Joyful Moments
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 the lack of privacy here. To get to our house, we can take a shortcut up a hill by walking through people's yards. That is perfectly normal here. If you walk through someone's yard in the U.S, they would probably call the police on you if you did not know them. There have been many other instances where I would feel completely uncomfortable if I was in a certain situation in the U.S, but here it is completely normal.
There are many cultural habits that I am also beginning to catch on to. I brought a towel here for my shower towel. But no one uses towels here, and now I realize why: no matter how long or hard you scrub them on the washboard, you cannot get them to smell clean. People will take a bucket bath, and then simply rap themselves in lapa (a piece of cloth). I have begun to do this because my towel just does not smell fine, whereas a peice of lapa does not hold a smell like a towel.
As I was preparing for my time here, I had prayed continuously that God would provide a woman here to teach me how to cook and be somewhat of a "mother" figure to me. I was beginning to get impatient with God, when I met a woman named Rosetta who sometimes works at the Christian Extension Services office here. She is absolutely a joy to be around! This last week, she came over and she taught me how to make groundnut soup. This is one of my favorite dishes here. Krissy and I bought all the ingredients in the market and then Rosetta and I cooked it together. She told me that by the time I leave, I will be able to cook every common dish here! Our next endeavor will be to learn how to make potato leaf stew. I hope to invite the teachers over from the school and test out our skills of cooking groundnut soup.
Today at school, I taught my students how to play heads up seven up because we had a few minutes to spare after their spelling test. It was quite amusing to me. When I have played, the goal when you are "it" is for the person to not guess that you put their thumb down. My students seamed to think the opposite was fun! They got so excited when the person guessed correctly! Oh well. I tried to explain that it does not work like that but they seamed to enjoy the other way. There are just some things that you learn to enjoy instead of trying to teach them the "right" way to play.
We have about 25 minutes every day to play math games and right now we are learning how to write numbers in the thousands for math. I have four students come up to the board and take a piece of chalk. Then I say a number and they have to write it. The first person to write it gets a point for their team. From day one, we have practiced and practiced on how we cheer for our teammate without making a sound. We have mastered this concept for the most part. But now we are trying to learn how to not beat up our teammate if they did not win. We have been practicing how to say "nice try" instead of hitting them upside the head or punching them. Oh it is so difficult!
We are also learning as a class how to not put our trash on the floor. I have a big basket in the back of the room that is made from wire. This whole week I have been trying to get them to put their trash in the basket, rather than throwing it out the window or on the floor. In the end, the trash still ends up outside in the bushes, but at least the classroom looks more clean if it is not on the floor.
I brought a book along with me to Salone called "I knew you could." It is a children's picture book but it is all about the path that we take in life from a train's perspective. It was given to me by a dear friend of mine who I lived with for a couple years at Calvin. Four of us lived together my senior year and on the last day in our apartment, she gave this book to each of us. I decided to read it to my class and I got only a couple pages in and started crying. My mind just flooded with memories from back home. I tried to explain to my students why I was crying....and told them I would finish the book later. After reading a different book, I told them I could finish the train book and they all said "Ms. K, if you cry again, we are all going to cry too." Oh it was such a beautiful moment. It is hard to explain in words but when you cry in front of a class, you feel like a real human being. You feel broken and you feel as though you are more than just a teacher.
These little intimate moments with my class have been such high lights each day. I am beginning to get to know each one of my students more and more each day. I will run into many of them on the weekends, or walk by their home. Each one of them is just absolutely wonderful...even though sometimes they make me so mad. Today, I was walking to school in the morning and one of my students drove by with his brother on a motorbike. They stopped on the side of the road to offer me a ride the rest of the way to school. He is one of those students who just absolutely drives me crazy every day and I probably say "Dauda, turn around, or Dauda, eyes here, or Dauda this and that..." But he is so kind hearted. I have been trying so hard to point out the good things that he does in class!
Today in class, we had a long discussion about how you may only go in my closet in the classroom if I ask you to. If I do not tell you to get something from it or to put something away, you should not be in it. I then explained how earlier, I had told Dauda to put something away for me and that is why he was in the closet; only because I gave him permission. He was so proud of himself for helping me and for being honored in class for doing something right! It was so beautiful to see how his face just lit up when I recognized him. These small little things keep me going each week. Thinking of my students makes me get out of bed each morning, praying that each day the Holy Spirit would continue to fill my classroom and fill each one of my students. Every day is a struggle in the classroom, but somehow, I can look back at the end of the day and my heart is filled with joy for the little things that went right.
