WOAH. Super, mega, intense, crazy weekend. I survived though, bwana asifewe
(praise the Lord).
So, let's just start with Saturday. I had stayed up late working on my sermon for Sunday, so I didn't wake up until about 9:30. About ten minutes after (I was still in my jamies) one of the teachers came over with a cord wanting to use power for the preschool graduation going on that morning. Also, keep in mind that since the school is ten feet from our house, there are tons of people milling around because of the ceremony, staring at the wazungu, and all the craziness. Christine was on her way to play ultimate frisbee, so I had to explain to him that we were down to our last electricity credits (seriously, I was quite scared that by the end of the day our power would be out). We can't buy credits ourselves since we don't have an account, we have to have the Pastor do it for us. He then offered to go buy us the credits himself if I gave him money, and as we were sorting that out, the translator for my sermon the next day showed up (I'm still in my jamies). He wanted to meet up with me at some point to discuss the sermon, which was still unwritten. Well, I was going to be going to town that afternoon and not returning until the next morning because Christine and I were babysitting for the missionaries that night, so we just kind of had to meet right then. While we met, the teacher returned to get the money, the pastor came over to enter the credits for the electricity, and the translator stayed for about forty five minutes. It was about 11 am when this all ended, and I hadn't started working on the sermon which was my plan for the morning/afternoon. Surprise!
When they all left, I did get to work, and it went well but took a lot longer than expected. This may surprise many of you who are familiar with my debate and speech career in high school, but when I give a speech, I need to have it written out. I am not good at just having an outline and speaking from that. I forget stuff, get off topic, etc. So, I had to write it out, especially because this was such a huge sermon because it was for the Youth Service. When the translator was over, we were talking about it, and I told him that I had been instructed to talk for at least twenty minutes on my part, twenty for the translation. He looked at me kind of funny, and said "Can't you go at least thirty?" I really just wanted to scream "NO! I really can't!" I grew up in a culture where 15 minutes is a sermon five minutes too long, and as a debater and philosophy major, you make your point and move on. Trying to talk for twenty was tortorous. I told him I would try for 25; I'm still not sure he realized that I was stretching it for that and that I was not making it longer.
I had planned to leave the house by 3 in the afternoon for town. That became 5. But on my jaunt to town, I had a revelation of sorts: culturally, I had truly advanced so far. Probably because I was running late and therefore rushing, my mind didn't have time to think about getting on the dala dala and where exactly in town I had to go, I just did it. No problems. Didn't get lost. I even made it to the missionaries' house without getting lost or calling for help. That afternoon, I had gotten lunch of chips mayai at the duka next door, and I was wearing my kitange; one of the shop owners commented that I looked African :) It's crazy to think where I was at a few months ago, and how far I've come. It was a boost I really needed to get through the next morning.
At the missionaries' house, we had about 12 kids, ranging from ages 2 to 12. We did crafts, made a chain link, they played pin the star on the tree, we watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph, (there was a slight theme). By the end, we had two asleep and all the others were nodding off, so I think we call that a babysitting success. After that, we went back to one of the missionaries houses. As payment in a sense, we got to spend the night with them. It was a mini vacation to the first world. I actually had a real hot shower and I slept with A/C! Sadly, neither one of those things excited me as much as I thought they would. Recently, Christine and I did figure out how to make bucket showers more tolerable. We have a hot pot, an electric kettle, and if we mix a pot of hot water with the rest of the bucket, it's just perfect. I'm to the point now where I don't mind if it's a running water night or not. Don't get me wrong though- the night was great, and even if they weren't as exciting as I had anticpated, they were still quite exciting.
The next morning, we were going to have some time to hang with the missionaries (who is a couple with three of the kids we took care) before going back to Kihonda for the church service. None of the other missionaries live in Kihonda. They all live on the other side of town, which is already a half hour dala dala ride away from us. It's the "richer" part of town; missionaries, researchers, and government officials pretty much occupy the area. We still figured we would have plenty of time because the service didn't start until 10. Surprises happen though. One of the missionaries (likely) got malaria (not as scary as Americans think, by the way. It's a common occurrence that as long as it's addressed quickly isn't very problematic, just not very fun). However, her husband didn't want to leave her with the three kids to take us back, so another missionary came over and took us to the dala dala stand right away. Everything worked out, just a hectic start to an already stressful day.
