This past week Caroline and Christen had midterm break so they went away for a few days, Nicholas' family was here visiting so they were off doing their own thing, and I was going to school, coming home, and then......just being. Or so I thought thats how it would be. Many of our friends knew these things were going on and were surprised when I said I was just going to be at school and then I would be alone the rest of the day. I didn't really think much of it, until the first day I was alone. Nicholas and his family went together somewhere and I had the house to myself. Bang, bang. The gate? Who is it? Nani? No response, ok great, lets see who it is. 4:30 pm, I get home from school about 4:20. First visitor of the evening, a friend who I had only met the night before and wanted to come see the others. Pole, bwana. They weren't here. He left after a while and I went back inside. A little while later, bang, bang. The gate again? Ok, so I get up to see who it is. Ah! One of our very good friends, Mussa, who I saw earlier on my way home from school and he told me he would stop by because he knew I was alone. He was coming to tell me he wasn't able to stop by today because he was so tired from work but he would come by tomorrow. Ok, said goodbye went inside. I started cooking dinner (which by the way after cooking dinner for four people it isv ery weird to cook for only myself) and another bang, bang on the gate. This time it was one of our best friend, Godi, who also knew I was alone and wanted to come keep me company! He was the last visitor for that day, but the next day, Thursday the same thing happened. Only different people came.
Thursday and Friday were filled with my friends coming over and hanging out with me because they all knew I was alone and didn't want me to be lonely. Sometimes we talked, sometimes we just sat there reading magazines and books, but what mattered to them was that they were there with me. I even met some new people these nights, as random people stopped by to greet Nicholas' family (even though they weren't there), and friends brought their friends over.
I realized after thinking about these past few days that even though I have only been here for four months, the people I have met here have quickly become my close friends and even some of them as close as family. It meant a lot to me that they took the time to stop by and spend an hour with me because they didn't want me to be alone. People are busy during the week with work, with school, who really has the time to visit with a friend for a while during the week? It didn't matter to them if they were busy, they showed me how much they cared for me and our friendship to take the time out and come spend a few hours with me for a few nights a week.
As I mentioned in previous emails/blogs, I am constantly amazed at the hospitality and generosity people have shown me here. This follows suit. The friendships I am making here, while they are still in the beginning stages, are going to be strong, lasting relationships. They are always teaching me something new whether they know it or not. They teach me swahili, they teach me the culture, but they also teach me patience, how we should show we care about each other, to give and give and give even if you have nothing, to value those who are close to you.
I am going to steal Caroline's word to describe how I am feeling right now: content. I am sure that this is what I am meant to be doing right now, it feels so right and it means so much to me. The relationships I am forming are very life giving, teaching is challenging yet enlightening, I am learning to be completely open to things and to welcome new experiences. Through all of this I am feeling very content. I am at peace. I know that God is doing something in my heart through these experiences and lessons, and I hope that I am sharing some of that with you all.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
"It's an angel!"
So my latest adventure in Tanzania started with the fact that I have not gone to Mass in English in over two months and I was realllyyy itching for something familiar. I woke up extra early on a dreary, rainy Saturday morning to attend Mass at the Jesuits at 7 am. The Mass was wonderful and just what I needed. I understood everything and was really able to participate, the spiritual lift I needed. I had breakfast with them afterwards (I was told I was a good luck charm because it was the first time the cats didn’t bother them during Mass).
My real adventure begins on the way home around 9 am. I was almost home when I hear someone say “Emirrryyyy!” I looked back and saw it was my friend Erasto. We exchanged greetings and then he asked me what I was doing later. Oh goodness, I thought, what is he going to ask me to do. So I say I don’t know but I also don’t know if my community mates have anything planned. As I can see my response is not the one he wished for, he asks me to go to his friends birthday party with him later that day. I said that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go but he should call me later. He says I really should try to come, he really wants me to come and so does his friend (whom I have never met). Ok, so I bought some time to decide what I was going to do. I hadn’t heard anything all day so I thought I was off the hook. Caroline and Christen came back from Posta around 3:30 and informed me that Erasto called and texted us and said he will be by around 4 pm to pick me up. Yeah so I had a half hour. I realized I had not showered since Thursday night because I got back late on Friday and was going to go for a run later that day, so I grabbed a bucket to get water to take a shower. I walked outside and guess who was standing there! Erasto was at our house a half hour early (Tanzanians never show up on time, they maybe show up an hour or so late so I thought I had some time). Not only was he early, and I had not taken a shower, but earlier in the day I did laundry so all of my sheets, towels, and underwear were hanging outside to dry.
Ok, turn around, grab something to wear and just suck it up and go. I felt my face turning bright red (that has happened a few times here already). I quickly got ready and five minutes later we were out the door. I asked him where we were going today and he responded with “to support.” Uh? “It is my friends birthday, we go to support him.” Ok. Cool. We went to his house so he could change and I met his mother. We sat outside together, she only speaks Swahili and I only speak maybe 10 phrases of Swahili so our conversation did not go very far. We said an awful lot of “karibu” “asante” – “welcome” “thank you.” So if anybody is coming to Tanzania we are very welcome at Erasto’s house.
I met Erasto on my first day here and then on the fifth day here (the next time I saw him) he quizzed me on who he was and when I met him and he also quizzed me on my Swahili. I do not know any of his friends, neither do my community mates. So here I am venturing off in Africa alone with a Tanzanian friend to a place I have never been before to “support” a person I have never met. This is what I was anxious about. Thank goodness before we left Caroline told Erasto to take good care of me. Yeah, thanks. Well he took this very seriously (and I think he enjoyed it). We got to out stop (after he paid all of the dala fares) and he took an even stronger hold of my hand – he had been holding my hand almost the entire way, this is pretty common here though – and he held onto me for dear life as we crossed the road. Then he got on a kick of asking me if I was fearing or worrying. Because he had to take care of me he did not want me to fear or worry, so I had to give all of my fear and worry to him (what was I fearing and worrying about, I still don’t know but it’s ok because he took care of it). We walked and walked and I began to wonder where exactly he was taking me, and then just when I thought things couldn’t get stranger (by this time he had asked me to be his girlfriend), we arrive at the house of the birthday boy before the birthday boy. His mother and sisters were home so we sat inside and waited…and waited…and waited…I took in the room – the blinking Christmas lights, the stuffed animals displayed in the china cabinet next to the TV, the picture of Jesus on the wall. Finally another person came and Erasto leaves me to go outside. So I am sitting in this strangers house along. Soon he came back and we both went outside together where we did some more waiting. Slowly more people come and eventually even the birthday boy comes!!!
