needed to be on it. We had 10 days to pack up our lives and go.
People. I do not recommend packing up 9 years of life in 10 days.
It. was. hard.
But you know what happened? We did it. We made it. We had a ton of people loving us and supporting us and we made it. And good people who we paid well cleaned up after us. And we left.
It is still hard to believe we actually LEFT, and that we won't be going back.
Every once in awhile Vilnis says something like, "I wonder what Hugo is having for breakfast?" He refers to my best friend's kid, someone we used to see at least once a week if not three.
But we live in Denver now, and we're settling into our new (town)house, and adjusting to life in the USA. There is culture shock, and everything is weird because of the ongoing pandemic. But we are here. And that story continues at another time.
Grade 5 kicked my ass but it also was awesome. I learned so much. I grew. Growth was my word for the year. It wasn't always easy. Sometimes it really sucked. I felt overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what expectations to have. Grade 5ers can do a lot more than EYers. My expectations had to change a lot. All the units were new to me, and so was everything else. I mean... except the being with the kids.
I can connect with kids. When it comes down to the one on one with them, that's the heart of teaching, and that's where I shine. I don't always have the right strategy or know exactly what to do one step ahead of where they're at, but, I can sit down with a kid, any kid, and I can connect. I can find out where they're at. I can ask if they need help. I can offer support in moving forward- even if I don't always know right away what that looks like. I can connect with kids and make them feel seen and heard, and hopefully add a smile and a laugh into their day.
So that was the start of the school year, and on it went. But then this virus hit. And bam, everything was different. Everything was unknown. How do we do this, what do we expect? How will the kids do it? How do we CONNECT with kids who are halfway around the world, who don't have an internet connection, who don't have support for learning at home? How do we do all of this?
My team made it happen though. And the team at home supported in a massive way. We stayed home. Everyone was at home. It was great for being able to spend more time with Johans, who was the first of my babies to have me at home for almost no time at all. That was hard. But, because of the pandemic, I was able to put the pump away and go back to nursing full time. I got to put him down for naps again and to hang out with him while I tried to work with one hand (impossible). Joel took the wheel with the other kids learning because doing Grade 5 from home was intense. We were at our computers for the whole day. If Joel hadn't been there doing literally EVERYTHING with Beni and Zintis, they would have accomplished nothing during online learning, because, I couldn't have done it. The one thing that made it so that we could do what we were doing was that we stayed in Laos. So, we all basically stuck to a 7:30-3:30 schedule more or less. I was able to walk away from my computer a bit after 3:30 and do normal things like cook and clean and be with the kids, but, it was still hard. There was ALWAYS more to do. I'm lucky for the partner I had, who was always doing more than her share without complaining because she knew I was busy with a full house. We were all exhausted by the circumstances, but, somehow we pulled everything off.
We knew our time in Laos was coming to an end. We knew Joel's green card was coming through, and we had put in our notice. But lord, we had planned to say goodbye. You know? We planned to have parties and celebrations, speeches, and toasts. We planned to see family in the region one more time before we left. Hit one more Thai beach before we left. We had so many plans. And then the pandemic ruined them all. Luckily, the pandemic didn't reach community spread in Laos, so after a few long weeks of complete isolation except to food shop, we were able to choose a small bubble of people to hang with again. So at least we got to spend some time with those we really loved. And Joel was able to go golfing again.
But, everything was still uncertain. Although Laos was going really well, there was a feeling of impending doom. There was no way to trust that things were actually ok and going to be ok. Flights were shut down. Movement in and out of the country was shut down. This complicated things for us, for needing to be able to leave as planned, when the school year ended. So when a chartered flight came up, leaving 2 weeks before school ended, I convinced Joel we needed to be on it. We had 10 days to pack up our lives and go.
People. I do not recommend packing up 9 years of life in 10 days.
It. was. hard.
But you know what happened? We did it. We made it. We had a ton of people loving us and supporting us and we made it. And good people who we paid well cleaned up after us. And we left.
It is still hard to believe we actually LEFT, and that we won't be going back.
Every once in awhile Vilnis says something like, "I wonder what Hugo is having for breakfast?" He refers to my best friend's kid, someone we used to see at least once a week if not three.
But we live in Denver now, and we're settling into our new (town)house, and adjusting to life in the USA. There is culture shock, and everything is weird because of the ongoing pandemic. But we are here. And that story continues at another time.
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