Patience is a Virtue: Practicum Day 7-14

Let me just start by saying that I am REALLY sorry that this post is a novel. We haven't had internet on Practicum. Our internet stick hates us. Check out this link and you will see why the internet isn't so hot...

Anchor Falls on Internet in East Africa

Enjoy reading literally, everything that I have been doing the past week! Much love from Rwanda.

February 27, 2012: Practicum Day 7

This morning, we went to church here on campus. The church has both an English and Kinyarwanda service, so we went to the English service from 8-10. I am not sure how I really felt about the service. The pastor spoke from Genesis 37:3-11 about “the vision” and how some visions must be kept a secret. He did not present anything biblical to what he was saying, so I was very skeptical about the whole sermon.  I would love to hear from another viewpoint, how “the vision” relates to these verses.  Prior to the sermon, the church asked for testimonies, and then they make the visitors introduce themselves. At the very end of the service, the pastor asks if there is anyone who would like to give their life to Christ. I have found that these three actions are very common in the Africa Church.

Several times during the church service, I felt like things were being forced upon me. During worship, if someone sat down, the worship team leader would insist they stood up and worship god with their body. Or, they would insist that everyone raises their hands to the Lord. At times, these things made me feel uncomfortable because it is not how I worship.  The African Church is much more charismatic which is something I am not used to.

After church, we went with Moses to get white computer paper and toilet paper from his office so that we could begin with our lesson plans for Monday.  The rest of our day, from 11-6:45, we worked on preparing things for teaching this week. I will be teaching numbers 1-20, counting by 10s and writing all numbers. I made sheets of paper posters with the number, the words, and a picture for each number 1 to 20. I also made ones that said 1^st (first), 2^nd (second), and so forth. I made a set for both the pink and orange P3 rooms. While we worked all day we stuck in the movie, The Guardian, and Harry Potter 4. After working all day, we went out and talked with several secondary students while we waited for lunch. We continue to meet new people every day while we are here which is a blast, but it is hard to remember names. I find myself in a situation not remembering someone’s name, but they remember mine because I am one of two Mzungu girls around here. For dinner, we ate in Orchard dorm which is also where they fed us lunch today. We are not sure why, but we are assuming it’s because it is a weekend.

After dinner, we came back and worked on the Water Project. We decided to name it Water for Wisdom because it will be on a school compound. We also chose the name because through clean water, children miss less days of school do to sickness and can decrease the absences and increase attendance which can lead to gaining knowledge.

As I enter this week of teaching, it is my prayer that I can find my strength in God and not become anxious. I am nervous about teaching because of the different circumstances here, but I know God has it all under control.

February 27, 2012: Practicum Day 8

Early morning! One of our boys was up at 4:30am filling buckets of water in the shower right across the hall so that he could wash the floors before the other boys woke up. I had my alarm set for 5:15am so that I could get up, run, shower, and be at class by 7:00am. Yes, their classes start at 7:00am. I could not go back to sleep once I work up at 4:30 so I just laid in bed until my alarm went off. When I finally got up to run, it was still pitch black so I did not go running because I was not comfortable running in the dark. Instead, I did ab ripper and push-ups in the baby area of our room that does not have our bed or our suitcases. At 6:50, I left to go find Teacher Rita to tell her that I would not be teaching P. She said no problem, took the skims back and everything was fine. I was worried that she would be upset, but she wasn’t. All we have to do is tell them what we want to do and they say, “Oh great! No problem.” I blogged and read a little bit until I needed to start work at 8. At 8, Kelli went to class so I worked on editing and citing our water project which is almost complete at this point except for a logistics table that we need specifics from headmaster for. When Kelli got back from teaching at 9:15, we headed to Gashupa’s office to do some sponsorship work. From 9:30 to 12:15, we went through files to check if each fine contained a consent form, a picture, and a current grade report. It was fun to see the students who have been part of the sponsorship program for several years because we could see their progression of pictures. The files also contained sponsor letters and family information. Helping with sponsorship has hit me much harder than I was expecting it to. All the families are living in poverty, and many are only living with one parent. One little girl lived with her mother in extreme poverty and her father is in prison because he participated in the 199 genocide. My heart breaks for each of these children and their families. I hope and pray that the sponsors of these children can love on them and encourage them throughout their schooling and development. These children are sponsored through African New Life Sponsorship Program.