Tanzanian birthday parties typically follow a pattern, eat, drink, eat some more, drink some more, feed each other birthday cake, make a speech about the birthday person, talk some more and then go home. So sure enough, we eat samosas, chapate, and other snacks, drank fanta, ate some more and drank some more. Then the birthday cake came out and DC, the birthday boy, cut it into smallish pieces and got ready for the feeding – the most awkward part of any birthday here. I got ready, keep in mind I met this person maybe 2 hours earlier, and it comes to be my turn. So he takes a toothpick and a piece of cake and we get awkwardly close and he feeds me a piece of cake. Meanwhile this whole time there is a dude on the other side of the table taking pictures of me the entire time we are there. Every time I look up he had the came pointed at me and is smiling. Well my cake experience is done for this birthday – phew. We finally do some introductions, I have been sitting at a table of all guys for 2 ours and none of them talked to me and I didn’t talk to any of them. Turns out I am the first “person like me” that they ever met. I was also the only girl. Even though I didn’t talk to them the entire time, they were definitely talking about me in Swahili because they were quite obvious about looking at me while talking. Towards the end, DC wanted to show us his hens. I was like what? You have chickens, ok. Yeah no he has hundreds of chickens. He had a pen for the older chickens and then a pen for the baby chicks, there were literally hundreds. My favorite chickens are the ones with their neck feathers missing because they got into fights, they look so funny! DC walked Erasto and me to the dala stop and somehow I ended up with the rest of the birthday cake. On the last dala, we were smushed in the bus and a baby next to me was staring at me. Erasto leaned in to me and whispered, "He must be thinking 'It's an angel'." That might have been the best line of the evening. We got home and my community mates continued to tease me about the evening as we enjoyed the rest of the cake,
Also a quick update on everything else. My one student crush-er has turned into three - that I know of. Samson and Claus have joined the ranks and opt to sit with me outside instead of playing football with everybody else. I have also come to the conclusion that David is Napoleon Dynamite. They dance exactly the same way. I caught David doing a Michael Jackson impression the other day, he was totally in his own world. I wrote in a Valentine post-it I gave him in class that he dances really well. He came up to me and asked me if I meant it. I said of course! He was so happy that he did some more dance moves right there in class. Today he made a cell phone out of a piece of paper and was talking on it all day long, creativity at its finest in Tanzania.
My real adventure begins on the way home around 9 am. I was almost home when I hear someone say “Emirrryyyy!” I looked back and saw it was my friend Erasto. We exchanged greetings and then he asked me what I was doing later. Oh goodness, I thought, what is he going to ask me to do. So I say I don’t know but I also don’t know if my community mates have anything planned. As I can see my response is not the one he wished for, he asks me to go to his friends birthday party with him later that day. I said that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go but he should call me later. He says I really should try to come, he really wants me to come and so does his friend (whom I have never met). Ok, so I bought some time to decide what I was going to do. I hadn’t heard anything all day so I thought I was off the hook. Caroline and Christen came back from Posta around 3:30 and informed me that Erasto called and texted us and said he will be by around 4 pm to pick me up. Yeah so I had a half hour. I realized I had not showered since Thursday night because I got back late on Friday and was going to go for a run later that day, so I grabbed a bucket to get water to take a shower. I walked outside and guess who was standing there! Erasto was at our house a half hour early (Tanzanians never show up on time, they maybe show up an hour or so late so I thought I had some time). Not only was he early, and I had not taken a shower, but earlier in the day I did laundry so all of my sheets, towels, and underwear were hanging outside to dry.
Ok, turn around, grab something to wear and just suck it up and go. I felt my face turning bright red (that has happened a few times here already). I quickly got ready and five minutes later we were out the door. I asked him where we were going today and he responded with “to support.” Uh? “It is my friends birthday, we go to support him.” Ok. Cool. We went to his house so he could change and I met his mother. We sat outside together, she only speaks Swahili and I only speak maybe 10 phrases of Swahili so our conversation did not go very far. We said an awful lot of “karibu” “asante” – “welcome” “thank you.” So if anybody is coming to Tanzania we are very welcome at Erasto’s house.
I met Erasto on my first day here and then on the fifth day here (the next time I saw him) he quizzed me on who he was and when I met him and he also quizzed me on my Swahili. I do not know any of his friends, neither do my community mates. So here I am venturing off in Africa alone with a Tanzanian friend to a place I have never been before to “support” a person I have never met. This is what I was anxious about. Thank goodness before we left Caroline told Erasto to take good care of me. Yeah, thanks. Well he took this very seriously (and I think he enjoyed it). We got to out stop (after he paid all of the dala fares) and he took an even stronger hold of my hand – he had been holding my hand almost the entire way, this is pretty common here though – and he held onto me for dear life as we crossed the road. Then he got on a kick of asking me if I was fearing or worrying. Because he had to take care of me he did not want me to fear or worry, so I had to give all of my fear and worry to him (what was I fearing and worrying about, I still don’t know but it’s ok because he took care of it). We walked and walked and I began to wonder where exactly he was taking me, and then just when I thought things couldn’t get stranger (by this time he had asked me to be his girlfriend), we arrive at the house of the birthday boy before the birthday boy. His mother and sisters were home so we sat inside and waited…and waited…and waited…I took in the room – the blinking Christmas lights, the stuffed animals displayed in the china cabinet next to the TV, the picture of Jesus on the wall. Finally another person came and Erasto leaves me to go outside. So I am sitting in this strangers house along. Soon he came back and we both went outside together where we did some more waiting. Slowly more people come and eventually even the birthday boy comes!!!
