This morning I woke up a little after 6 am. The sun was just peaking up over the banana
trees. Perfect timing. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and
had some quiet time with Jesus. About
7:30 “Mama� brought out our breakfast of bread, milk tea, medium fat spread,
bananas and some hot water so that I can make coffee in my French press. About 8:15 rolls around, and we need to start
heading out the door for our 25 minute walk to the school.
We arrive at the school and are almost immediately mobbed
with hugs and shouts of “Muzungu!� (white person). They were quite rambunctious today. We split up into 3 groups to go attempt to
teach English, play games and sing songs to 3 �” 6 year old Rwandan
children. Elizabeth and I go into the
middle class to try and sing songs with the kids. Their regular teacher wasn’t there so another
woman was filling in. It took us about
half of our allotted time to get the children settled down and part way paying
attention. We left the classroom pretty
frustrated and went next door to the oldest class of 6 year olds.
Classroom for the 3 year olds
We walk in to find a perfectly well behaved classroom who
greets us with “GOOD MORNING TEA-CHA!�
We immediately feel the peace in contrast to the chaos that we’ve just
come from. We begin to teach them songs
and sing with them. They were so
adorably cute! Elizabeth had them fully
occupied so I decided to go over to the youngest classroom with the 3 year olds
because Daniela was alone. They weren’t
quite as out of control as the middle class, but she needed some help so I stayed
in there with her.
School Children – Check out those adorable ties!
I helped her with “games,� and then when we switched out
again I just stayed in there with Elizabeth for our third and final rotation of
the morning. Trying to keep thirty 3 year olds
occupied for more than 5 minutes is quite the challenge. Throw in a huge language barrier with no
translator, and get ready to have some fun!
It’s those times when you just have to give it your all and find some
sort of joy and peace in what seems like utter chaos and frustration. I was encouraged by 3 or 4 kids who seemed to
actually be paying attention. Their
bright, white smiles just shone with joy, and that warmed my heart.
The School
We played the thankful game as we walked home to refocus on
all of the good things in our lives.
It’s amazing what that can do for your attitude. Suddenly, you don’t really have anything to
complain about, and you see just how much God has blessed you.
A few of us went to the market on the way home and ended up
having some fun and making some neat purchases.
I wanted to buy a chitengi (basically a piece of material that you wrap
around yourself and wear as a skirt) and finally, after much deliberation and
miscommunications, I proudly walked away with my lovely new green chitengi. I paid 3,500 Franks which is about 6
USD. Not too bad. All three of us were thrilled with our new
purchases and headed over to the produce section of the market. There was fresh fruit and vegetables in
abundance being sold by the smiling locals.
Some of them won’t allow you take their picture, but his lovely lady did.
I bought a huge avocado (100 Franks) and a pineapple (300
Franks). Less than a buck! We had such a fun time trying to communicate
with the locals. They had fun watching
us too and didn’t even try to hide their smiles and giggles as they watch us Muzungus
shop. We left in such a great mood.
As we were walking home I decided to try and balance my
pineapple on top of my head. I mean,
while in Africa, why not try to fit in as much as possible right?! I actually succeeded at this briefly and
received cheers from local onlookers. It
pretty much made my morning. All of
this and it’s not even noon yet!
“The LORD says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.’ “
Psalm 32:4
