Two weeks have flown by!
Don’t really know where to start to fill you in, so this post may be all
over the place.
For starters, life here has been great! It is every bit as beautiful, and the people
here are just as welcoming and friendly as I remember. It’s different than life on the Big Island,
though, and I feel like I’m starting all over again making friends and figuring
out where to buy what. Luckily, I have
incredible roommates - Justin, Shannon, Hunter, Avery, and Braelyn- who have
been introducing me to people, and showing me the ropes! I am living with the Browns until I move into
my own house (more about this below), and, well, life with the Browns is
fun! They have busy busy schedules, and Shannon
is super mom! A day for her includes homeschooling
3 girls, having a constant stream of visitors and patients, teaching 3 English
classes, as well as the daily laundry, cooking, and cleaning. I get tired just thinking about a day that
full!
I have been getting up early in the mornings to run through
the fields as the sun is coming up! It
is so freeing (minus the long skirt and head covering) to have a plethora of
paths to choose from. I start running
and take whatever trail I feel like that morning and explore new places around
our house. One morning this week, I was
pretty far away from the house, and it started POURING! Like gallons of water
being dropped on my head. It encouraged
me to pick up the pace, but when a long skirt gets soaking wet, it sticks to
your legs and constricts your stride. I
loved it, though, and still took in the scenery as I sprinted home!
My neighbors have been extremely welcoming and helpful in
teaching me Swahili. I have been going
and sitting with an older neighbor, Mariam, in the mornings. She is patient, kind, and wants to help me
learn- which is awesome! I have started
bringing a booklet and she gives me new words and phrases each day. As I have been sitting and listening, I am
realizing I am understanding a lot! I am
also starting to become more comfortable attempting to speak it. On Thursday morning, we were talking as
usual, and another neighbor came up.
Mariam introduced us and the neighbor wanted to take me to her house to
introduce me to her family. I went, and
met about 20 people that live with her in her house. They made me try cloves and some type of extremely
sour fruit. She then took me to
introduce me to other neighbors. I’m
pretty sure they would have taken me to meet other neighbors, who would then
take me to meet other neighbors……etc, if I didn’t have to return home for lunch
and classes. I love that, though! I love meeting people, and everyone is so hospitable. I left that visiting session with eggs,
fruit, and chapatis that were gifted to me.
If I visit like that every day, I won’t need to buy any food from the
market.
We have had two full weeks of English classes now, and I am
really enjoying being a part of that.
Right now, I am doing more observation and whatever simple tasks to help
Shannon. The thing about the classes here
are they need a lot of explaining in Swahili in order to understand the English
concepts. I’m not quite ready for
that! I am, however, really trying to
learn as quickly as possible to take over these classes from Shannon and free
up more time for her to help patients with her nursing skills. Prayers for continued enablement for language
learning would be greatly appreciated! Our
students are working hard, and it is great to see them understanding and
progressing in just a short two weeks.
I’m looking forward to spending the next 10 weeks with them and getting
to know them better.
I haven’t been in the local schools yet, but today I went to
a meeting where the Headmaster informed all of the parents of the test results
from the National Exam. Three out of 110
students who took that test from this particular school in our town,
passed. Only those three students will
be able to go on to any further education.
He told the parents that something MUST be done to increase this pass
rate and that they need to start helping.
He talked about the teachers, and introduced me as a new teacher on the
Island who was going to be working with them.
After the meeting, we briefly discussed how we can work together to
train teachers, teach English, and increase their graduation rate. Starting next week, I will be going into the
schools on a weekly basis, and really looking forward to it!
More on housing that I mentioned above: I found a house I
really like and will most likely make a deal with the owner in the next couple
of days. The house isn’t completely
finished yet and will most likely take two to three months to finish once we
make the deal. I’ll post some pics of it
once we make the deal and it is officially mine. I already know some of my neighbors there,
and there is a beautiful open rice field right out my front gate.
In other news, my piki piki arrived yesterday. I obviously couldn’t bring it on the airplane
with me, so we had a friend bring it over on the ferry. I rode through the fields yesterday
afternoon, and it is still just as fun as the first day I got it. Justin thinks his is faster, but there’s no
way. The girls saw my piki piki and
walked inside and said, “Mom, Ginger’s piki is cool. It even looks faster than dads.” Yep.
They know what’s up. Also today,
I got a call saying that a cow was giving birth in the woods behind the field,
so I put on my flops and a head covering and jolted for the forest. Unfortunately (actually fortunately because I
have a weak stomach) I missed the actually birth, but got to see the little
calf try to stand up for the first time.
He tried and tried, but never succeeded while we were watching. I’m sure the little thing finally stood.
God is good. This
place is great. These people are
wonderful. I am truly loving life.
You know you live in the shamba when.... racing a ngombe cart through the field is your Sunday afternoon entertainment.