Tanzanian birthday parties typically follow a pattern, eat, drink, eat some more, drink some more, feed each other birthday cake, make a speech about the birthday person, talk some more and then go home. So sure enough, we eat samosas, chapate, and other snacks, drank fanta, ate some more and drank some more. Then the birthday cake came out and DC, the birthday boy, cut it into smallish pieces and got ready for the feeding – the most awkward part of any birthday here. I got ready, keep in mind I met this person maybe 2 hours earlier, and it comes to be my turn. So he takes a toothpick and a piece of cake and we get awkwardly close and he feeds me a piece of cake. Meanwhile this whole time there is a dude on the other side of the table taking pictures of me the entire time we are there. Every time I look up he had the came pointed at me and is smiling. Well my cake experience is done for this birthday – phew. We finally do some introductions, I have been sitting at a table of all guys for 2 ours and none of them talked to me and I didn’t talk to any of them. Turns out I am the first “person like me” that they ever met. I was also the only girl. Even though I didn’t talk to them the entire time, they were definitely talking about me in Swahili because they were quite obvious about looking at me while talking. Towards the end, DC wanted to show us his hens. I was like what? You have chickens, ok. Yeah no he has hundreds of chickens. He had a pen for the older chickens and then a pen for the baby chicks, there were literally hundreds. My favorite chickens are the ones with their neck feathers missing because they got into fights, they look so funny! DC walked Erasto and me to the dala stop and somehow I ended up with the rest of the birthday cake. On the last dala, we were smushed in the bus and a baby next to me was staring at me. Erasto leaned in to me and whispered, "He must be thinking 'It's an angel'." That might have been the best line of the evening. We got home and my community mates continued to tease me about the evening as we enjoyed the rest of the cake,
Also a quick update on everything else. My one student crush-er has turned into three - that I know of. Samson and Claus have joined the ranks and opt to sit with me outside instead of playing football with everybody else. I have also come to the conclusion that David is Napoleon Dynamite. They dance exactly the same way. I caught David doing a Michael Jackson impression the other day, he was totally in his own world. I wrote in a Valentine post-it I gave him in class that he dances really well. He came up to me and asked me if I meant it. I said of course! He was so happy that he did some more dance moves right there in class. Today he made a cell phone out of a piece of paper and was talking on it all day long, creativity at its finest in Tanzania.
Friday, January 30, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
And You Do the Hokey Pokey...
I started teaching almost two weeks ago already. Needless to say these past two weeks have been extremely busy and that is why my post about the first day of school is two weeks late. But here it is anyway.
Tuesday, January 13th marked the beginning of the 2009 academic year. The students had just had a month and a half off from school and I was just celebrating my being in country for 5 weeks. I am teaching at Gonzaga Primary School which started last year with the generous donation from a family wanting to promote Jesuit ecucation. There was a school/orphanage, Sarah Cobet, which was closing so Gonzaga took in the orphans to educate. Now we teach those students, many poor students from the area as well as many orphans from an organization called S.O.S. I am teaching standard 3 and 4, about the age equivalent of grades 3 and 4 (although I have students ranging from 8-11 in my standard 3). I am the class teacher for standard three so this means I am basically their homeroom teacher/moderator/mother at school/playmate/anything else you can think of.
So on the first day of school Nicholas and I walked to Gonzaga through the twisty alleyways behind peoples houses, over little streams, and through piles of garbage. We rounded the corner and saw a massive amount of little people standing inside the gates of Gonzaga. I became even more excited than I was before. We had a staff meeting the Wednesday before school started (yes the first staff meeting for the whole year was held only 6 days before school started). The meeting was supposed to begin at 7:30 but in actuality and true to Tanzanian time we did not start until 10:30 and we finished at 1:30. We are supposed to have about 12 people on staff, by this meeting we had 10. At the meeting one of the teachers told us he was not going to return so we were down to 9. We had one other new teacher at the meeting and then two days later he also, through text message, told us he was not coming to teach anymore. So we are starting off short 4 teachers. Ok, its ok we can do this! On the first day of school we have two new teachers who were hired over the weekend. However, one of the teachers from last year did not show up because he was sick.
So I get to school and I am told that the classroom I was shown the day before was not going to be my classroom anymore. I had already put my one poster up on the wall and started to get the feel of the room, but Hey! nothing like some last minute changes! Ok, so my classroom is moved, thats ok. We have no power. We have no running water. We have no class lists so I do not know who is supposed to be in my class. We have one schedule for the entire school to share. We have one computer at Gonzaga but we cannot use it because we have no power and therefore we cannot print off any more copies of the schedule. We are starting out on a great foot. We line up for assembly and I find the standard 3s. I was the first one to introduce myself, I was obviously the one who stuck out the most. After a little while Nicholas calls me up in front of everyone and invites me to do the hokey pokey with him. Nothing like doing the hokey pokey in front of 300 students on the first day of work. I had a great time! The students love it and by now we have done it a few times (the students laugh whenever Teacher Emily does the hokey pokey).
After assembly we went to our classroom and I was supposed to entertain the students for the first two hours.....I had things planned but I was assuming that the students would a least have a pencil and a notebook with them. I was wrong. None of the students had a pencil, notebook, or any of their textbooks. Gonzaga is an English medium school yet the accents of the students are so difficult to understand. They had a difficult time with my accent too. So here we are, me and 30 9 year old trying to communicate with each other, but mostly just saying what? huh? what? We went over class rules, the schedule of classes and I tried to have them write down some information about themselves. I gave them all index cards and wrote on the board what I wanted them to write on it. So many of them had questions that I wrote an example on the board using some of my information. So I wrote "my name is Emily Wallace, my birthday is May 30, my favorite color is green, I have an older brother Patrick and a younger sister Kate." I cannot tell you how many students I have whose names are Emily and whose birthday is May 30th and favorite color is green! I knew this was going to be a trick. For those of you who are interested, I have some interesting names of students. Wenceslaus, Moses, Sharifa, Witness, Shalom, Claus, Joha, Enea, Manka, Mpeli, and Anuciata. I will definitely be sharing stories about some of these students, I have many already.
I survived that first day, and the first week and even the second week. It gets hot at the school, especially since we have no fans in the classroom, but we also have no power to run them...
I cannot tell you all enough how much I love teaching. I was very apprehensive about teaching before I came here and even while prepping here but I leave at the end of the day excited to go back the next morning. Every morning when I wake up I cant wait to get to school and greet all of the students. This is the first time that I have been this excited about a job. This is exactly where I am supposed to be. I have no doubt in my mind. God has a crazy plan, it was this time last year that I was finishing my application for JVI and I was so unsure of what I was going to do this year. After many twists and turns, I have been led to this place so far away from my family and friends yet so close to my calling to love and serve. I am experiencing a peace in my life because I have such satisfaction in knowing that this is where God wants me. Every time I see my students and they run up to me, I know that this is how God is calling me to love each and every day for the next two years and I could not be happier.
I miss you all and I hope you are finding peace this new year.
