Like I said on my first blog of this month, this certainly hasn’t been the easiest of months. It hasn’t really included a whole lot, and it’s been a pretty quiet month. But its the redundancy of boredom that can get the best of you out here. One thing Rackoco has got going for it though is its beauty.
Our average days consist of meeting by 8am to do devotionals and have breakfast at Godwin’s office. It’s a short walk, about 800 meters from where we’re staying. The office consists of a book shelf with books ranging on many subjects for grades 8-12. There are some plastic chairs and a table to eat at, and a small desk where you can often find Godwin taking care of his ministries paper work. By 9:15am we’re out the door heading to the local primary school to teach english to the 6th and 7th grade students. On tuesday last week we met with the principal there, where he arranged for us to teach 40 minutes of english each day… it usually ends up being about an hour, and is filled with laughter, acting and BIG expressions. It’s lots of fun.
After our classes finish, we head back home to clean up a bit before lunch. Then head back to Godwin’s office for lunch, (we eat every meal there). After lunch it’s the hottest part of the day, and at this time, february, it’s considered the hottest and driest part of the whole year. So we basically just sit, watch movies, or talk shop and try to escape the immobilizing heat. This last week we’ve formed the habit of walking down the street to some of the local shops, buying biscuits and Novida (a delicious lemon soda).
At around 4:30 we head down back to the elementary school to play some soccer with the local youth (18-23 yr olds) who are apart of Godwin’s soccer or “football” (as they call it here)club. They’ve really taken a liking to “stretching with Mr. Frank” because they’ve never learned stretching, plyo, jump training, or any warm up skills really. Who would have thought that God would bring me around the world to teach stretching? hmmm… Anyways, I just use my recollection of P90X, and they LOVE it!
I quickly duck out before the game starts, in an effort not to make a complete idiot of myself, and head home to bathe. The first couple days I played, and it wasn’t all that bad… but I felt like I was mostly getting in the way, so I’ve officially retired from the sport.
We go and eat supper at around 7:30 and stay at the office until some of the youth come to study and use the books available there. We help to give them study tips, and try to answer any questions they have.
It’s not that this month has been all that emotionally or physically draining, but it’s just been such a refining month. In the down time, I’ve had a lot of time to read, write, look back on life and plan ahead. It’s been a very introspective, and a much needed month. It’s been a very slow paced month, and that’s taught me much to do with patience, and listening. I’ve become a much more appreciative person this month, and really come to know the value of free time, and how to spend it. I’ve learned how to better execute self determination and discipline in getting up and running in the mornings at 6am. I’ve learned to care for the kids around me more. Not letting little things get to me, like schedule, expectations or hardship get me down.
We meet someone new everyday in Rackoco who has gone through the war. War was prevalent here from 1986, intensified in Rackoco in 2002 was climatic considering death and torture numbers in 2004 and ended in 2005. This small town we’re staying in used to be an IDP camp for over 10,000. Now only 3000 people live here, but it seems more like 200. And it always amazes me that young adults my age have lived through such horrible circumstances, can still muster up the courage to smile and wave as they try out their english on the four mzungus, (white people) staying in their village.
It’s been rough, dusty, lonely, boring, HOT, painful, dry but good month, and overall I don’t think I would have rather spent month 7 anywhere else. (maybe the heat is getting to me…hahaha)
Thanks for reading.
