So we made it to Nepal, and it has already outdone itself in proclaiming its beauty, uniqueness, generosity, and open-heart to the epic Gap Year Squad H (that’s us). We have been here less than a month, but it only took a a day for us all to basically become infatuated with this country. Though we are not in Rwanda anymore, there is still much to be said about our little African country!
There are a lot of things I miss about Rwanda that I didn’t expect to miss, like being invited over to our students’ hut for tea after class, and then being handed a baby goat instead of tea. Our host sisters were the absolute sweetest to us all and we laughed and loved with them. I miss there smile and hugs and friendship, but I know their mom and dad will take great care of them. Speaking of. Papa Fred, oh Papa Fred, I miss you. He became like our dad in a matter of days, always watching out for us, listening to us, and treating us like his own family. As annoying as it sometimes was, I miss people looking at us and yelling “muzungu” because we are white. I miss the kids running to us every time we left our house! I even miss taking moto taxi rides and pretty much fearing for my life every time we rode. I honestly don’t know why I miss that. I guess the thrill of it was pretty fun in the moment 🙂
The first thing I think of when I think of Rwanda is teaching, and I think I miss teaching and my students the most. I learned to love creating lesson plans in the back of the truck on the way there, making everything up as I went, playing word games, yelling “good morning”, and seeing how much they were learning. That was the best part; watching them “get it” and grow and knowing the power of language was going to change the outcome of their future in some way. The endless cycle of poverty had a chance to be broken with words. By learning English, our kids will be better equipped to excel in school and for their jobs in the future.
I don’t say this to focus on all the work I did or make myself sound like some white missionary savior, because trust me, that’s the last thing I want to be, but I say this because I believe that God is going to honor the work we did and our hearts here. I know that Jesus asks us to plant seeds, not save the world. He asks us to simply love Him, love others, make disciples and love yourself (thanks for that add on of the last one there, Jessica Hart). Just like the parable of the talons, or bags of money, in Mathew 25, Jesus doesn’t want us to bury our gifts. He wants us to multiply them! So I have completely given up the mindset of “what I am doing is not making a difference” because I know that when I give what I have in love and with an open heart, there is no way the Lord is not going to multiply and bless that. I gave what I had to those kids: my encouragement, smile, affection, pens, paper, time, and my words. My language. I gave, and even though I might not ever see the full repercussions of it, I know that it is going to make a huge difference in their lives.
One of my favorite days was about a week into teaching. We were practicing simple sentences: my name is… I am from… My favorite sport is… etc. Just the basics. One of my favorite students, Jessica, was presenting her “report”. “My favorite person is… Teacher Lina.” My favorite person is Teacher Lina. Oh! That’s me!. I’m her favorite person? What? After her, the other students tagged along and also repeated that their favorite person was their English teacher, Teacher Lina, this American girl who pretends she is qualified to teach, this girl who has no idea what she is doing but does it with her whole heart and gives all she has to these 7 students. After one week, she became their favorite person. Jessica and the rest of my students: Thank you. Im honored. (Side note- To all the haters of the nickname “Lina” for me, get over it. Try introducing yourself as “Michelina” 48,000 times to small African children or really just foreigners in general. I’ve realized Lina is a good compromise).
Now. About teaching in general. Though I never expected it, I really did like it. Seeing how far the grew over those 2 months was awesome, and now I finally understand why my teachers in high school had such a passion for their jobs. They would come to class and before we began the actual learning part would ask about our weekends, our days, our opinions, or even tell us about their own lives. Wait… teachers go grocery shopping too?? They even like… get annoyed at bad drivers and use their iphones and see movies, just like us??? Hm. Who would have thought…
So, to all my teachers who have treated me like an actual human being, who have treated me like I actually have interests, original thoughts, aspirations, or who stopped to consider the fact that I might have other things in my life that are affecting me more than a vocabulary assignment, thank you. Thank you so, so much! You made high school bearable and sometimes even fun. Thank you for being so excited about the World Race, for even financially supporting me, and for reading my blogs and following up! Mrs. Klingback, I thought back to the unique ways you taught us French and used many of them so teach my own students English. Even dictes. Yes, I even made them do dictes! Mrs. Burne, Mr. Figueria (after an entire year of being in your class and writing it countless times on AP test stuff, I’m still not sure how to spell it), Mrs. Davidson, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Banger, Mr. Whitehead, and all the other teachers who have been rock solid, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I can’t thank you enough. And of course, Mr. Cowart and Mr. Nelson. You all are incredible and have influenced more lives than you even know with your love, patience, intentionality, and joy for teaching! You are changing Mt. Spokane High School, Spokane, Washington, and the world. You’re impacting lives. Keep on keepin’ on.
Though I don’t see my life calling as being a teacher, I have a new appreciation for it. Teachers of the world, unite.
Regarding the blog writing and keeping in touch in general, I’m sorry. I really am. I realize that I don’t blog, facetime or post as much as I should. Wifi is difficult to get, and time as always been my enemy of sorts, and when there are a thousand things that I dub “more important”, keeping in touch often gets pushed to the back burner. It comes after ministry that day, after team time, after time with the Lord, after working out and being good to my body, after cooking food, after taking a few minutes to decompress, after spending time with our ministry host family, after spending quality time with friends and getting to know new people. It’s also much easier to stay present here when I am not constantly keeping up with my people back home. So, I want to again apologize, but also thank you all so much for never being upset when I can’t talk or when I don’t reply to things for weeks at a time. Thank you for being understanding in general. Thank you for loving the things that I DO post and always leaving comments; I absolutely love them! I am so encouraged when you all take the time to read my blogs and novels-of-facebook posts. Please keep leaving comments and sending me emails ([email protected]) if you want. I love to read them and I love feeling so incredibly supported! Thank you all for everything. As always, more blogs coming soon, and as always, I love you guys.
