Week 2 of School

Week 2 of School

I thought about entitling this post When Malaria Strikes. It seems like just about everyone is getting malaria. The mosquitoes are out in abundance due to the rain leaving large puddles that never really soak in. Every time it rains, it kills them off for about a day but any time there’s a couple of days between rains they’re out in full force. The other challenge here is screening, none of the windows have it and because of the heat, everyone’s windows are open. I asked Helen about this last night remembering that in Ghana we had screens on the windows that really helped. So I asked if it was the cost or something else. She said it was the way the windows here are built. It’s almost impossible to put screen up. There are two parts to windows here, the first is a set up metal rebars moving horizontally, usually with about half a foot between each one, the whole length of the window and then the second part is glass panes that open and close by a metal latch that latches to the metal rebars. So if you try to put screen on the inside you wouldn’t be able to get to the latch to open the windows and if you put it on the outside you would rip it when you opened the window. If you tried to put it in the middle it would rip when you tried to latch the window closed… so yeah… that’s why there’s no screen. That being said… I really don’t enjoy opening my windows for the awaiting world of bugs and insects to enter J Thankfully that’s why we have mosquito nets to sleep under, spray that we apply to the windows before we go to bed to keep them from coming through the places where the windows won’t close all the way, and little burners that give off a repellent as well. I also have been taking weekly preventative malaria pills so we’re hoping I don’t have to worry about that.

BC and some of his boys are battling it right now. This made school interesting yesterday (January 25^th). Teaching schedules here aren’t like teaching in the states. If someone is out for something someone else just covers for them. So I ended up teaching English to the grade 7s twice instead of only once and only had about 20 min with my class to give their Geography quiz and work on our English lesson. It’s amazing what you can do in 20 minutes!! And grade 7 can’t really get enough English so it was no trouble. This year Amano has brought in 9 new kids from the surrounding village of Kakolo. 5 of them are younger kids in grades 1 and 2, but 4 of them are in grade 7. They all passed their grade 7 examinations (which is a big deal, what we would call high-stakes testing doesn’t hold a candle to these high-stakes tests because they determine if the student is allowed to continue their education, and they have these tests at the end of grade 7, grade 9, and then finally in grade 12). So while they passed those tests they really can’t speak a bit of English and only 1 of them can read. We’re using our material for our low group in the other class for these grade 7s and it’s still a struggle for them. But we have fun while learning and their laughs are enough to put a smile on anyone’s face as they do their best to pronounce the new words correctly despite their difficulty with our many varied vowel sounds. To start class we basically play Catch Phrase only there’s only one team and I’m always the one giving the clues for them to guess the word. We use a stack of old Pictionary cards and if they get the word then they get the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end gets two stickers. (this is really all the motivation they need J) We show them pictures of things that they might not understand but try to use definitions and explanations for the words that come from their context. One of the biggest differences between teaching in America and teaching in any third world country is exposure. We’ve been exposed to so much and have so much information at our fingertips, while many of these children come from homes that maybe have one book. The village school doesn’t even have textbooks, hence these 4 students who passed their grade 7 exams but can’t read and don’t know English. I’m excited that they’ve made the choice to redo grade 7 here at Amano in hopes of learning English.

Along the lines of the testing, the students here at FCV that finished grade 12 last year just received their exam results yesterday. All of them passed except for two. One of the girls will only have to rewrite for one portion of the test (which means she passed the other 7 portions) and the other will only have to rewrite 2 portions, but she has already moved on from FCV and I’m not sure whether she will rewrite or not. So last night at devos with the older girls was a time of rejoicing with them on a job well done and multiple phones ringing with their friends calling to say that they had passed as well or to ask how the girls did. Helen baked them a cake and the excitement is contagious. In an education system that is pretty warped being able to pass without bribing anyone and being able to understand the English that the tests are written in (they’re written by non-native English speakers) is tough.

Prayer Requests:

• FCV is facing a lot of decisions right now; I don’t know the extent of that request but Helen has asked that we pray for wisdom
• For BC and his boys to recover quickly from malaria (Medias, one of his boys, had cerebral malaria a couple years ago and almost died from it, now when he gets malaria, instead of the typical symptoms, of fever and stomach ache, he has seizures. He’s one of the ones who is sick with it now and your prayers for a quick recovery for him would be much appreciated!)
• For me as I continue to figure out teaching in a new culture.
• CABC is starting classes next week so pray that they get off to a good start.
• Again, please continue to pray for many of the children who aren’t yet believers. They’ve heard the Gospel so much, pray that God would help them to realize that just because they act right most of the time doesn’t mean that they are good and without sin.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!

God is good all the time!