Ministry included many different things this past month but we usually had a pretty set schedule.
9:30 head over to the care point (a preschool for children who can’t afford school and a place where they are given meals twice a day and other children come from after school for grief counseling and Bible lessons once a week.)
-There are two groups for the care point, the teachers and the manual laborers. I was part of the manual labor crew.
(The garden that we worked in and put a fence around.)
We had several tasks to accomplish before the month was over. We constructed a fence around the garden out of bushes that had devilish thorns on them. We planted some beetroot, spinach, and other things that are a mystery to me. Then I cut grass with a machete type thing and got a blister that killed my hand so I couldn’t participate in the digging of a pit for trash burning. Bummer We also dug up some grass that was encroaching on the playground and put in some retired tires as an extension of the jungle gym.
(The tires we put into the playground.)
12:00 we would go back to the house and make lunch. Our break was from 12-2.
At 2:00 we headed back to the care point and played with the kids until 4:00 because they were out of class and the other bunch had gotten back from school.
(Clark the human jungle gym.)
(Sunsets and bubbles)
4:00-6:00 Beth and I taught keyboard lessons
Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be teaching keyboard lessons in Swaziland. At the beginning of the month our contact told us that there were people in the church who wanted to learn the guitar and the keyboard so she asked which of our teams would be willing to teach. I was so thankful that Beth had knowledge with the piano so that we could teach together; it really did make it more bearable when you’re listening to Twinkle Twinkle for the hundred millionth time.
Our first couple of students included Tom, a man who played by ear beautifully, and a man who told us to call him “Stopper”. Tom was great but he didn’t really need lessons so he stopped coming after a few days then we were left with Stopper. He was one of those students who drove me insane. He didn’t like women telling him what to do or how to play and all he wanted was to hear about America and all the hip hop artists. He wanted to play beautiful music at his first lesson and skip over the theory of it. (Unfortunately, if you don’t play by ear you have to go through the theory of it, I would know.) Stopper pushed my patience a lot, he became forceful in his words and tone and would not listen to me when I tried to tell him differently from anything he was doing. Then, one day he stopped coming! I don’t know why, but I would still see him at church, just not at lessons. After that a new guy began coming to lessons and a woman.
The man was super nice and kind, the English language was not quite his forte and that made for some interesting lessons. In order to teach I had to change some techniques that I used to use for the kids that I taught back in the States.
- Teach the first 7 letters of the alphabet
- Teach the difference between the words “note” and “key” and “chord”
- Teach the tune to Twinkle Twinkle and Happy Birthday
- Don’t use typical teacher lingo because it isn’t part of their English vocab
At this point Beth and I decided to divide and conquer so that we weren’t both worn out by the end of the day. I took the man and she took the woman. There were moments when I wanted to pull my hair out if I heard Twinkle Twinkle or Happy Birthday one more time or I thought I’d scream if I had to explain how to find the notes again. My favorite phrase that he would use was, “Let me start afresh.” He used this phrase a lot, I mean, every time he made a mistake in a song he had to “start afresh”. It made me laugh the first few times he said it then it got to be so rote that I would begin saying it for him. He was such a sweet man that no matter how frustrated I would get he always made me smile when he would come running in because he was about 5 minutes late, sweat pouring down his face, body odor quite strong, and eyes frantic as though I was going to punish him. Our small talk would sound something like this:
Him: “How are you?”
Me: “I’m fine, how are you?”
Him: “Fine, how are you?”
I almost died laughing the first time it happened.
(My student for the month.)
So that’s something of a run down of how last month went. Enjoy the pictures!