Tuesday, January 13th marked the beginning of the 2009 academic year. The students had just had a month and a half off from school and I was just celebrating my being in country for 5 weeks. I am teaching at Gonzaga Primary School which started last year with the generous donation from a family wanting to promote Jesuit ecucation. There was a school/orphanage, Sarah Cobet, which was closing so Gonzaga took in the orphans to educate. Now we teach those students, many poor students from the area as well as many orphans from an organization called S.O.S. I am teaching standard 3 and 4, about the age equivalent of grades 3 and 4 (although I have students ranging from 8-11 in my standard 3). I am the class teacher for standard three so this means I am basically their homeroom teacher/moderator/mother at school/playmate/anything else you can think of.
So on the first day of school Nicholas and I walked to Gonzaga through the twisty alleyways behind peoples houses, over little streams, and through piles of garbage. We rounded the corner and saw a massive amount of little people standing inside the gates of Gonzaga. I became even more excited than I was before. We had a staff meeting the Wednesday before school started (yes the first staff meeting for the whole year was held only 6 days before school started). The meeting was supposed to begin at 7:30 but in actuality and true to Tanzanian time we did not start until 10:30 and we finished at 1:30. We are supposed to have about 12 people on staff, by this meeting we had 10. At the meeting one of the teachers told us he was not going to return so we were down to 9. We had one other new teacher at the meeting and then two days later he also, through text message, told us he was not coming to teach anymore. So we are starting off short 4 teachers. Ok, its ok we can do this! On the first day of school we have two new teachers who were hired over the weekend. However, one of the teachers from last year did not show up because he was sick.
So I get to school and I am told that the classroom I was shown the day before was not going to be my classroom anymore. I had already put my one poster up on the wall and started to get the feel of the room, but Hey! nothing like some last minute changes! Ok, so my classroom is moved, thats ok. We have no power. We have no running water. We have no class lists so I do not know who is supposed to be in my class. We have one schedule for the entire school to share. We have one computer at Gonzaga but we cannot use it because we have no power and therefore we cannot print off any more copies of the schedule. We are starting out on a great foot. We line up for assembly and I find the standard 3s. I was the first one to introduce myself, I was obviously the one who stuck out the most. After a little while Nicholas calls me up in front of everyone and invites me to do the hokey pokey with him. Nothing like doing the hokey pokey in front of 300 students on the first day of work. I had a great time! The students love it and by now we have done it a few times (the students laugh whenever Teacher Emily does the hokey pokey).
After assembly we went to our classroom and I was supposed to entertain the students for the first two hours.....I had things planned but I was assuming that the students would a least have a pencil and a notebook with them. I was wrong. None of the students had a pencil, notebook, or any of their textbooks. Gonzaga is an English medium school yet the accents of the students are so difficult to understand. They had a difficult time with my accent too. So here we are, me and 30 9 year old trying to communicate with each other, but mostly just saying what? huh? what? We went over class rules, the schedule of classes and I tried to have them write down some information about themselves. I gave them all index cards and wrote on the board what I wanted them to write on it. So many of them had questions that I wrote an example on the board using some of my information. So I wrote "my name is Emily Wallace, my birthday is May 30, my favorite color is green, I have an older brother Patrick and a younger sister Kate." I cannot tell you how many students I have whose names are Emily and whose birthday is May 30th and favorite color is green! I knew this was going to be a trick. For those of you who are interested, I have some interesting names of students. Wenceslaus, Moses, Sharifa, Witness, Shalom, Claus, Joha, Enea, Manka, Mpeli, and Anuciata. I will definitely be sharing stories about some of these students, I have many already.
I survived that first day, and the first week and even the second week. It gets hot at the school, especially since we have no fans in the classroom, but we also have no power to run them...
I cannot tell you all enough how much I love teaching. I was very apprehensive about teaching before I came here and even while prepping here but I leave at the end of the day excited to go back the next morning. Every morning when I wake up I cant wait to get to school and greet all of the students. This is the first time that I have been this excited about a job. This is exactly where I am supposed to be. I have no doubt in my mind. God has a crazy plan, it was this time last year that I was finishing my application for JVI and I was so unsure of what I was going to do this year. After many twists and turns, I have been led to this place so far away from my family and friends yet so close to my calling to love and serve. I am experiencing a peace in my life because I have such satisfaction in knowing that this is where God wants me. Every time I see my students and they run up to me, I know that this is how God is calling me to love each and every day for the next two years and I could not be happier.
I miss you all and I hope you are finding peace this new year.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Art of the Dala Dala
Tanzania is not for the tall nor the unadventurous.
So on Thursday 12/11 the girls took a trip to the beach. Even though we live 5 miles from the water, it takes 2 hours to get to the beach. The trip probably would take a half hour if the roads were better and if there was a brdge. the Dala-dala is the bus in Tanzania. It is really a mini-bus that look as through it was gutted and a few rows of benches were nailed to the floor, not kidding. So we took 3 different dalas to the beach that day. There are different kids of dalas, some that you can barely fit in because they are so small, some that feel as though they are about to fall apart, some of them barely have a floor, et cetera. The driver is on the right side of the car and we drive on the other side of the road...most of the time. Getting on the dala is a free-for-all, there is much pushing, shoving, and elbowing. Really anything goes. We got on the first dala in Mabibo, where we live and took it to Corner. That trip was uneventful thankfully. The next one was slightly more interesting because this is when we really used our elbowing skills and in turn got elbowed ourselves. When the dala comes, the people inside are pushing to get off just as the people are pushing to get on. This usually happens are the dala is still moving. Finally it stops and the process finishes. Now keep in mind that in these dalas there are about three rows of seats, you can squeeze two maybe three people in the rows and then depending on how tall the dala is, maybe standing 3 people in the aisle. However this is usually not the case. You usually end up sitting on peoples laps, having people stand on your feet faces right next to each other. There is so sense of personal space here. We got off the second dala and walked about 15 minutes to the Ferry, conveniently right next to the fish market. We pushed and shoved our way onto the ferry, naturally. We finally found our last dala. Somewhat crowded, but not like sardines, this trip took 20 minutes. We arrived at our stop and i had absolutely no idea where we were, looked like we were in the middle of no where. We walked about 20 more minutes to the beach, Kipepeo Beach (it means butterfly). The water was soooo warm, the Indian Ocean is absolutely beautiful. Christen pleasantly pointed out that it was December 11th. Our return trip on the dalas was quite eventful. The first one wasnt bad, but the second one, oh goodness. There were so many people waiting. I was watching people get on another dala and I am surprised if someone wasnt punched or knocked out. We did the same, ran to our dala when it arrived and elbowed our way again onto the bus. We were squeezed and picked up more people on the way. I am going to borrow this from Christen, she said "you do not know whether it is your own sweat, the persons in front or behind you, to your right or left, above you or below you....literally." I was standing on this dala, over people and right up against others. Then the traffic came. I was too tall for the dala so I was bent down over some other people. No breeze, not moving, great. Finally we got off and found our last one. My legs were too long to fit behind the seat so i sat with them under my chin for the rest of the ride. The woman next to me was literally leaning on me, her arm was on top of mine we became close friends really quickly. All of this was definitely worth the day at the beach though. I am proud to say that since this first dala experience, I have become a novice on this kind of transportation. I now know how to elbow my way into a dala and how to try to make the best of the given situation. This is definitely an art that needs to be practiced.
