What do the Macarena, Rede, and a Bucket Top Have in Common?

Happy 8 weeks! What a wonderful way to celebrate this occasion this morning, we had Mass...in English!!!!!!! My first English Mass in two months!!!!! It was so comforting to be able to fully participate and understand everything that was going on, the words being prayed and the music being sung meant so much, more than they ever have before. It was just what I needed this morning, a great way to praise God and celebrate these past two months.

Well now that I wrote about my first day of school two weeks late, I am going to write about the past three weeks of school. First I have to say that I cannot believe I have been teaching for three weeks. The days go by so quickly!!! I would like to share some of the highlights of my time at Gonzaga.

David. David is a student who I will probably be sharing many stories about. He is 9 years old and has an amazing imagination. He does not have too many friends and so oftentimes entertains himself during Tea and Lunch. So one day while I was outside with the students I look over and see David in the middle of the field dancing. Yes, David is dancing the Macarena. And it was a fully legit Macarena at that. He had all of the hand motions, the hip wiggle (which was his favorite) and the jumping and doing it in a different direction. He was even mouthing something but I couldn't hear what it was. Then he tried it again...with a half coconut shell balanced on his head.If it fell off he had to start over again. I don't think he saw me because he would have stopped, but it was so entertaining to watch. A few days later I saw him by himself again so I went over to him. I asked what he was doing as he was sawing at some leaves with a large plastic pipe. He responded "cooking." "Oh," I said, "what are you cooking?" "Meat." Cool. So I sat down and engaged him in conversation about his cooking. He had taken a broken slab of concrete, found some leaves an a broken plastic pipe and started chopping the meat. Then he "turned the stove on," literally turned an imaginary dial on he front of the bench he was going to cook on and put all of the chopped meat on the stove. He added some salt (dirt) and some pepper (dirt from another location) and then stirred it all together. What comes next is great. He found a rock and said it was a coconut. So he took a "machete" and cut it open, poured the coconut juice into his concoction and then started grating the coconut!! Of course he added these shavings to the dish. When it was fially finished we had to go inside, but I was really looking forward to getting to try some. Maybe next time.

Lunch today was my favorite part of the day. Nicholas brought a "frisbee" to school, actually a plastic top of a bucket and started teaching some of the students how to play. So I joined in that for a little. I kicked the soccer ball around when it went out of bounds and got reactions from the students "Teacha, teacha!" Yes, teacha Emily can play soccer. The girls dragged me over to play rede with them, a surprisingly violent game involving throwing a ball at people and then targeting one person to hit. When you are hit you are out. I played with all of these girls who are half my height, I was not at an advantage.

I have a posse at Gonzaga. There are three or four girls who follow me around everywhere. Whenever we go outside they are right behind me. The entire time we are outside they are asking me questions and sitting with me. I ask "dont you want to go play with your friends?" They respond "We can play here!" I also have a student who has a crush on me. As the days go by it becomes more and more obvious, but also really cute. Today he found out how old I was because th girls were asking me, and I asked him how old he was. He is 9. He started off by asking me if Teacher Nicholas was my brother, when I said yes and saw his reaction I knew there was a reason for the question. This boy tried so hard to be the last one in the classroom so he can walk with me places. Today he purposely didnt finish his test so that he could stay later with me, I know this because he is a smart boy and usually finished relatively quickly. He just hangs around trying to pass time so that other students will leave. He sat with me a few times at Tea and Lunch when I was sitting with the girls. It takes guts at that age to sit with the opposite gender when all of your friends are on the opposite side of the room. I am sure I will have more stories about him as well.

Well, tomorrow is my first PTA meeting which will be conducted in Kiswahili so I will have no idea what is going on. I get to teach religion to Standard three!!! I am so excited about this. Teaching religion is possibly one of my favorite things to do.

So some reflections of these past weeks: Being in Africa is difficult. Being so far away from home and friends and family is hard. This is definitely a challenging vocation and sometimes I think, God are you serious that you want me here? But then days like today happen, or the kids from across the road see me and come running to me, or I understand a little more Swahili and I am reminded of my purpose here. I am reminded of the Gospel from my sending Mass, about how Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. I am totally a branch right now, depending completely and wholeheartedly on that vine to give me everything I need. How can I survive here on my own? There is no way. That vine has been the one thing keeping me going. Without it my work here would be fruitless.

I love Africa. I love the people here. I do not want to be any other place in the world. I have been embraced by everything here and in turn I have given my heart to everything here. I am so blessed to be able to have this experience, and I hope that through these messages you can share in my joy and happiness here. You have been so supportive in my formation and my journey. I cannot thank you all enough, so I hope these glimpses into my life here will show a little bit how grateful I am for everything you all have done.

Take care, God Bless, and at Mass or whenever you are looking at the sky, know that I am sharing in that same Eucharist and looking at the same moon and stars. I think about that every night. I miss you all.