I was so nervous throughout the whole service. I kept reminding myself that I had already had the sermon written, the worst really was over. I had to sit up front for the whole service, as in the front of the church looking out at the congregation. The service wasn't excessively different from a normal church service except that the youth led everything. There were a number of Swahili songs, and the English song was "Awesome God." Since a few people are actually in the English choir, they sang the verses and everyone together sang the chorus since it's pretty easy to learn. I actually know how to play "Awesome God" on the piano, so I volunteered to accompany them. That was terrifying. I was trembling all over. I haven't taken piano lessons in over six years, meaning I haven't played in front a group or person for that matter in at least six years. Also, I've never accompanied anyone before; that's a bizarre feeling. This was defintely the largest group I had ever played in front of; it really did go ok though! Not perfect, but we never even practiced with the piano and the whole group until Friday, so considering we only had that one time, it went amazing.
Not too long before I gave my sermon, Upendo (the translator, also a youth) told me that the service was going long enough that I could shorten my message. I was kind of caught off guard because now that the whole thing was typed out, it all made sense together. I wasn't sure how to take out and still have the whole thing make sense. I tried to do my best as I went, but the pastor's daughter who was emceeing the service still passed a note up to us maybe only 2/3 of the way through saying "Please end it soon, people are getting tired." Oh well. I was so happy the whole ordeal was over! Everyone who said anything to me said it was good. I'm not convinced though that anyone here would tell me otherwise; I'm pretty sure that would not be appropriate at all. We ate our meal afterwards, and headed home. I happily crashed the entire afternoon.
This week was rather bizarre once more. The class teachers were still doing their end of the year reports, so on Monday, the head teacher came up to us and said "Ok, we three are going to entertain the students today." We did this everyday this week. I got bored! I mean, I only teach Class IV math and science, and since it's the end of the year, I just wanted to find a spot to stop for break and then pick up when we came back. I hit the end of two chapters on Monday, so we were kind of done then. We had Class IV write letters to God as a journal activity, we let them color, play with the math flashcards, read, etc. You could tell the kids were done. I was trying hard to keep them doing math practice, and they were just getting crabby with each other. There was definitely a lot more bickering and discipline issues. I had to assign my first lines to some students.
After three days of that though, Thursday was a good day. We knew it was the last day for the students, but not all of them knew that, so they were still sort of on task. I read a lot with a number of the students in the morning, which because of the unpredictable chedule I hadn't done much for two weeks. It was really nice to do that again. However, when you're only working with one student at a time, the rest of the class is left to create trouble, so I had to go into Class IV to do math, where I just had them doing review instead of moving on to something new. Just to make sure they would behave though, I promised them that if they got their work done and handed it in, they would get a surprise after break. Christine has a ton of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes, so as a end of the year treat, I let them watch two of those. They were pretty happy. :) We had one last assembly that afternoon, and then the school year ended! The kids were very excited (not surprising at all), but afterwards a ton of them ran over to me and Christine and mauled us! There were hugs, handshakes, and they wanted to make sure that we would both be back next year. It was a really nice way to end the year!
Outside of school, this week has been pleasantly calm. I've been really tired, perhaps from all the excitement last week. I can't believe I have only two more days until I leave here and go to Europe for two weeks! I'm meeting my mom in France on Monday morning, Sunday night central time. Please keep both of us in your prayers for safe travel! We will be visiting France, Switzerland, and Italy, ending up in Rome for Christmas at the Vatican. It won't be the same as home, but it will be an adventure! I will have a blog up sometime while I'm there hopefully, if not one when I get back here.
I hope you all are having a blessed Christmas season thus far!