So on Thursday 12/11 the girls took a trip to the beach. Even though we live 5 miles from the water, it takes 2 hours to get to the beach. The trip probably would take a half hour if the roads were better and if there was a brdge. the Dala-dala is the bus in Tanzania. It is really a mini-bus that look as through it was gutted and a few rows of benches were nailed to the floor, not kidding. So we took 3 different dalas to the beach that day. There are different kids of dalas, some that you can barely fit in because they are so small, some that feel as though they are about to fall apart, some of them barely have a floor, et cetera. The driver is on the right side of the car and we drive on the other side of the road...most of the time. Getting on the dala is a free-for-all, there is much pushing, shoving, and elbowing. Really anything goes. We got on the first dala in Mabibo, where we live and took it to Corner. That trip was uneventful thankfully. The next one was slightly more interesting because this is when we really used our elbowing skills and in turn got elbowed ourselves. When the dala comes, the people inside are pushing to get off just as the people are pushing to get on. This usually happens are the dala is still moving. Finally it stops and the process finishes. Now keep in mind that in these dalas there are about three rows of seats, you can squeeze two maybe three people in the rows and then depending on how tall the dala is, maybe standing 3 people in the aisle. However this is usually not the case. You usually end up sitting on peoples laps, having people stand on your feet faces right next to each other. There is so sense of personal space here. We got off the second dala and walked about 15 minutes to the Ferry, conveniently right next to the fish market. We pushed and shoved our way onto the ferry, naturally. We finally found our last dala. Somewhat crowded, but not like sardines, this trip took 20 minutes. We arrived at our stop and i had absolutely no idea where we were, looked like we were in the middle of no where. We walked about 20 more minutes to the beach, Kipepeo Beach (it means butterfly). The water was soooo warm, the Indian Ocean is absolutely beautiful. Christen pleasantly pointed out that it was December 11th. Our return trip on the dalas was quite eventful. The first one wasnt bad, but the second one, oh goodness. There were so many people waiting. I was watching people get on another dala and I am surprised if someone wasnt punched or knocked out. We did the same, ran to our dala when it arrived and elbowed our way again onto the bus. We were squeezed and picked up more people on the way. I am going to borrow this from Christen, she said "you do not know whether it is your own sweat, the persons in front or behind you, to your right or left, above you or below you....literally." I was standing on this dala, over people and right up against others. Then the traffic came. I was too tall for the dala so I was bent down over some other people. No breeze, not moving, great. Finally we got off and found our last one. My legs were too long to fit behind the seat so i sat with them under my chin for the rest of the ride. The woman next to me was literally leaning on me, her arm was on top of mine we became close friends really quickly. All of this was definitely worth the day at the beach though. I am proud to say that since this first dala experience, I have become a novice on this kind of transportation. I now know how to elbow my way into a dala and how to try to make the best of the given situation. This is definitely an art that needs to be practiced.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Finally In Africa! Mambo!
Karibuni! Vipi!
I decided to write this email at home so I could collect my thoughts instead of trying to remember everything when I get the chance to go to the high school to use the internet. So as I sit here at our kitchen table, looking out at a humungous palm tree with unripe coconuts, I will try my best to relay as much as I can of my experience and thoughts thus far.
I arrived late Friday night after flying 18 hours and stepping foot on 3 continents. My first thought: it is very hot here and it is midnight. My community mates, Caroline, Nicholas, and Kate, picked the four of us up (Christen and I will be staying in Dar and Mary Beth and Talia will be going up to Moshi in Northern Tanzania, near Mt Kilimanjaro). We took two taxis home - for 7 people and luggage for two years for four people. Caroline, Talia and I sat in the back of one of the taxis with two suitcases on our laps, needless to say the views were not too good. We quickly left the paved roads and started our journey on the dirt roads. I think I can say a good 50% of the time literally felt the ground underneath my feet - the roads here are so bad. Imagine the worst potholes and holes in the road and they are even worse here. 20 minutes later we got to our house. We have a gate around our house and a guard at night - Sitoti (he is Maasai!). Our house is very simple, we have a porch (my favorite place to sit), there is a common room, a tiny kitchen with a small two burner stove and a small cupboard and a small sink and a pantry. We each have our own rooms. The bathroom is also inside. The floors are made out of a clay-like material and re always dusty because everything here is dusty. The windows have bars and screens on them. We also have a fan in each room (God bless whoever invented the fan, we had a conversation recently about which invention was better, the wheel or the fan. The fan won). Our community moved into this house a few months ago and the woman who lived here before ran a duka (a store) out of one of the outside rooms (now Nicholas' room, and kept cows in the courtyard, right next to my room. We also have papaya trees in our courtyard and a banana tree grove next to our house. Our house has electricity most of the time. My second night here we came back to the house only to find there was no electricity. So we lit candles and sat around talking for a while. The power came on during the night. I originally thought we had running water, but I was wrong. We have a water tank in our courtyard where we fill up buckets of water and bring it in to wash hands, flush the toilet, wash dishes, et cetera. We are supposed to have running water but the pressure is never high enough to go through the pipes so we just have to stick with bucket showers. Our beds and couches are made with thick pieces of foam, I am slowly getting used to everything here. We have mosquito nets over our beds, somewhat tedious because we have to tuck and untuck it every night. I think thats good for a description of where I am living.
