Day 7- Out in the elements

What can I say??? I'm a  strugg-ler at the moment.  JT is sick.  Still.  Haven't had a full night's sleep in 2 weeks.  I know, I know.  Quit my moaning and groaning right?  "You're a mom. That's life."  I KNOW.  Did I mention that I haven't been getting enough sleep?  I need sleep. Ask my husband. He wishes I were getting more sleep too.  You only have to listen to me on the blog a time or 2 a week.  He has to listen to me every-stinkin-day.  He's over it.  Honestly, so am I.  Now I'm getting sick.  We're going to the dr. tomorrow.  Did you read my last post about what happened last time I took JT to the dr ??? Let's all have a moment of silence and pray for my day tomorrow.  It's a rare day off...praise the Lord...God bless Dr. Martin Luther King...May God rest his soul...Amen.  I NEED this day off and I prefer for it to be a drama free and vomit free day. Seriously, let's pause.

And all God's people said...AMEN.

Ok.  I'm better now.

Day 7-
On day 7 I was able to visit my next school.  I had been expecting the same set up as I had seen in the days before.  I was a bit surprised when we pulled up to the school.  This school was how shall I say this...out in the elements.  There was no wall or gate around the school.  It was smack dab out in the middle of the neighborhood, area, region, slum.  Whatever you want to call it.  I will admit my first thought was, "Will we be safe?"  I definitely paid more attention to my surroundings (my Dad and Pawpaw taught me well).  I stepped off of the the bus and to my surprise I didn't feel scared.  Remember- I am a very fearful person.  My fears have kept me from doing many things in life.  I had peace.  Thanks God, Big Man Upstairs, Supreme One, Holy On High, Sir, Dude, Mr. Boss Man. 

The neighbors stared but they smiled too.  The kids were ecstatic!  We were the entertainment for the day and we were blessed. 

The school was a house (a completed house) and the windows had bars but the actual windows were open for air. And flies.  I had to mention those.  I'll tell you more later.  Children from the "neighborhood" (again, I use that term loosely) who were not students would come and watch through the bars on the windows.

Again, I was very impressed with how the teachers were applying everything they learned in training.  I need a whole post just about all of the teachers.  Wait...I think I did a few of those in the beginning.   They are AMAZING!  They do what they do everyday with nothing because they have been given servants hearts.  Their reward will be in Heaven.


One of the other American teachers sponsors a girl in the school.  When we arrived she was disappointed because the girl was not there.  We received word that she had stopped coming.  It was a bit discouraging.  Another student took the "administrator" to where the girl was staying.  Remember...no streets, no house numbers, no organized neighborhoods, no rhyme, no reason, only word of mouth. That's how they navigate 'round those parts. Ironic,  I just taught my kids a lesson today on how to use a compass rose and streets to find things.  Another reminder of how lessons are not universal.  There's a whole other world out there. 


They ended up finding the girl and bringing her to school.  As soon as she walked in you could see it.  Her head was low, there was a heavy weight around her.  She DID NOT want to be there.  She was virtually silent.  She would not make eye contact.  I don't know her full story but try to imagine all of the atrocities I have told you all about.  Any one of those things would be enough to shake a persons soul.  Was it Satan with a grip???  I'm not sure.  It was painful to see.  Physically she was there but truly, she was NOT there.  She was a teenager so I tried to think of teenagers here in the States.  What teenager wants to go to school???  Maybe school was just as much a drag for her.  I reviewed my surroundings.  I had to be honest with myself.  There was no sugar coating it.  One look at her and I knew she was fighting many battles inside.  I wonder about her.  What happened to her.  If she has been to school since that day. If she knows Christ. I didn't take a photo.  It didn't feel right.


We continued on with our testing for the day and unfortunately it wasn't much different than the day before.  The ability to read was a luxury.  One of the things I liked most about the testing was that I got to put a face with the name.  I got to conversate with the kids.  Well, kinda.  Some of them weren't exactly prepared to talk to the red head from Texas who talked real fast and smiled way to much. I can be a bit overwhelming.  I get it.  Someone was excited to talk to me.  Guess what her name was???  Her name was Kate and she smiled like me.  I told her my daughters name was Kate and she hugged me and said she wished she was my Kate.  Sniffle. Tear.  I wish she was too.  I could have 2 Kate's in the same house.  I mean come on...it's not like they would have the same name and be twins. I don't think it would be too confusing.

I also got to teach some lessons.  This was a challenging day for me as a teacher.  I was stretched mentally.  My first lesson was fractions with teenagers.  Let me set this scene up for ya'll...I have taught pre-k, kinder and 2nd grade.  Our fractions are minimal.  They wanted me to teach improper fractions.  Ummm come again?  You say what??? I mean I don't want to imply that I am less intelligent and I did pass college Business Calculus after the 2nd time and all but math ain't my thang. Math makes you think and remember stuff.  Let's just say I like literature, I like to imagine, to create, to feel, to express to ponder.  If ya'll haven't noticed that about me yet you must not read my chapters long posts therefore you must not be reading this.  So back to improper fractions.  What are those again??? You know...like a bizzillion over 1/2 a bizzilion.  Ok. Got it. 


