 |
| Abraham, Tanishka, Jesse, and Folashade |
I was talking to the art teacher the other day and she was telling me that she has been teaching for the last 20 years! As I thought about it all I could think of was that I have been teaching for a whole month now, and I count that as one of the major accomplishments of my life. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to look back on a 20 year career knowing that you have faithfully served for all of that time. It’s crazy and completely inspiring at the same time. So, those of you that have done that, I’m amazed! Thank you for your example!
We have had some great days and some rough days in my class over the past month, but I am really loving getting to know my kids and I already think they have taught me more than I will ever teach them. Abraham and Ademiola are brilliant and if you don’t keep them busy they can get a little mischievous. Joel, Jesse and Samuel couldn’t stay in their seats for a whole lesson if you paid them a million Naira, and my three little Indian girls, Tanishka, Nayanah and Anupama are just about the sweetest little girls you have ever met. Missy and Folashade want to be superstars when they grow up and everything they own, besides the light blue uniform t-shirts that all of my students wear, is pink! Also, I think soccer is the air that the boys in my class breathe and I’m pretty sure P.E. is what gets them through the day. Altogether I have 19 students in my class representing eight different countries. It’s quite an interesting mix.
We had an exciting addition to our class this week because we are studying fish in science and I was given a gold fish to have in our classroom as a pet! My kids were absolutely thrilled and by popular vote her name is now, Miley. I can’t imagine where they would have gotten that name from! J (The boys were out voted, but they are getting over it.) She has brought up some great questions too, like: Do fish breathe water? And does a fish turn into a shark when it gets older? I guess we’ll have to find out next week! The best part of our fist day with the fish was when the class was pretty wound up and as I was trying to quiet them down to dismiss them, when one little girl said, “Shhh… you’re scaring our fish!” The room went silent. It was quieter than I had ever heard before, and then somewhere in the back one little first grader said, “I’m sorry Mr. Fish, we didn’t mean to make you feel afraid.” Soon the whole class chimed in with sweet little apologies. It was absolutely adorable.
We have lost teeth (thankfully only from natural causes), had pants that can’t stay on and a million little shoes to tie. One of my favorite things is how ever is how eager all of my students are to jump in and sing or dance. There is absolutely no concept of self-consciousness and I only wish that freedom could go with them forever. For now though, our favorite songs are Hillsong’s “Superhero” and the “Waka Waka” song from the world cup last year. They love playing “Little Sally Walker”, heads up 7-up and addition around the world. Amelia Bedelia is their favorite book and I’m thinking Frog and Toad might be our next read aloud!
My students are so patient with me, and even though Moody taught me a lot about teaching, I can guarantee that have learned more in the last month that I ever thought possible both about teaching and life in general. The best thing happened when little Tamilore got too many letters for shouting out in class and had to stay in for recess to write lines. Now, you have to know that not being able to play soccer at that moment was pretty much the end of the world. So, he is sitting at his desk, miserably copying, “I will listen to my teacher” as many times as he can before the break was over. Then out of the blue, he looked up at me with the saddest eyes and said, “Ms. Katie, I am so sorry.” And that was it. I melted. It was completely sincere and in the innocence of that moment I realized what genuine repentance looks like. It was God’s way of showing me what he wants from me and I don’t think He could have explained it more any more clearly than that.
Another day, we were memorizing 1 Corinthians 13 because we were going over what love looks like in our devotions and I was helping the class come up with actions to help us remember the words. I asked them what they wanted to do for patience and they held out their hands like a stop signs. That seemed like it would work and then I realized that is something I say to them all the time. “Just relax and be patient” and I put my hand out like that. Maybe they really are listening! It was encouraging to know that they were picking up on little things and also a great reminder of the responsibility of being around kids. There’s nothing like lots of little eyes to keep you on track.
Friday was one of our particularly hard days and I was lecturing them about their behavior, not a good teacher move, but it was what I was doing. By the end of the day I felt like the worst teacher on the planet and I just wanted to go hide. Then one of my little girls came up gave me a little flower that she had picked from the bushes and said, “I love you, Ms. Katie” I didn’t even know what to say. She couldn’t have known that I completely didn’t deserve that or that all day I really wasn’t that great of a teacher. It’s love that I didn’t deserve So, in everything from the courage to dance and sing, to repentance and unconditional love, I’m convinced that my students are teaching me more than I could ever teach them. God has used them in my life already and if this is what teaching is like, then bring on the next 20 years because I have a lot to learn.
 |
| Just a little bit of Nigeria... |
 |
| The road outside of our compound. |
Nigeria as a whole has been growing on me. I haven’t felt so completely out of place and as we begin to get to know a few people I’m relaxing and settling into life here. As a whole, Nigerians aren’t crazy about having their pictures taken, but here are a few pictures that I took from the car driving on the way to the market one day. I promise to put up more pictures very soon!