I want to fill you in on some of the things I have been doing. Our first full day we spent walking around Mabibo, where I am living and meeting some people (quite interesting because nobody speaks English and I do not speak Swahili). Getting to see the area was very eye-opening. I had woken up that morning to a rooster crowing and was very confused. That was cleared up when we saw chickens and roosters literally everywhere and realized that it was normal. Today I also heard the cow for the first time, but there are a lot of animals around here. The roads and footpaths are filled with garbage. There is no place to throw things away, so most people either dump it on the street or burn it. It is culturally expected to greet everyone you see. So with the little Swahili I know, I can say hello! We went out to dinner that night and I tried rice and chipate - a pancake-type thing. African food is not that bad!
On Sunday we went to Mass at our parish, St. John the Baptist, in Swahili. I picked up one word - Amina (Amen)! The Mass lasted almost two hours; the music was beautiful - so lively and passionate. After Mass Nicholas and I walked over to see Gonzaga, the school that I am teaching at. The school is really simple, but adequate. It was built one year ago and it educates a lot of orphans and poorer kids from the neighborhood. Later that afternoon we were sitting in the common room and Nicholas calmly walked in and said "So we are going to take some buckets of water over to our neighbors house, it is on fire." So we all jumped up and thats what we did! They were having a party when the fire started and continued the party when it was put out!
Monday was a great day, in the morning we walked about 2 kilometers to a town called Mburahati, where the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's Sisters) have an orphanage and home for the elderly and mentally handicapped. Talk about a quick introduction to the societal issues of Tanzania! We walked down the road it was on and we came to this huge group of people waiting for distribution of clothes and other things. I had a strange feeling as we were walking in. This was the first time that my skin color really became apparent to me. Here I am, coming from the wealthiest country in the world to come of the poorest, I am Caucasian and these people are African. I have so many privileges that they do not, even based on my skin color. It is such a privilege to be able to take two years and move to another country and work there. I do not have to worry about working and making money to help me family, I do not have any dependents. I am so blessed. We arrived in the childrens section where we stayed with the 1-2 year olds for a few hours. One little boy climbed up onto my lap not long after we got there and fell asleep in my arms. I woke him up for lunch but he cried whenever I left him. These children were so precious. I only hope that they will get adopted by a family who will be able to take good care of them. We walked back at noon, and let me tell you, the equatorial sun can be brutal. Later we had our first Swahili lesson. I am slowly starting o recognize little things, but in order to communicate with anybody I will have to become fluent. We have gone to dinner at friends houses last Monday and Tuesday and tried a lot of different African food: cassava, cassava leaves, pilau (spiced rice), chapate, beans, baked bananas, et cetera. Last Monday night we went to Mama Davy’s sisters house to greet her and her baby and we sat outside on a very busy street drinking local beer and trying to communicate with the family. It was actually a very fun night because we met a lot of people and got to experience a lot of local things.
I apologize for writing so much but there is a lot that I want to share with you all! For those of you who made it to the end, thank you! I hope you can now get a tiny glimpse into my life in Africa so far. I will be going on retreat on Friday the 19th and will return a few days after Christmas. We are also going to Moshi to help our other community set up. I hope things are going well at home, pleas keep me updated on your lives!! Thank you for all of your support and prayers, you are all in mine as well. God is so good!
Kwa Heri,
Emilia
I decided to write this email at home so I could collect my thoughts instead of trying to remember everything when I get the chance to go to the high school to use the internet. So as I sit here at our kitchen table, looking out at a humungous palm tree with unripe coconuts, I will try my best to relay as much as I can of my experience and thoughts thus far.
I arrived late Friday night after flying 18 hours and stepping foot on 3 continents. My first thought: it is very hot here and it is midnight. My community mates, Caroline, Nicholas, and Kate, picked the four of us up (Christen and I will be staying in Dar and Mary Beth and Talia will be going up to Moshi in Northern Tanzania, near Mt Kilimanjaro). We took two taxis home - for 7 people and luggage for two years for four people. Caroline, Talia and I sat in the back of one of the taxis with two suitcases on our laps, needless to say the views were not too good. We quickly left the paved roads and started our journey on the dirt roads. I think I can say a good 50% of the time literally felt the ground underneath my feet - the roads here are so bad. Imagine the worst potholes and holes in the road and they are even worse here. 20 minutes later we got to our house. We have a gate around our house and a guard at night - Sitoti (he is Maasai!). Our house is very simple, we have a porch (my favorite place to sit), there is a common room, a tiny kitchen with a small two burner stove and a small cupboard and a small sink and a pantry. We each have our own rooms. The bathroom is also inside. The floors are made out of a clay-like material and re always dusty because everything here is dusty. The windows have bars and screens on them. We also have a fan in each room (God bless whoever invented the fan, we had a conversation recently about which invention was better, the wheel or the fan. The fan won). Our community moved into this house a few months ago and the woman who lived here before ran a duka (a store) out of one of the outside rooms (now Nicholas' room, and kept cows in the courtyard, right next to my room. We also have papaya trees in our courtyard and a banana tree grove next to our house. Our house has electricity most of the time. My second night here we came back to the house only to find there was no electricity. So we lit candles and sat around talking for a while. The power came on during the night. I originally thought we had running water, but I was wrong. We have a water tank in our courtyard where we fill up buckets of water and bring it in to wash hands, flush the toilet, wash dishes, et cetera. We are supposed to have running water but the pressure is never high enough to go through the pipes so we just have to stick with bucket showers. Our beds and couches are made with thick pieces of foam, I am slowly getting used to everything here. We have mosquito nets over our beds, somewhat tedious because we have to tuck and untuck it every night. I think thats good for a description of where I am living.
I want to fill you in on some of the things I have been doing. Our first full day we spent walking around Mabibo, where I am living and meeting some people (quite interesting because nobody speaks English and I do not speak Swahili). Getting to see the area was very eye-opening. I had woken up that morning to a rooster crowing and was very confused. That was cleared up when we saw chickens and roosters literally everywhere and realized that it was normal. Today I also heard the cow for the first time, but there are a lot of animals around here. The roads and footpaths are filled with garbage. There is no place to throw things away, so most people either dump it on the street or burn it. It is culturally expected to greet everyone you see. So with the little Swahili I know, I can say hello! We went out to dinner that night and I tried rice and chipate - a pancake-type thing. African food is not that bad!
