Bridging Culture. Working Together.

Before I begin, I want you to know that I am making some generalizations in some of my statements below that do not apply to everyone or everything.  These are only my thoughts and reflections and I have much more to learn! Something that has been on my mind lately is the word suffering. Often, while walking down the street in Sierra Leone or in Ghana, you will see people in the road, selling water, plantain chips, biscuits, phone credit, and much more.  You can almost buy anything you need from a car window.  But, I often find myself thinking "their job must be miserable."  Standing out in the hot blazing sun all day, walking in and out of rows of cars every time the light is red, trying to make a small living.  Some would look at these people and say they are suffering.  It is easy for even myself to think these people must be suffering if this is what they must do to earn a living.  But the street sellers on the street might look at someone who is paralyzed and begging o

I spent the last two days of school with almost no sleep, writing out 42 report cards, under candlelight, for the first term marks for Class III.   I never fully understood the blessing of technology until now.   In the U.S School system, you do not have to calculate your students’ marks by hand, the computer will do everything for you.   You can enter their attendance on the computer instead of by hand.   Technology of course has its downfalls too, but looking at it from this perspective, it could make the school system here much more efficient and effective.   I have made a template on Microsoft Excel where the teachers can enter   their marks for all 13 of the subjects for each student for each exam.   I am now working on teaching a few of them how to enter their marks and enter the formulas to calculate the total and average marks for each exam.   If we can master this, it could save them so much time and effort.   It will take time to learn the computer, seeing as many

The wife of a teacher who teaches class five just had a little baby boy.  The staff at CRC school decided to put in some money towards a gift for the family.  Today after school, the staff went over to the house to give the gift to the family and to pray over the child.  When I arrived with several of the other teachers, Mohamed brought out his little baby son.  As he was standing in front of me with his child, I proceeded to ask "may I hold him?" Apparently that was quite a funny question to ask because all the other teachers laughed at my question and proceeded to explain how no one asks that question in Salon.  People will just give you their children to hold.  I love it!  There have been several instances in the U.S where I have asked to hold someone's baby and have been rejected every time.  At church here, I probably end up having a child on my lap at least half of the service. Something that I have begun to appreciate and I might soon miss from the States is th

I learned the song on the left at a teacher's workshop and I absolutely loved it so I decided to see how my students would respond.  It has been quite a hit.  I taught it to them on Monday and since then we sing it every morning and also after lunch.  On Thursday at school, my professor came to the school to visit and came into my class to hand out pencils, erasers, rulers, and notebooks that had been donated.  My students suggested that we sing the song for the headmaster, and Dr. Jo my professor.  As they were singing, my heart was filled with joy and I just could not help but smile and get a little teary eyed!  It was so beautiful to see how delighted each student was.  Then Dr. Jo wanted to take a picture of the class.  I then had them stand up by row and line up at the back of the room for the photo.  This also was quite an accomplishment!  The headmaster could not believe that I got them to stand up by row and line up.   Some of my 43 students! The way in which we see

Allah Tanto means to a certain extent "praise God."  It is the first word I learned in Kuronko.  One of the guards at the house we are staying at has insisted that I learn Kuronko.  I told him that I must learn Krio first but he doesn't seam to listen. Whenever someone asks how you are doing, how you slept, how your work is, you reply with this phrase.  No matter how hard the school day was, or how tired I was, or how frustrating the students were, you simply praise God.  What an amazing way to look at life. Tuesday was the first day of school.  A day I had anticipated for a long time but had no idea what to expect.  I am teaching class three (3rd grade), full of 39 energetic Salone students.  I think one more is coming on Monday so I should have an even number of 40.  For those teachers out there, an even number is always better. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures to show yet because I do not dare take out my camera.  I will lose complete control of the class if

Small Small.  A Krio word that is used for everything.  Whether you are telling an Okada (motorcycle taxi) Driver that you are near your destination or you are talking about the portion of food you would like.  But to me it also means small steps. As I am preparing for the first day of school tomorrow, I have struggled with taking small steps.  Education is done completely different here.  The teaching pedagogy is old school.  The teacher lectures, the students copy, and a test is given.  This goes for all grade levels.  As I have my first day of teaching class 3 tomorrow, I have struggled with finding a balance of the methods used here and the way I have been taught how to teach.  I cannot simply come into the classroom and expect the students to be able to work in a group because students do not know how to work in a group in a classroom setting.  I have to remind myself to go small small. I have already uncovered many differences between the way education is done here and the wa

I got the opportunity to go to Nicaragua for 10 days to be a bridesmaid in a wedding for two very good friends from Calvin.   We had the opportunity to travel around after the wedding for about five days with our friend’s brother who grew up in Nicaragua.   We spent three days on the island of Ometepe and one of those days we decided to climb the volcano, Maderas.   The family we stayed with asked a friend to drive us to the volcano in the back of their pick up truck (Something I was so excited to do because you can’t do that in the states!).   After getting lost down the mountain, running out of water, and ending up on the wrong side of the volcano, we finally found the pick up truck to take us home.   As we were driving home, I was asked the question, “do you think this trip to Nicaragua is preparing you for your time in Sierra Leone?”   Since asked that question, I have been thinking about how God has prepared me to go.   Last summer, I had the opportunity to go teach in Ko

My junior year at Calvin, I moved into Eastown with a group of girls.  As the year went by, the difficulties of paying rent, buying groceries, and putting gas in my 1994 Buick Century were adding up quickly.  The money I made at work was barely enough to get by each month provided no extra costs came up. In January, I took my car to get an oil change only to find out that there were $400 worth of "serious" issues with my car.  At this point, I had no money left in my bank account.  As some of you may know I tend to think I am an independent person and I could not ask my parents for money to fix my car. So, instead I let it build up until I cracked.  A friend and I were catching up over lunch and when he asks the question "how are you doing?"  it really means "how are you really doing deep down inside?" I proceeded to give a long speech about how my car was now working and I had no money to fix it.   He sat patiently and listened as I cried and cried, o

Beloved.  Dearly Loved.  A word tattooed on my heart by my God, my Father, my Bridegroom.   When we fall completely in love with our Savior, He will delight over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with joyful song.  (Zephaniah 3:17)  This is the most important lesson that I have learned in my four years at Calvin College.  I have chosen to follow his plans for my life and to trust completely in him.  This has brought me on adventures I never would have dreamed of; teaching English in Korea, teaching in Honduras for a month, and creating relationships with many young students in Grand Rapids Public Schools.  One of these upcoming adventures in his plan for me is to go to Sierra Leone in the fall for one year.  In my years before coming to Calvin, I thought about everything but being a teacher: an engineer, a nurse, a brain surgeon, and even a hairdresser.  But after my first year at Calvin, I realized how much I missed the sheer presenc