First, I wanted to review with them and make sure they understood fractions to begin with.  In the teaching world we call it "assessing prior knowledge."  "Everyone know what pizza is?."  No.  "What about pie?" No. I had to think quick.  Luckily I had a yellow notepad with me so I gave them all 2 pieces of paper.  We folded and made fractions with the paper.  Not bad. Now we were on to improper fractions.  Umm yikes.  I could have just written numbers on the board but just looking at numbers can be confusing even for a teacher like myself.  I imagine I am not the only one whose brain works this way.  If my boss is reading I am sure she is taking mental note to NEVER EVER allow me to teach math above 2nd grade.  I had to get creative.  Good thing my brain is not lacking in the creative juices department.  The class had students with a wide variety of ages because they test into a grade.  There was a really tall kid and a really short kid.  I called them up to the front.  I told the short kid to get on the tall kids back.  No problem.  Proper fraction. Then I told the tall kid to get on the short kids back.  Laughs. Giggles. Problem.  And thus I visually demonstrated improper fractions as I wiped the sweat from my brow due to all of the work my brain had to actually do.

On to the next class...
The next class was the "littles".  It was a class of kinder, 1st and 2nd graders.  Teaching this class was a struggle even for a well seasoned "littles" teacher like myself.  First, there was a wide range of knowledge, learning abilities, ages, and languages.  Their teacher was trying to translate for me but that proposed an issue in itself.  Depending on where in Zambia they are from it is possible that they may speak different dialects.  This teacher in particular travels 30 miles by bike each day to come and teach her students.  Her dialect is different from theirs.  Add a teacher speaking a different dialect to translating for a teacher who speaks the Texas version of English and you might end up with a mess.  Not to mention I was teaching a lesson on money and I hadn't quite learned all of the conversions for Kwacha.  The layout was helpful to the teacher but I am afraid the lesson was a loss for the kids.  Rest assured they did enjoy watching me teach them.  I mean literally "watching".  At the end of the lesson a little girl (who was smart as a whip I might add)  whispered something to the teacher and the teacher began to laugh.  Being a nosey rosey I asked what she said.  Here is her response so you can all laugh as well... "She said she do not understand you English but she think you hair is prettiest she ever seen." End quote.  Glad she got something out of the day.

At the end of the day or "knock off time" the students decided to hang around a little. The time we had with them after school was amazing and priceless.  We taught them all sorts of games like red rover and simon says.  They loved playing with us but we loved playing with them more.  They did not want to go home.  At one point I stopped to look around at all of their smiling and laughing faces.  I wondered how many of them would go home and endure pain and suffering.  You can't help but think about it.  You can put it in the back of your brain but it creeps back in. Kids who were not from the school came to join us too.  My favorite was a little baby about a year old.  His father was building a house across from the school and we had watched him mix and pour and set every block all day long.  I think I have already showed you this photo but by the end of the day this was his progress.  Not the whole thing.  Just the blocks you see baking in the sun.

As we were playing it began to rain.  All of the kids scattered.  Playtime was over.  At that point we realized our bus was over an hour late.  We hoped they had not forgotten us or there hadn't been a problem.  We waited and sure enough they arrived. If it weren't for my kids and my husband I might have liked to stay.

It was Thursday so that meant it was Thanksgiving day.  They don't celebrate our freedom in Zambia.  Go figure.  We went to the strip mall and had a meal at a restaurant (yes they had a few of those) which always feels weird to tell people but I must emphasize we weren't in the "bush".  The restaurant was called Mike's and it was the equivalent of a TGI Fridays.  They had American favorites with an English twist like cucumbers instead of pickles on a burger.  No turkey and dressing. Well kind.  One of the girls on the trip had a sister who sent this along with craisins and candy corn.

At the end of the evening we had a special trip that will take its very own post because we were probably the only ones who will to experience this particular event and it deserves its' own amazing post.  And that was a really long run-on sentence.  And I just started a sentence with "and".  Again.  Dangit.

Update:  
Since I began writing this post on Sunday evening it has now become Wednesday. We went to the dr. on Monday and JT has another ear infection.  He did cooperate. He did not vomit on me.  His nose did gush blood which he commenced to wipe all over his face and clothes. The first time he had a nose bleed I almost passed out.  I had to call my husband and his sister to ask what to do.  At school we have nurses for that bodily fluid stuff.  I did better this time.  I gave him some wipes so he could clean it up.  Kidding. Kinda.  Last night was our first night to sleep through the night in a few weeks.  Praise the Lord! See, your prayers are working even though you haven't prayed them yet.