School.
Teaching.
Laughing.
Tarps.
Hitting.
Jumping.
Bible.
ABC's.
Running.
Dirt.
Benches.
Chalk.
Prayer.
Bricks.
Yelling.
These words describe the past two weeks of my life. My team arrived in Entebbe, Uganda and was asked immediately to go teach at a school. I was not sure what to expect never having taught school before. I was nervous when walking up the dirt road behind the headmaster until we got to the school building. It read St. James Parent School. It holds 205 kids and only has three classrooms.
Grades 1 & 2 are taught together.
Grades 3 & 4 are taught together.
Grades 5, 6 & 7 are taught together.
Lisa and I with only some of our kids from Grade 2.
A few of the classrooms have a few benches to sit on while most of them sit on a dirty tarp on the floor. I had some chalk to use with a chalk board to write on, but my students did not have paper or hardly any pencils. Some kids did not have shoes, while all of them were consistently covered in dirt.
They are pretty much the cutest kids I have ever seen. Everyday as we showed up, the kids came running to greet us. They grab each of our hands and get down on their knees to show us respect. They bring us into the school with smiles on
their faces, laughing as they are bringing the Mzungus into their favorite place to be during the day. As Lisa and I rush all the children from grades 1 & 2 into their classroom, they do not line up. They barely make it through the door when they turn around and start saying welcome teachers, welcome teachers, welcome teachers over and over and over again. We loudly have to calm them down and ask them to sit on the tarps as they continuously fight each other to try and hold our hands. Class would finally begin once the regular teacher would come in and get the children to almost be quite by saying, "One Finger…." The kids would respond, "On my lips."
Trying to keep the kids from running out of the classroom once we got them into it.
As we began to teach, our hearts began to pour out for these children more and more. Each child was different but most of them were eager to learn whatever we taught them, whether it be about how Jesus walked on water, shapes, the ABC's, or how much Jesus truly loves them.
A kid learning how to spell simple words.
We started to learn more about where these kids came from when they started to ask us questions and when they answered ours.
The kids always had question or answers that would blow our minds. Each day the kids would come up with new questions to ask or phrases to say. When telling a little bit about my life at home, I got the question, "What is sex?" The child who asked was 5 or probably younger.
As we were going through the ABC's and the sounds that the different letters make, Lisa asked what is a word that starts with F. A kid says F@!K. Lisa and I looked at each and couldn't believe that a little boy knew that word. The next thing we knew most of the class was saying the word! All we said was, "FISH" and quickly moved onto G.
Sometimes when children make remarks like this, we think it is funny because they honestly do not know better but then when we really start to think about it… Where did they learn these terms? I started to wonder..
I asked the Headmaster, "Where do they come from?" He said, "Most of the children are from orphanages or from single parent homes that do not have the money to even feed their children." I said, "How do they afford school?" He said, "Most don't pay dues."
My heart was broken
but in a good way…..
I realized that in that moment that these children are so lucky to be able to go to a school. Even though the headmaster and his family have nothing, they offer their knowledge and love to an child that comes across their path. They are an example of the love that Christ offers to everyone. This family does not allow status or different religions/ beliefs to allow their love to stop short for any child.
This is what true love means…
Headmaster and Part of His Family.
– Photo Credit: Emili Carmichael
