Settling in, one day at a time...

    "It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!"... If you're reading this, I hope this song gets stuck in your head. It's been stuck in mine all day! 

    So yes, it is Friday and what a fantastic Friday it is! We leave Plot 2 around 8:30 this morning for our 30 minute trek down the dirt roads, muddy from last nights rain. On our way we pass a group of men waiting to give bota-bota (motorcycle) rides, women selling sugar cane in the raw, a boy trimming hedges, shepherds herding their goats across the grass fields, children laughing and playing before school, mothers bathing their children in green and blue plastic basins... It's such a different world. Such a lively and beautiful world. All the faces are so joyful and the smiles... oh the smiles, bright enough to keep you warm on the coldest Alabama night. 

   We arrive at Zana and report to our classes. KK goes to her top class and I go to my baby class. The faces and schedule are becoming more and more familiar as the days go on. I'm starting to feel useful instead of a hindrance to the teachers with whom I am working. 

    We begin each day the same: The teacher tells the children to stand and they chant, "I am standing, I am standing." Then she says, "Let us pray" and again they being their chanting, "Let us pray, let us pray." Clap, clap, clap. They repeat Psalms 119: 73-75 after the teacher, "May your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, Lord, and your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen" They end their prayer by clapping for Jesus. Three claps, three claps, one. Let the day begin! 

    My kids, the babies, range from 3 to 6 years old. There are three tables in our classroom. In the front are the two that seat the more advanced students. (And when I say advanced I mean: they're able to speak some English, draw a few simple objects, and count to ten.) Today's early morning objective was to learn the senses. Keeping these children interested in the lesson requires constant interaction. The teacher says, "I have five senses", pause, "I have what?" The children respond, "five senses" and so on. 

    Fridays are chapel days. So at 9:30, when the early morning teaching is over, we join in the adjacent room with the top class. We start our chapel by singing some English and some Lugandan worship songs. Naturally, KK and I struggle with the Lugandan, but we smile, clap, and dance to the music; no doubt thoroughly entertaining the teachers and children. After the singing the children settle and Teacher Jennifer (the head teacher for the baby class) begins the lesson. "Who made you?" The children echo with their response, "God." "What else did God make?" Jennifer continues. I looked at KK perplexed. They teach catechisms over here? Then I realize, I had the preconceived idea that the children weren't being taught any truth. How ignorant of myself to think such a thing. I'm reminded once again that the kingdom of God is not subject to Montgomery, Alabama. God's kingdom stretches across the ocean even to Zana Community Christian School in Uganda. I love such realizations; puts me in place before my Great, High King.

    Before I know it, an hour has passed and it's time for break. My job is to help guide the children outside to their mat for their "eats" (their snacks). I can't help but feel like the goat herders we saw earlier today. We wash hands and again chant another tune, "Wash your hands. Everyday. Wash the germs away". KK and I have the privilege to "take tea" with the other teachers at break. We find it quite uncomfortable drinking tea under the hot, African sun but do so anyways. 

Zana Community Christian School

    The last portion of the day, from 11:00 to 1:00 is focused on social studies. Teacher Jennifer informs me that I will be teaching this subject for the next two months. I'm rather excited after looking over the teaching plan. Let's see what's on the agenda: running, walking, stopping, touching, etc. I practically get to take them outside and play Simon Says! What could be more fun? 

    The children are picked up and we begin to head home when we are interrupted by our new friend, Brenda, the schools secretary. She's motioning for us to come. When we get nearer we notice she is eating something...but we can't quite make it out. Are those? Yes! Grasshoppers! Yuck! She stands in front of us eating them by the handful! Smiling, grasshopper parts easily visible in the crevices of her white teeth. But KK and I aren't about to reject this cultural experience. I bravely pick one up and throw it in my mouth before I can convince myself otherwise. Chew. Chew. Don't think about it. I do well until the grasshopper is masticated and ready to be swallowed. And then I can't think of anything but the fact that I am trying to down a grasshopper...legs and all. But finally, with a wince of dissatisfaction, I succeed. Now it's KK's turn. Hesitantly, she picks up her victim.  "It's better than you'd think", I encourage. "American chicken!", someone says. She puts it in her mouth, chews thoughtfully considering the taste, and says, "They taste like sunflower seeds, that is, once you get past the texture." 

    Welcome to Africa! 

                                                                                                                         -Mary Grace