On Sunday we went to Mass at our parish, St. John the Baptist, in Swahili. I picked up one word - Amina (Amen)! The Mass lasted almost two hours; the music was beautiful - so lively and passionate. After Mass Nicholas and I walked over to see Gonzaga, the school that I am teaching at. The school is really simple, but adequate. It was built one year ago and it educates a lot of orphans and poorer kids from the neighborhood. Later that afternoon we were sitting in the common room and Nicholas calmly walked in and said "So we are going to take some buckets of water over to our neighbors house, it is on fire." So we all jumped up and thats what we did! They were having a party when the fire started and continued the party when it was put out!
Monday was a great day, in the morning we walked about 2 kilometers to a town called Mburahati, where the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa's Sisters) have an orphanage and home for the elderly and mentally handicapped. Talk about a quick introduction to the societal issues of Tanzania! We walked down the road it was on and we came to this huge group of people waiting for distribution of clothes and other things. I had a strange feeling as we were walking in. This was the first time that my skin color really became apparent to me. Here I am, coming from the wealthiest country in the world to come of the poorest, I am Caucasian and these people are African. I have so many privileges that they do not, even based on my skin color. It is such a privilege to be able to take two years and move to another country and work there. I do not have to worry about working and making money to help me family, I do not have any dependents. I am so blessed. We arrived in the childrens section where we stayed with the 1-2 year olds for a few hours. One little boy climbed up onto my lap not long after we got there and fell asleep in my arms. I woke him up for lunch but he cried whenever I left him. These children were so precious. I only hope that they will get adopted by a family who will be able to take good care of them. We walked back at noon, and let me tell you, the equatorial sun can be brutal. Later we had our first Swahili lesson. I am slowly starting o recognize little things, but in order to communicate with anybody I will have to become fluent. We have gone to dinner at friends houses last Monday and Tuesday and tried a lot of different African food: cassava, cassava leaves, pilau (spiced rice), chapate, beans, baked bananas, et cetera. Last Monday night we went to Mama Davy’s sisters house to greet her and her baby and we sat outside on a very busy street drinking local beer and trying to communicate with the family. It was actually a very fun night because we met a lot of people and got to experience a lot of local things.
I apologize for writing so much but there is a lot that I want to share with you all! For those of you who made it to the end, thank you! I hope you can now get a tiny glimpse into my life in Africa so far. I will be going on retreat on Friday the 19th and will return a few days after Christmas. We are also going to Moshi to help our other community set up. I hope things are going well at home, pleas keep me updated on your lives!! Thank you for all of your support and prayers, you are all in mine as well. God is so good!
Kwa Heri,
Emilia
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Set The World On Fire
"I want to choose what leads to the deepening of Gods life in me." I wrote this down in my journal during JVI Orientation a few weeks ago. Those two weeks in Cleveland were exactly what I needed in order to stay strong during this waiting period. I found out I was going to Africa in April and I still have three more months to go before I actually get there. Graduating from college, saying goodbye to friends and family, and moving back home all brought their own bittersweet extras. I know that I am ready for this next step in my life, it has been waiting to happen for a very long time.
I have so much that I want to say, and I have never blogged before so I don't really know how this is all going to work out. I apologize if I end up writing too much, but there is so much to say about all my experiences! I spent two weeks in Cleveland at the JVI Orientation, met all of the other volunteers in my class and now we are literally all over the world. The volunteers going to Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Belize left for their countries right after Orientation and Tanzania, Nepal, Peru, and Nicaragua are waiting until at least November to go to our countries. I leave December 1st or 2nd for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and I cannot be more excited!
Part of my preparation has been stocking up on music to put on my ipod. So call me a dork, whatever, but many of my purchases have been Christian CDs. I wanted to bring a lot of this kind of music because music has been my main form of prayer and the best way I can connect with God, music is essential to my life. Anyways, one of the songs on the CD had EMILY written alllllll over it. So here are the lyrics:
I want to set the world on fire
Until it`s burning bright for You
It`s everything that I desire
Can I be the one You use?
I, I am small but
You, You are big enough
I, I am weak but
You, You are strong enough to
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
There`s nothing I can not do
Nothing I cannot do
I wanna feed the hungry children
And reach across the farthest land
And tell the broken there is healing
And mercy in the Father`s hands
My hands my feet
My everything
My life, my love
Lord, use me
I wanna set the world on fire
I wanna set the world on fire, yeah
I`m gonna set the world on fire
Set the world on fire
-Britt Nicole "Set the World on Fire"
This song is my heart. I want to set the world on fire, I want to give my love to everyone I meet, I want to use all of the gifts and talents that God has given me and use them to the best of my ability to pour myself out to the people I will meet. This is what I have wanted to do ever since I went to Jamaica that first time. I know I have said it so many times that it has probably become boring to hear, but that experience really changed my life. Without Jamaica who knows where I would be right now, I would probably not be moving halfway across the world and giving my life for two years to do service. I know that I am incredibly passionate about this, this is exactly where I am supposed to be in my life. I realized that at Orientation. I had an "ah-hah" moment when I became really comfortable and reassured that this is exactly, no doubt about it, 100% where I am supposed to be right now. I cannot imagine myself doing anything differently. Orientation gave more life to that flame in my heart, the passion and desire to do service and work with the poor. Being with people who understand why we are doing this, who want to work for justice and peace, and who are giving up and receiving the same things as I am, was amazing. It is very easy to get wrapped up in the whole material preparations, how much sunscreen do I need, is this skirt long enough, I need to pack for two years, etc. Remembering the real reasons and the most important parts about preparation can be difficult. The whole two weeks of Orientation we talked about social justice, spirituality, community, and simple living and it brought me back down and reminded me what sparked my desire to do this in the first place.
I look at this experience not just as my desire to do service internationally, but it is so much more. This is my vocation, it is my calling. All of last year when I was discerning a year or two of service and applying for different programs (God bless you all who had to deal with me during that time), I kept on saying that I am ready to take the next step. As a Theology and Social Work major I had studying social justice and my faith for the past four years. I knew a lot about these things and knew how they manifested themselves in my life. My faith has always been important to me and I consider myself a strong woman of faith, but I knew that I needed to move on and take the next step. I didn't really have a choice because graduation was coming whether I liked it or not and I had to leave CUA. I looked at service as that next step. It was something that I felt drawn to, it was something I was passionate about and was something that I knew I had to do because if I didn't I knew I would regret it. This was the obvious next step for me. I make it seem like this was all seamless and just fell into place, haha yeah right. But we will leave all those details for another time.