God bless,
Kjirstin
So, let's just start with Saturday. I had stayed up late working on my sermon for Sunday, so I didn't wake up until about 9:30. About ten minutes after (I was still in my jamies) one of the teachers came over with a cord wanting to use power for the preschool graduation going on that morning. Also, keep in mind that since the school is ten feet from our house, there are tons of people milling around because of the ceremony, staring at the wazungu, and all the craziness. Christine was on her way to play ultimate frisbee, so I had to explain to him that we were down to our last electricity credits (seriously, I was quite scared that by the end of the day our power would be out). We can't buy credits ourselves since we don't have an account, we have to have the Pastor do it for us. He then offered to go buy us the credits himself if I gave him money, and as we were sorting that out, the translator for my sermon the next day showed up (I'm still in my jamies). He wanted to meet up with me at some point to discuss the sermon, which was still unwritten. Well, I was going to be going to town that afternoon and not returning until the next morning because Christine and I were babysitting for the missionaries that night, so we just kind of had to meet right then. While we met, the teacher returned to get the money, the pastor came over to enter the credits for the electricity, and the translator stayed for about forty five minutes. It was about 11 am when this all ended, and I hadn't started working on the sermon which was my plan for the morning/afternoon. Surprise!
When they all left, I did get to work, and it went well but took a lot longer than expected. This may surprise many of you who are familiar with my debate and speech career in high school, but when I give a speech, I need to have it written out. I am not good at just having an outline and speaking from that. I forget stuff, get off topic, etc. So, I had to write it out, especially because this was such a huge sermon because it was for the Youth Service. When the translator was over, we were talking about it, and I told him that I had been instructed to talk for at least twenty minutes on my part, twenty for the translation. He looked at me kind of funny, and said "Can't you go at least thirty?" I really just wanted to scream "NO! I really can't!" I grew up in a culture where 15 minutes is a sermon five minutes too long, and as a debater and philosophy major, you make your point and move on. Trying to talk for twenty was tortorous. I told him I would try for 25; I'm still not sure he realized that I was stretching it for that and that I was not making it longer.
I had planned to leave the house by 3 in the afternoon for town. That became 5. But on my jaunt to town, I had a revelation of sorts: culturally, I had truly advanced so far. Probably because I was running late and therefore rushing, my mind didn't have time to think about getting on the dala dala and where exactly in town I had to go, I just did it. No problems. Didn't get lost. I even made it to the missionaries' house without getting lost or calling for help. That afternoon, I had gotten lunch of chips mayai at the duka next door, and I was wearing my kitange; one of the shop owners commented that I looked African :) It's crazy to think where I was at a few months ago, and how far I've come. It was a boost I really needed to get through the next morning.
At the missionaries' house, we had about 12 kids, ranging from ages 2 to 12. We did crafts, made a chain link, they played pin the star on the tree, we watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph, (there was a slight theme). By the end, we had two asleep and all the others were nodding off, so I think we call that a babysitting success. After that, we went back to one of the missionaries houses. As payment in a sense, we got to spend the night with them. It was a mini vacation to the first world. I actually had a real hot shower and I slept with A/C! Sadly, neither one of those things excited me as much as I thought they would. Recently, Christine and I did figure out how to make bucket showers more tolerable. We have a hot pot, an electric kettle, and if we mix a pot of hot water with the rest of the bucket, it's just perfect. I'm to the point now where I don't mind if it's a running water night or not. Don't get me wrong though- the night was great, and even if they weren't as exciting as I had anticpated, they were still quite exciting.
The next morning, we were going to have some time to hang with the missionaries (who is a couple with three of the kids we took care) before going back to Kihonda for the church service. None of the other missionaries live in Kihonda. They all live on the other side of town, which is already a half hour dala dala ride away from us. It's the "richer" part of town; missionaries, researchers, and government officials pretty much occupy the area. We still figured we would have plenty of time because the service didn't start until 10. Surprises happen though. One of the missionaries (likely) got malaria (not as scary as Americans think, by the way. It's a common occurrence that as long as it's addressed quickly isn't very problematic, just not very fun). However, her husband didn't want to leave her with the three kids to take us back, so another missionary came over and took us to the dala dala stand right away. Everything worked out, just a hectic start to an already stressful day.
