My Good News

I got an early Christmas Present this year. Right before I left Lima I signed a contract for a job as a Teaching Assistant at an International School in Lima.

A problem a lot of foreigners have who want to stay here in Lima is getting residency. As an American, I can enter the country and stay up to six months on what is called a tourist visa. For anything beyond that, well, you have to do something. A lot of people used to do something called "border hopping." After living in the country for six months, you leave the country for the weekend and when you come back you can stay another six months.

Problem with this is you don't get the benefits of having residency. Like the ability to have a bank account, a cell phone plan, etc. Also, if you leave the country and you have overstayed your visa, you have to pay a fine for everyday you stay.

What a lot of foreigners want is a work permit. However these are very hard to obtain. First, it's very expensive for companies to sponsor foreigners. They have to pay more in taxes. Second, when a company sponsors you for a work permit, the are also saying they will be responsible for your personal conduct. So if I get in jail, or rack up a ton of credit card debt, the company is responsible. Hence a lot of work places don't want to hire foreigners.

The Peruvian State Education system is pretty bad that it is not uncommon at all for people to send their children to private schools. They are all over the place. And not all private schools are made the same. There is some status involved with how expensive they are to attend.

Awhile back some schools were set up for children of foreign families. For example, the most expensive school in all of Lima is the Franklin D. Roosevelt school. It's a school set up for children of Americans living in Lima. So the school system is based on the American Education system and the schedule runs the same as they do in the United States. Americans who work for the embassy that have kids, or mission presidents with children, all send their kids to that school. And of course, all the classes are taught in English.

After awhile wealthy Peruvians realized that if they sent their kids to school there, they would learn english. So now the student population at these schools are about half Peruvian even though they were set up for British or American families.

I will be working at a school set up for British Nationals living in Lima. It's based on the British Education system and it is the second most expensive school in all of Lima. It's one of those places when I tell people where I work their eyes open wide and say, "Oh, that's a good school." In reality, I think part of it is just that it has a lot of money.

Back in November when I was home, I saw an advertisement for the school looking for Teaching Assistants. I went ahead and applied and they called me for an interview when I got back to Lima. When they asked me what I had heard about the school, I said I worked for a tutoring company where the director was British and she had told me a bit about it. They asked her name and it turned out they knew her and her kids went to that school. She had to give me a reference and she must have given me a good one because they hired me.

Great and all as it has been, there has been one main reason I was hired at the tutoring, which led to be hired at the school.

It was because I had served in primary.

I mean really, what else could I put on my resume other than I had been a Sunday School teacher for 6 years, teaching kids ages 6-16. I must like them if I chose to be around them, and I had some clue about teaching. I definitely had experience with classroom management, dealing with different personalities, and as one person stated overall, it just showed what sort of person I was.

It is a great thing, and huge blessing. Best part of all, I get to stay in the country. In a way though, I wasn't surprised. Right before I left John Chipman gave me a blessing and told me I would find "meaningful employment."

School doesn't start till the middle of February. Until then it will be a process to get my paperwork done. But I'm just working for the tutoring company until then. Best part is the school gives breaks. So if anyone wants to come visit, let me know.