After lunch, I headed to the P3 Pink room for class. I had worked it out with Teacher Rita on Friday that I would be observing today and she would teach so that I could get a better understanding of a normal classroom session (last week they were doing revision for midterms). Well, observing was NOT the case for me. I got there and she expressed how tired she was and left the classroom. I was on! Luckily I had prepared my number signs, but the rest of the lesson was made up as I went. Then, I thought class was only 45 minutes, but no, I was wrong again! I started by having one student come up at a time and hold a number poser. As the students came up, I would have the class repeat the number as a group. When all 10 were standing, I would skip around to see if they really knew them. As a whole, they were very god with their numbers, so I wasn’t sure how the rest of class would go. After that activity, I had 10 students come up and hold the 1^st through 10^th signs. We reviewed them the same way. After stating the numbers 1^st through 10^,” the students took out their English books. I instructed students to write using numbers, words and figures, and then when they were finished to start the exercises I had written on the board. This was a semi disaster because I had some students doing the exercises first, some mixing the two activities, and some not working at all. As students finished their work, I walked around to check their work, and I gave them a star for their good work. With 50+ students, it is hard to check work during class because by the time I check the 50^th kids work, the 1^st kid has been sitting around doing nothing. There is a gap that is nearly impossible to fill here in Africa due to the lack of resources. When we were done with those activities,  I attempted to play a game with them. I wanted them to get in groups when I called out a number. For example, I say “5” and then students cluster in groups of 5. They were clueless! I had kids running to the front with me and huddling me, so I improvised and sent kids back to their seat so that we only had 5 in the front.

The academic schedules are very strange so some days my P3 Pink class has 1.5 hours and P3 orange has 45 minutes or vice versa. It ends up that both classes have 2, 1.5 hour sessions and 3, 45 minutes sessions. So when that hour and a half was over, I headed to P3 orange to repeat the same lesson. This class was only 45 minutes and went much more smoothly. I did the same activity with the posters, but I waited to write the exercises on the board until after they had copied all the numbers, words and figures into their books. I had the students put their hands on their head when they were finished. I did this in order to mix up what they are used to. They are used to a very formal classroom setting, but I want to give them the experience of a different teaching style. When they had their hands on their head, I would go and check their work. That being said, it is normal for them to come to the teacher and shove their books in your face, but I refused to look at anyone’s books who were not sitting down like I had asked. We did not get to the 1^st through 10^th activities because of the shorter time slot, but eventually the learning material will even out across the two classes. Overall, I learned from the day, It was nice being thrown into it because I didn’t have the time to worry. I do not know how tomorrow will go with 2, 1:30 minute sessions. I have to teach the numbers 11 to 20 for an hour and a half. It is time to get creative! But at the same time, it is hard to get creative because students do not understand that type of learning style. The students are not very good visual learners and when I try to do interactive activities the class breaks out in Chaos of standing and snapping to answer questions, or running around to move to a different place in the classroom that I have asked them to do.

When class ended at 3:30, I was done for the day. I went back to my room and got ready to go for a run. The run was very refreshing because it was slightly raining. When I got back from my run, I found Kelli in the family room with our boys. When I came in, they proceeded to debate with us about an underground, satanic religion in America that they called “The Eliminators.” They proceeded to tell us that “The Eliminators” killed Michael Jackson and Kennedy. They were telling us that the hand symbol is “I love you” in sign language. The more they tried to explain to us what they were talking about, the more skeptical I became about what they were telling me. When I asked them where they heard about it, they said, “The radio and the newspapers.” I wanted to reply and ask them, “And what did the radio have to say during the 1994 genocide? Obviously it was not a positive during those times. It is hard to get across to these boys that they cannot believe everything they or hear. It is hard to get across to them that anyone can add something to the internet and certain people will see it as truth. They do not fully understand the internet so this concept is more or less foreign to them.

At dinner, we spoke with the Moses, the DOS (Director of Studies) and he expressed that the students enjoyed us and were asking if we would be here a while. It was nice to hear the positive feedback from students after the first day. It will be a continual battle for me, but it will be a battle where I know I will grow and learn a lot. It is a good time to reflect and see what I truly think about teaching.

February 27, 2012: Practicum Day 9

This morning was a 6:15 wake up and 8am work time. I went and worked at sponsorship from 8-9:15 doing the same work we did yesterday. The files are very disorganized inside so in addition to checking for certain paperwork, I also put the papers in order from the most recent to the oldest. I had P3 Pink from 9:45-11:15 and it went much more smoothly with them today. I designed the class the same way as yesterday, however, we did numbers 11-20 and reviewed 1^st through 10^th. The students were very cooperative and I enjoyed teaching the lesson. After lunch, I had P3 orange, and they behaved much worse than yesterday. 1^st, we were locked out of the room, and then the kids tried to sit in different seats, but I noticed because certain students ended up without a seat. I was sort of being treated like a substitute teacher which was frustrating. I had to spend so much time and energy just trying them to sit that it took away from the lesson. The beginning of the lesson went well with the students holding posters and writing the numbers in in their books. That being said, they would continually try to move seats. This class hadn’t done 1^st through 10^th yet, but when we started to do posters and write the numbers with words that I posted in the back of the room, the lesson went downhill. They were up and moving everywhere and they didn’t understand the concept of sit down! I tried to stop and have them stand up and shake out their energy, but that didn’t work either. We were still about to get most of the work done. Later in the class, Moses came in and the room got quiet. He spoke to them in Kinyarwanda telling them “you wanted a guest teacher and now you are going to misbehave? We will send her to the P1 and P2 classes.” For the rest of the class, they worked diligently.

