The first day at Clinton School was horrible. I do mean, horrible! We teach there for two half days. I teach classes 1-4 and Megan is with the 4, 5, and 6 year olds. We go in at 11:00 and are there until the end of the day at 3:30. By 12:30 on my first day when it was time for "teacher's snack", aka teachers leave their class unattended and go have lunch, I was nearly in tears. In one class, the teacher just took over what I was teaching and I was left standing there and was thinking,"ok, so why am I here?" It was very discouraging! After lunch it got better though because I had classes 3 and 4 and they were really sweet!
The second day at Clinton School was better. I woke up and had a talk with FATHER and it pretty much went like this, "Ok, I know that you have directed our path to do your work in this school but you know my heart and you know that I do not want to go back there so please, FATHER, please give me your joy today!" Well, He did just that! It was a great day! I felt like the students were listening to me...even in the youngest classes, and they were really sweet to me! I found myself smiling naturally the entire day...not forcing it like the first day!! I know that it will be very hard to leave those kids when it is time to come home. I posted some pictures on my facebook so you can see how precious they are! (Clinton School kids wear pink shirts and plaid pants/skirts.)
Today we went for our one half day a week to Mt. Summit. We're trying not to spend all of our time in the schools because our project is reaching women in the community. However, we're able to build relationships with teachers here and so we feel that 3 half days a week is a good way to use our time. At Mt. Summit, they did not give us any curriculum to go by and it's pretty much just us flying by the seat of our pants. We were a little nervous going in today because we had no clue what we were going to teach but when we arrived, the headmaster told us that the classes were doing Unit tests today and so we would be with the little children. Boy were we in trouble and we didn't even know it!!
We went into this class and the teacher only speaks the Native language, very very little English. There were about 14 children in the class and they were from the ages of, I'd say, 2-6. There were some that seemed to be barely two and then "Sara's" son is in there, too and he's six. My first thought is, "wow, I can't believe they have so many different aged kids in one class." So we tried to tell the teacher with very limited English that she can do whatever she usually does in the class and we will just help her. And so we waited. And we waited. And we waited. The children grew out of control. They were all running around the room, playing rambunctiously while the teacher sat in the floor writing in their notebooks. There was one little girl, we'll call her "Pam", that was crying from the moment we got there and the teacher couldn't set her down to do anything. Well, all of a sudden, Pam was standing there where the teacher had sat her down and she stopped crying and came over and plopped down in my lap. She became very protective of me and would literally punch any kid that came near me for the rest of the day. There were times when she would get up to run with the other kids but if she saw any of them playing with me, she would come over and punch them and she even pulled my hair one time!!
These kids were crazy! There was one little girl that was the ultimate wanna be cage fighter! She had on pants instead of a skirt, her tie was loosened by the amount of fighting she had been involved even before we got there, hair tied back in a ponytail and she had a wristwatch on. Why in the world a 3 year old needs a wristwatch, I have no clue! I saw this girl drop kick at least 4 kids in a 5 min. setting! It was wild! We kept trying to tell them "no, be sweet" but they had no idea what we were saying. I felt bad even telling them "no" because it was not our class, we're not in America and that is not our turf, it's not our place to discipline these kids but it's like, what do you do when they're beating the crap out of each other?? At one point, another class of the same wide range aged kids came and joined us. There were like 30 kids in this tiny room at this point and I found myself just sitting there watching and taking it all in! The teachers just laughed as children were beating each other. For the first time in my life, I found myself thinking, "This kid needs a time out!!" It was nuts!!
Well, outside of work in schools, Megan has made friends with some girls here whose dad owns a store in town. We've been visiting them some and are going to a nearby town outside of here where "all the monkeys are" on Saturday. We've been told that if we take any bags, to hold them close to us because the monkeys will run up and grab them. "Sara" may join us but if not, we've already told her that we'll be back in time for lunch at her house on Saturday. I'm really excited about that too because every day I ASK FATHER to prompt me with His H.S. in His timing when I should share the new story I learned. I feel confident that Saturday will be the day.
We go by and visit her in her shop every day and I just LOVE her and LOVE spending time with her! She is so dear to my heart!! We recently found out that she is BEAST at volleyball! That is no exaggeration! We went with her yesterday to pick up her son from school and she began playing with some people there. She told me on the way home that she used to play in college in a country east of here. I was floored! I had no clue! haha! It was so great watching her enjoy herself because she is just sooo busy and bogged down with taking care of her son and the shop. One day this week, she went to lunch with us at a cafe that we enjoy. It serves pretty good pizza and so me and Megan like to go there some. Sara tried a piece of our pizza and really liked it! She really enjoyed going with us for lunch and it just blessed my heart to be able to spend more time with her and love on her a little more!! I can't tell you how sad it will be when I leave. She asks me time and time again if I'll come back some day. I tell her that I can't make promises. I've told her how I'll be graduating soon and have no idea where I'll be going after that. It breaks my heart when she laughs and says,"oh you'll go home and forget all about me!" That could never happen! I have her email address and I intend to keep in touch with her when I leave.
That is about all that has gone on this week. Lots of tea in Sara's shop and lots of just spending time with her, teaching in the schools, and trying to meet knew lady friends that speak English. Thank you so much for your constant love and support! I truly cherish your THOUGHTS! Keep them coming!!! Check out the new pics I posted on facebook!! Please remember SAFE words in your photo comments, wall posts and emails.
<3 C
No comments:
Post a Comment