Our International Colleagues

Hello Classmates!
I am excited about this blog assignment.  It gave me the opportunity to reach out to two friends from college that are now teaching preschool at orphanages in Guatemala and Thailand.  I am excited to share with you their experiences in early childhood in those countries and inspired by their commitment to their kids.  I reached out to both of them on Facebook this week and they are also excited to share with us, but incredibly busy.  Hopefully I'll get some awesome nuggets from them through the weeks.  My friend, Becca, is teaching at the bilingual school sponsored by More than Compassion (http://morethancompassion.org/), an organization started by a classmate of mine in college.  She is loving her position and currently fundraising to stay another year to teach with her husband in Huehue, Guatemala (https://www.youcaring.com/brooklin-becca-nash-424253).  I know much less about the background for Cristina, my friend teaching in Thailand.  I am excited to learn what her experience has been.

The website I have chosen to study is the International Child Resource Institute (http://www.icrichild.org/).  This organization is committed to helping families and children reach their potential by focusing efforts on early childhood care and education, maternal and child health, children's rights, grassroots community development, and empowerment of women and girls.  I am excited to learn more about the organization, their projects, and the motivation behind their concentrated efforts.

Finally, I wanted to share an awesome, if only slightly related article with you.  This came up on my facebook, and I can't help but share.  Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, is opening a K-12 private school in the San Francisco area that is going to function in constant partnership with a health care clinic.  The school is designed for children coming from low income families and will be free of charge for the students.  They will get healthcare alongside their education.  For some families, the healthcare benefits might start as early as prenatal care.  What a cool and well rounded program!  I only wish that someone from our program had helped educate Zuckerberg on the benefits of quality preschool education and encouraged him to offer his services to children even younger!

I am so looking forward to hearing the connections you each make!

Amy

My Supports

     There are so many supports for which I am grateful and on which I rely on every day.  They run the gamut from physical to practical to emotional.  Here are a couple of both whimsical and serious supports that are particularly important to me at the moment.

My morning coffee is incredibly important to me.  While the caffeine gives me an important jolt, what is more important to me is the ritual.  Every morning, the first thing I do is turn on the coffee pot.  Then as I settle in at my vanity to get ready for the morning, I sip my coffee and enjoy the process of waking up.

Bob.  Oh how Bob supports me!  For my birthday, my husband bought me a robotic vacuum (a bobSweep).  Bob helps me keep my house in order.  You know that feeling when your floor is covered in grit and therefore, your whole life must be out of control?  Bob helps me avoid that feeling.  In the evenings, I just turn him on, let him clean my floors, and often times, boss him around a little as he works.

My husband is of course my greatest support.  Even just a text or an imagined conversation with him can be comforting to me as I face challenges or disappointments.  He is my biggest cheerleader and my most important sounding board.  He understands what is important to me, believes in what I believe in, and knows exactly how to speak into my heart.  He supports me physically when I am ill, mentally when I am unsure,  and emotionally when I am discouraged.  Last night, for example, I was feeling under the weather and he could tell, so he kicked into Mr. Mom mode and took care of dinner, the dishes, helping me get ready for bed, and then, instead of studying late into the night like he needed to, he went to sleep beside me because he could tell I needed him there.  It meant a busy, early morning for him, but he knew I needed the support and offered it without hesitation.

     Supports like these could see me through any number of challenges. In fact, they already have. My routine comforts like coffee or a clean home and the love and encouragement of my husband have seen me through huge transitions like graduating college, moving across the country, multiple job changes, starting a masters, and losing two grandparents. My support system is what has kept me sane and maintained normalcy through periods of transition I cannot even imagine life without my supports!