Classes were stressful for both Kelli and I, so after class we went out into Kayonza for a bit. We went for a walk to the market and bought pineapples and avocado. The pineapples only cost 250 franc a piece and the avocados were 3 for 100 franc. We got some mango juice and crackers to keep in our room for a snack. When we got back, we got a plate and knife from the kitchen to cut our pineapples. Moses asked where we were coming from and he asked, “Who did you go out with?” When we told him we went alone, he responded, “How did you manage?” They just want to be very hospitable, but sometimes they think we can’t survive on our own in Rwanda.  We then talked to John Bosco, one of the secondary students for a while. He is an incredibly driven student who not only excels in the classroom, but he also works to pay for his father diabetic medicine. Kevin went on a house visit to John Boscos house and on that day, John’s father came to Christ. John said it was a day he will never ever forget! After talking to him, we headed back to our room to do ab ripper.  Then I washed the tub, sink, toilet and hand washed some clothes.

The power went out in the early evening so we had to eat dinner in the dark with a candle in the dining hall. The rest of the night we spent working on lesson plans (which I have clue what to do!), journaling, and reading.

Classes like P3 Orange today make me not want to be a teacher. I love kids, but I want to do more than just tell them to sit down or put red stars on their papers. This experience is the perfect time to figure out what I really want to do for the rest of my life. I pray that while I am here I can have an impact on these children. I pray that God will work in me to be a light to these children.

February 29, 2012: Practicum Day 10

Today, teaching started at 8:30am in P3 Pink. It was only a 45 minute period which makes things go much more smoothly. In class, we went over counting by 10’s in both classes. I started by having one student come up at a time and hold a sticker strip with 10 stickers on it. Each time a student came up they would count their stickers and tell the class. Then, as a group, the students would count 10, 20, 30, etc. When we made it to 100 with 10 different students holding strips of 10, they all sat down and wrote the number and the words from 10 to 100, counting by 10’s. I wrote it on the blackboard as an example and they simply copied it into their English books. When they were finished with that exercise, I had students come up and hold a strip that 10 or that had 1-9 on them. This exercise was intended to help the students understand all numbers from 1 to 100. They were able to see that by counting by tens, you can then write any number. The sticker activity the second time showed them how to make numbers such as 29, 37, 95, etc. After that, the students sat down and I had everyone in the classroom make a circle around the classroom. They didn’t understand what I was saying so they made a circle in the front of the room with 50 people. It was mass chaos. I eventually got them into a circle around the room and we counted around the circle. It was a good exercise for pronunciation practice, and they enjoyed counting themselves. The last activity of the period was exercises on the board. Checking them is still chaos, but overall, the class went well. At 9:15, I headed up to sponsorship to go through some more files until I had to teach P3 Orange at 10:30 for a double period. I ran the class the same way, only we reviewed 1^st through 10th and completed the shape exercises that P3 Pink did the day before. Because of the way the time slots are set up, it is hard to keep the two classes at the same spot. In order to be prepared and insure that both classes get through the material, I have to have my lesson plans done for at least two days in advance. This class struggled with looking at the line of shapes and telling the location (1^st, 2^nd, etc.) of the specified shape. When we finished the location exercises, they moved onto counting by 10s and completed all the same exercise as the P3 Pink class. Overall, the class went very well and the students were well behaved. I am guessing this is because Moses talked to them before the period started. The Orange class is going to have an overall better experience with me because of the trial and error process that occurs in the Pink class first. After teaching Pink, I can then tweak and fix my mistakes for the Orange class. After the orange class, we headed to lunch and then worked on lesson plans for tomorrow and made quizzes for Friday. It is hard to make a quiz for a 45 minute period because there is a wide range of ability level in each class. For the quiz, I asked students to write in words numbers 1 to 10, state how many figures were in a given pictures (ex: three circles), look at a line of shapes and state the location of a shape I asked for, write numbers 11 to 20 in words, and then write other numbers such as 30, 42, 57, and so forth. We wrote the quizzes on a piece of paper and then gave it to Moses to make copies of. I have planned a game of Numbers Jeopardy to play with the students tomorrow in order to review for the quiz. After writing our quizzes, we went to sponsorship again. When I am going through the files and looking at family descriptions on the forms, my heart often breaks. I could not imagine being some of these children who have families who are struggling severely. I came across two little girls who were living with a single mother because their fathers were in prison for participating in the genocide. I could not imagine having to be a parent and explaining that to my young child. It is sad, but it is a blessing that many of them have sponsors.

