¡Bienvenidos!

Hola!  Bienvenidos a mi blog.  Welcome to my blog.  I hope to use this blog as a place to share the many exciting things that are going on in my life while I am here in Guatemala.  I am so extremely thankful for the countless people in my life who have shown me love and support so abundantly through the years.  I hope that this can be a small way to return thanks and keep everyone informed with the amazing things that God is doing in my life.  If you have any questions/comments/suggestions for the blog please feel free to contact me via email at smanchester85@gmail.com.  Thanks for taking the time to visit. I hope you enjoy it.  

I thought I would start with just a little bit of information about how I got here and what I am doing while I am here.  After teaching for three years in New York, I was working with the youth ministry at Main Street Baptist Church in 2011.  In December we went on a missions trip to Nicaragua.  The leader of our trip, Mike Najjar, and I were talking about my teaching career and the possibility of me returning to it and maybe even doing so in another country.  A couple of months later he sent me a link to a job opening at the school his son was about to attend.  I applied on a bit of a whim and God pulled things together very quickly and easily for me and it was clear that I was about to change directions in my life.  In August of 2012, I flew down to Quetzaltenango to restart my teaching career.  This time in a very different location here in Guatemala.  

Working with the youth group October 2011

In Nicaragua December 2011

This week I will begin my second year as the high school Math teacher at Inter-American School (IAS) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (known locally as Xela).  We have spent the last week preparing classrooms and curriculum getting ready for students to return on Tuesday.  This will be my fifth year teaching math and I am very excited for students to return and to get back into it.  Being the only high school teacher here at IAS means that I teacher Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus.  Four separate preps was a lot to handle last year, but I am very excited to start this year with a much higher comfort level in content and preparedness.  I am hoping to spice lessons up this year and make things a little more exciting for the students.  I am always looking for and open to suggestions for fun things to do in the classroom.  

A brief update on my living situation:

Currently I am living at Casa Latina.  Casa Latina is a boarding house associated with one of the many Spanish schools in Xela.  I share an apartment with three other persons who are here studying Spanish at the school downstairs.  We each have our own bedroom but share the kitchen and bathroom.  The apartment I am is nice but I am very much ready to move out into my own apartment.  

Casa Latina from the outside

My bedroom

The bathroom

The kitchen

There is much more information to fill you all in on but I just wanted to start by giving a brief update and thank you to everyone who has supported me.  My family, friends, and everyone at Main Street Baptist Church who have supported me and poured so much into me over the years.  Thank you so much for encouraging, counseling, and guiding me through everything over the years.  There is absolutely no chance I would have made it here without all of your love and support.  Thank you.  

One of the best ways that you can continue to support me while I am here is through prayer.  There are so many things that I can use prayer for.  Here are just a few:

- focus in preparation for school

- renewed and newly established relationships with my students

-pray for the staff/students of the school

- a new apartment

There is so much more that I look forward to sharing with you over the coming months.  Stay tuned for more soon.  Thanks for stopping by, but mostly, stay classy.