I think this blog is long enough, there will be plenty more to come because I have so much that I want to tell everybody that has supported me and continue to support me. Please keep all of the volunteers and the people they meet in your prayers, without prayers our work would be so much more difficult. It is only through the grace of God that we are able to give ourselves completely for these next two years and live the Gospel.
I want to choose what leads to the deepening of God's life in me. I have already experienced this a little, I have felt God in my life in a different way than ever before. What person in their right mind would chose to leave family and friends behind and go live among the poor without hot water, without stable electricity, without knowing the language, the customs, the people? I cannot do this on my own, this has not been simply a decision that I made on a whim, but something that has been forming in my heart for a very long time. This experience is leading me to surrender myself even more to God's will, to trust Him completely that He will take care of me and give me the graces I need to work through the hard times, to recognize the joyous times, and to find things out for myself. My answering this call feels so right, it is God working in my life, working in me, small and broken that I am, to live as an example for others and to work for justice. I have no choice in this calling but to let God in more, no person can do this on their own. This is why your prayers and support means more to me than anything.
I found a book of African prayers, so I want to finish this post with one (it says Various African Blessing):
"May God do with you! Go Nicely: may your path be swept of danger. God go with you, and may you escape from the mishaps ahead! May you go with God! Let God bear you in peace like a young shoot! May you meet with the Kindly Disposed One! May God take care of you! May God walk you well! May you pass the night with God! May God be with you who remain behind! May you stay with God!"
I have so much that I want to say, and I have never blogged before so I don't really know how this is all going to work out. I apologize if I end up writing too much, but there is so much to say about all my experiences! I spent two weeks in Cleveland at the JVI Orientation, met all of the other volunteers in my class and now we are literally all over the world. The volunteers going to Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and Belize left for their countries right after Orientation and Tanzania, Nepal, Peru, and Nicaragua are waiting until at least November to go to our countries. I leave December 1st or 2nd for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and I cannot be more excited!
Part of my preparation has been stocking up on music to put on my ipod. So call me a dork, whatever, but many of my purchases have been Christian CDs. I wanted to bring a lot of this kind of music because music has been my main form of prayer and the best way I can connect with God, music is essential to my life. Anyways, one of the songs on the CD had EMILY written alllllll over it. So here are the lyrics:
I want to set the world on fire
Until it`s burning bright for You
It`s everything that I desire
Can I be the one You use?
I, I am small but
You, You are big enough
I, I am weak but
You, You are strong enough to
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
There`s nothing I can not do
Nothing I cannot do
I wanna feed the hungry children
And reach across the farthest land
And tell the broken there is healing
And mercy in the Father`s hands
My hands my feet
My everything
My life, my love
Lord, use me
I wanna set the world on fire
I wanna set the world on fire, yeah
I`m gonna set the world on fire
Set the world on fire
-Britt Nicole "Set the World on Fire"
This song is my heart. I want to set the world on fire, I want to give my love to everyone I meet, I want to use all of the gifts and talents that God has given me and use them to the best of my ability to pour myself out to the people I will meet. This is what I have wanted to do ever since I went to Jamaica that first time. I know I have said it so many times that it has probably become boring to hear, but that experience really changed my life. Without Jamaica who knows where I would be right now, I would probably not be moving halfway across the world and giving my life for two years to do service. I know that I am incredibly passionate about this, this is exactly where I am supposed to be in my life. I realized that at Orientation. I had an "ah-hah" moment when I became really comfortable and reassured that this is exactly, no doubt about it, 100% where I am supposed to be right now. I cannot imagine myself doing anything differently. Orientation gave more life to that flame in my heart, the passion and desire to do service and work with the poor. Being with people who understand why we are doing this, who want to work for justice and peace, and who are giving up and receiving the same things as I am, was amazing. It is very easy to get wrapped up in the whole material preparations, how much sunscreen do I need, is this skirt long enough, I need to pack for two years, etc. Remembering the real reasons and the most important parts about preparation can be difficult. The whole two weeks of Orientation we talked about social justice, spirituality, community, and simple living and it brought me back down and reminded me what sparked my desire to do this in the first place.
I look at this experience not just as my desire to do service internationally, but it is so much more. This is my vocation, it is my calling. All of last year when I was discerning a year or two of service and applying for different programs (God bless you all who had to deal with me during that time), I kept on saying that I am ready to take the next step. As a Theology and Social Work major I had studying social justice and my faith for the past four years. I knew a lot about these things and knew how they manifested themselves in my life. My faith has always been important to me and I consider myself a strong woman of faith, but I knew that I needed to move on and take the next step. I didn't really have a choice because graduation was coming whether I liked it or not and I had to leave CUA. I looked at service as that next step. It was something that I felt drawn to, it was something I was passionate about and was something that I knew I had to do because if I didn't I knew I would regret it. This was the obvious next step for me. I make it seem like this was all seamless and just fell into place, haha yeah right. But we will leave all those details for another time.
I think this blog is long enough, there will be plenty more to come because I have so much that I want to tell everybody that has supported me and continue to support me. Please keep all of the volunteers and the people they meet in your prayers, without prayers our work would be so much more difficult. It is only through the grace of God that we are able to give ourselves completely for these next two years and live the Gospel.
I want to choose what leads to the deepening of God's life in me. I have already experienced this a little, I have felt God in my life in a different way than ever before. What person in their right mind would chose to leave family and friends behind and go live among the poor without hot water, without stable electricity, without knowing the language, the customs, the people? I cannot do this on my own, this has not been simply a decision that I made on a whim, but something that has been forming in my heart for a very long time. This experience is leading me to surrender myself even more to God's will, to trust Him completely that He will take care of me and give me the graces I need to work through the hard times, to recognize the joyous times, and to find things out for myself. My answering this call feels so right, it is God working in my life, working in me, small and broken that I am, to live as an example for others and to work for justice. I have no choice in this calling but to let God in more, no person can do this on their own. This is why your prayers and support means more to me than anything.
I found a book of African prayers, so I want to finish this post with one (it says Various African Blessing):
"May God do with you! Go Nicely: may your path be swept of danger. God go with you, and may you escape from the mishaps ahead! May you go with God! Let God bear you in peace like a young shoot! May you meet with the Kindly Disposed One! May God take care of you! May God walk you well! May you pass the night with God! May God be with you who remain behind! May you stay with God!"
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