Catch up

     Well,  the last month has been very eventful to say the least!  I met some other foreigners here near my apartment.  They work as English teachers at other schools.  So many of them I would never have gotten to know in the US as we do not hang out in the same circles.  It is so interesting how you can meet people.
      One of the people I met was a guy named Jefferson from Colorado.  He was working in a school that was very difficult to say the least.  His working conditions were very stressful.  He was one of only three teachers that spoke English at his school.  One of the other two teachers got tuberculosis.  Then there was Jeff and one other English teacher for all of the students.  Jeff got sick and ended up in the hospital.  He got sick with other symptoms and returned to the hospital.  The doctors never had a definitive diagnosis.  He was in the hospital for two weeks without anyone who spoke English and the administrators of his school were pressuring him to return to work.  When he got out of the hospital, he was restricted to his home and school by the school administrators.  He never fully recovered from his illness and eventually he decided to leave.  He left the beginning of September.
     Our school too has been going through some changes.  One of the afternoon teachers left the beginning of September and we got a new teacher.  The other foreign teacher in the afternoon finished his contract and left last week.  We have another new afternoon teacher.  The two other foreign teachers from South Africa that work in the mornings on my schedule are going to leave this Friday.  They needed to return home before their contract was finished.  I am so sad to see them go.  Now I will be the only foreign teacher at the school that will not leave within a month and a half period.  The entire dynamic of the school will change.
     We also got new students in most of my classes this past month.  I had to get their books, schedules, speeches,  etc.  They have to get used to me and I need to get used to them.  It is a challenge.  Every time I think things will settle down, they just get a bit more chaotic.
     In the morning classes, we had a field trip, to a dinosaur museum.  The students loved it.  We had a Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) celebration and break.  (I spent almost the entire break sleeping and catching up on cleaning and laundry.)  A speech competition that the mothers attended, and two days of taking photos.  This may not sound like a lot, but believe me, it was sooooooooo busy.  I tried very hard to not be stressed out.  Every time I thought that I understood the schedule and what was expected of me, it changed at the last minute, literally the last minute.
      Today I just want to cry.  Please pray for me.