I was so nervous throughout the whole service. I kept reminding myself that I had already had the sermon written, the worst really was over. I had to sit up front for the whole service, as in the front of the church looking out at the congregation. The service wasn't excessively different from a normal church service except that the youth led everything. There were a number of Swahili songs, and the English song was "Awesome God." Since a few people are actually in the English choir, they sang the verses and everyone together sang the chorus since it's pretty easy to learn. I actually know how to play "Awesome God" on the piano, so I volunteered to accompany them. That was terrifying. I was trembling all over. I haven't taken piano lessons in over six years, meaning I haven't played in front a group or person for that matter in at least six years. Also, I've never accompanied anyone before; that's a bizarre feeling. This was defintely the largest group I had ever played in front of; it really did go ok though! Not perfect, but we never even practiced with the piano and the whole group until Friday, so considering we only had that one time, it went amazing.
Not too long before I gave my sermon, Upendo (the translator, also a youth) told me that the service was going long enough that I could shorten my message. I was kind of caught off guard because now that the whole thing was typed out, it all made sense together. I wasn't sure how to take out and still have the whole thing make sense. I tried to do my best as I went, but the pastor's daughter who was emceeing the service still passed a note up to us maybe only 2/3 of the way through saying "Please end it soon, people are getting tired." Oh well. I was so happy the whole ordeal was over! Everyone who said anything to me said it was good. I'm not convinced though that anyone here would tell me otherwise; I'm pretty sure that would not be appropriate at all. We ate our meal afterwards, and headed home. I happily crashed the entire afternoon.
This week was rather bizarre once more. The class teachers were still doing their end of the year reports, so on Monday, the head teacher came up to us and said "Ok, we three are going to entertain the students today." We did this everyday this week. I got bored! I mean, I only teach Class IV math and science, and since it's the end of the year, I just wanted to find a spot to stop for break and then pick up when we came back. I hit the end of two chapters on Monday, so we were kind of done then. We had Class IV write letters to God as a journal activity, we let them color, play with the math flashcards, read, etc. You could tell the kids were done. I was trying hard to keep them doing math practice, and they were just getting crabby with each other. There was definitely a lot more bickering and discipline issues. I had to assign my first lines to some students.
After three days of that though, Thursday was a good day. We knew it was the last day for the students, but not all of them knew that, so they were still sort of on task. I read a lot with a number of the students in the morning, which because of the unpredictable chedule I hadn't done much for two weeks. It was really nice to do that again. However, when you're only working with one student at a time, the rest of the class is left to create trouble, so I had to go into Class IV to do math, where I just had them doing review instead of moving on to something new. Just to make sure they would behave though, I promised them that if they got their work done and handed it in, they would get a surprise after break. Christine has a ton of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes, so as a end of the year treat, I let them watch two of those. They were pretty happy. :) We had one last assembly that afternoon, and then the school year ended! The kids were very excited (not surprising at all), but afterwards a ton of them ran over to me and Christine and mauled us! There were hugs, handshakes, and they wanted to make sure that we would both be back next year. It was a really nice way to end the year!
Outside of school, this week has been pleasantly calm. I've been really tired, perhaps from all the excitement last week. I can't believe I have only two more days until I leave here and go to Europe for two weeks! I'm meeting my mom in France on Monday morning, Sunday night central time. Please keep both of us in your prayers for safe travel! We will be visiting France, Switzerland, and Italy, ending up in Rome for Christmas at the Vatican. It won't be the same as home, but it will be an adventure! I will have a blog up sometime while I'm there hopefully, if not one when I get back here.
I hope you all are having a blessed Christmas season thus far!
God bless,
Kjirstin
I'm a little freaked out by the notion of you giving a sermon... Only because I recall you as that young lady who just graduated from high school. Not because I doubt that it was a work of art. It's hard to keep it short. Do twitter sermons exist? Parables are sticky. And proverbs.
ReplyDelete