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 the lack of privacy here. To get to our house, we can take a shortcut up a hill by walking through people's yards. That is perfectly normal here. If you walk through someone's yard in the U.S, they would probably call the police on you if you did not know them. There have been many other instances where I would feel completely uncomfortable if I was in a certain situation in the U.S, but here it is completely normal.
There are many cultural habits that I am also beginning to catch on to. I brought a towel here for my shower towel. But no one uses towels here, and now I realize why: no matter how long or hard you scrub them on the washboard, you cannot get them to smell clean. People will take a bucket bath, and then simply rap themselves in lapa (a piece of cloth). I have begun to do this because my towel just does not smell fine, whereas a peice of lapa does not hold a smell like a towel.
As I was preparing for my time here, I had prayed continuously that God would provide a woman here to teach me how to cook and be somewhat of a "mother" figure to me. I was beginning to get impatient with God, when I met a woman named Rosetta who sometimes works at the Christian Extension Services office here. She is absolutely a joy to be around! This last week, she came over and she taught me how to make groundnut soup. This is one of my favorite dishes here. Krissy and I bought all the ingredients in the market and then Rosetta and I cooked it together. She told me that by the time I leave, I will be able to cook every common dish here! Our next endeavor will be to learn how to make potato leaf stew. I hope to invite the teachers over from the school and test out our skills of cooking groundnut soup.
 |
| three of my students! |
We have about 25 minutes every day to play math games and right now we are learning how to write numbers in the thousands for math. I have four students come up to the board and take a piece of chalk. Then I say a number and they have to write it. The first person to write it gets a point for their team. From day one, we have practiced and practiced on how we cheer for our teammate without making a sound. We have mastered this concept for the most part. But now we are trying to learn how to not beat up our teammate if they did not win. We have been practicing how to say "nice try" instead of hitting them upside the head or punching them. Oh it is so difficult!
We are also learning as a class how to not put our trash on the floor. I have a big basket in the back of the room that is made from wire. This whole week I have been trying to get them to put their trash in the basket, rather than throwing it out the window or on the floor. In the end, the trash still ends up outside in the bushes, but at least the classroom looks more clean if it is not on the floor.
I brought a book along with me to Salone called "I knew you could." It is a children's picture book but it is all about the path that we take in life from a train's perspective. It was given to me by a dear friend of mine who I lived with for a couple years at Calvin. Four of us lived together my senior year and on the last day in our apartment, she gave this book to each of us. I decided to read it to my class and I got only a couple pages in and started crying. My mind just flooded with memories from back home. I tried to explain to my students why I was crying....and told them I would finish the book later. After reading a different book, I told them I could finish the train book and they all said "Ms. K, if you cry again, we are all going to cry too." Oh it was such a beautiful moment. It is hard to explain in words but when you cry in front of a class, you feel like a real human being. You feel broken and you feel as though you are more than just a teacher.
 |
| The view on the walk home from school. It makes walking worth it! |
Today in class, we had a long discussion about how you may only go in my closet in the classroom if I ask you to. If I do not tell you to get something from it or to put something away, you should not be in it. I then explained how earlier, I had told Dauda to put something away for me and that is why he was in the closet; only because I gave him permission. He was so proud of himself for helping me and for being honored in class for doing something right! It was so beautiful to see how his face just lit up when I recognized him. These small little things keep me going each week. Thinking of my students makes me get out of bed each morning, praying that each day the Holy Spirit would continue to fill my classroom and fill each one of my students. Every day is a struggle in the classroom, but somehow, I can look back at the end of the day and my heart is filled with joy for the little things that went right.
Sarah, I love reading about your experiences! You are really bringing them to life for all of us. Thank you so much. It helps me to pray for you and your beautiful students. May God refresh you this weekend, and continue to inspire you with ways to teach the children and show them just how precious they are to Jesus.
ReplyDeleteLove and Hugs, Jane Grimes