Feb 11, 2008 - MICS had first week in Wooden House in Macha
Posted by Gil and Ronda / SoMacha.com at 8:06 PM
MICS had opened it's 2008 school year in the Wooden House in Macha. Another day of rejoicing as the students returned to classes.
They were all in their places with bright shiny faces(-:
God blessed us and showed us favor as we had a week of sun shine so the parents and boys and girls could get used to the new route to school..... a ways away from the Macha Mission Hospital building on very muddy trails. Some biked, some walked, some came in trucks, some in cars. One bicycle had the adult driver and three kids on it....that taxi got its moneys worth.
School began with 36 students present on Monday and by Friday we had 46 with 50 children enrolled for next week.
As the classes started we had no teacher for the reception (Kindergarten) class. A class of 6 or 8 students.....should be a piece of cake...right??? Wrong!!!! It is one of the things I really like to teach...right??? Well, we started with 6 children...4 boys and 2 girls. Thankfully 2 of the boys spoke English! The other 4 spoke NO English and most had seen very few white people. One little boy kept calling Elmo ( a Dutch student) and me "Mazungu" which means white person. We kept telling him our names and his name but he just kept yelling and bossing everyone with a very loud voice in Tonga....by the way the other kids called him the baby, that is how small he is. One little girl just laughed at me ...no matter what I did to correct her she would laugh at me. She was pulling hair and pinching other children and if I would talk to her or stop her she would laugh in my face. She would run away if I put her in time out, even when I just tried to hug her, she would just laugh out very loud...... The first day I finally just took her to another class as the rest of my class was going wild and watching to see what she was getting away with. The second day the same thing happened but we did stay together for about 15 minutes not just 7. By the third day she was with me the entire time!!!!!! and by the end of the week she wanted to hold my hand and sit next to me....and was not calling me Mazungu any more. She did not laugh at me all the time either.....miracles never cease. She and the other little girl in the class started to speak English. Imagine in just one week!!! It was so funny they both started saying "Thank you very much" and so .....randomly on Friday all day they would say or blurt out "Thank you very much" and then again" Thank you very much" They thought they were so special and clever!! Pretty cute...and sure made me smile.
I have hired a teacher to teach this class but she starts on Tuesday. They are Kindergarten age but about at three year old preschool level. I had planned way over their heads and really had to scramble to keep them under control. Joy Mutepfa....I have empathy for you with your three years olds as they came in to the new school year with you! I think they have a 30 second attention span. That is a lot of activities in a morning from 7:45 to 12:30 (-: It has been good for me to get to know these little ones and know their level of instruction. I am sure they will learn English well in the next few weeks and will progress by leaps and bounds this year.
On a sad note, we accepted two girls from the village on a sponsorship from a family from Canada. They attended school for 2 days last week. We heard that on Friday night their hut burned to the ground. No one was hurt.....thankfully. They were all sleeping and a candle set the fire. The thatch roof really burns fast and falls into the room. They all got out but lost everything. Even their new school uniforms and shoes they just received the day before. I am sure they are emotionally stressed as they begin a new school and can not speak English, then lost their little home and place of security and all their possessions especially their new school things, Please pray for them.
The building is still not done. We are still waiting and praying and doing things one day at time while we wait. In talking with parents, the kids had a great week and it seems like they think the wooden house is a great school. SOOOOO we will continue as long as needed.
Please continue to pray for us daily. The teachers and students are holding up well under difficult times. We are anxious to be settled into the new school.
We also have a prayer request. Our car is out of commission because of a leaking seal on the fuel injection pump. The nearest parts are in Lusaka (5 hours away) and we are not certain whether to have a local mechanic take it apart and then go to Lusaka for the spares or have the car trucked the 360 km to a mechanic in Lusaka. Always something to challenge our ingenuity.
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