I can’t decide if this whole practicum experience is going to get harder or easier. I enjoy working with the little kids (and sometimes being in the classroom), but I get very frustrated with students who just don’t try. I still have the feeling of wanting to impact kids, just not necessarily in the classroom. I know that God will continue to teach me and guide me throughout my experience here in Kayonza. He is already teaching me patience with my students and the ability to not put so much importance on time (like I wrote about in my very first blog entry before coming to Africa). I pray that I continue to let God’s will be done and that He will show me what to do and that I do not base it on myself.

After sponsorship, we went to our room and relaxed until dinner. We finished the last 45 minutes of Take The Lead, which we had been watching while we made our quizzes earlier in the day. After we finished the movie, Kelli took a nap and I went for a run. As I reached the main road which goes toward Rwamagana, a man ran with me for nearly 15 minutes. He tried talking to me, but I had no clue what he was saying. Then, he proceeded to run next to me, talk to himself, a listen to music from his phone out loud. But he was not the only one to join me on my run today. As we ran, 10 children began running with me too. When I finally turned around, the man stopped running with me.

When I got back to campus, I saw a few little boys playing with a soccer ball so I jumped in. We juggled and just messed around with the ball for a while. They had good foot skills for just little guys and I could tell they just loved the game.

At dinner, we sat with 2 sixth grade teachers who were singing our praises about our teaching methods. They asked us to teach a lesson for them so that they can “see our ways.” It is semi humorous and a little frustrating that they think we know what we are doing because in reality, I have only had 5 education classes thus far.

Also at dinner, we gave Moses our quizzes so that he can check to make sure that the students will understand our wording of the questions, and then he can get copies made. He was very impressed and said, “It is almost like you have been teaching in African schools forever.” It is encouraging to hear people tell us we are doing a good job because at times, I feel like I am a chicken with my head cut off.

Two random pieces of info for the day:

Around campus, it is a birthday tradition to make someone cry on their birthday. They say, “We came into this world crying, so we should on the day of our birth.”

Josh and Tami are one step closer to bringing home their little boy from Ethiopia. There was another boy referral today so they are tied for first with a few other families waiting to see their little boy’s face.

March 1, 2012: Practicum Day 11

On Thursdays, I have class at 7:45, so I wake up slightly earlier to run, shower, and get to class on time. On the second half of my run, back toward ALF, some of my students ran with me because they were walking to school. The last 3 mornings, we have had avocado and crackers for breakfast. This morning, P3 Pink was interesting. I got there and told the class that they had a quiz tomorrow and today we would be playing a review game. We played jeopardy, and it was LOUD! They get very excited and a bit carried away when the teams are boys versus girls.  I was not expecting them to understand the jeopardy concept, but they did! They understand picking the different point values and all went for the 500 questions first. They did not understand the categories were written at the top, but that was not vital to playing the game. While they understood the game, the part that they didn’t understand was being quiet. They would cheer when the opposite team got it wrong, they would cheer when they got it right, they would stand up, should “teacher me, teacher me” or “no teacher no!” Headmaster came in to try to get them to quiet down, but as soon as he left, the volume went up again. Again, it is frustrating that the only punishment the students respect is physical punishment. When class was over, I tried to tell them what would be on the quiz, but the majority of them wouldn’t listen. I told them, “If you do not do well tomorrow, I will not feel bad for you because you are not listening!” Part of me will not feel bad if they do poorly tomorrow because of their inability to listen, but the other part of me wants them all to do really well because I have been teaching them the material for the last week.

After Pink, I went to sponsorship and worked on checking/organizing files some more and had our daily 9:45am tea time. I worked there until my second class at 11:15. I was dreading Orange class because of how poorly Pink behaved during the game earlier in the morning. When I got there, they were all seated and behaving like angles. I told them that if they stood up their team would lose all their points. I also explained them how to do silent cheers, which worked well as long as I prompted it. There was some standing and cheering, but for the most part it was controllable. Overall, the orange class behaved very well and I think they enjoyed the review game.

I am nervous for both classes to take the quiz, mainly because I still do not feel like they understand the 1^st through 10^th activity that I try to do with them (line of pictures and tell me what place a certain picture is in). I am also worried that they will not be able to spell the numbers. I can ask any one of them and they will spit out all the information, but when it comes to asking it on paper, they freeze.

One of my favorite parts of the classroom is when I enter into the room. As I walk it, the class stands up and says, “Good Morning Teacher Ali!” I say, “Good Morning class, how are you?” They reply, “We are fine, thank you Teacher Ali.” I tell them, “You may be seated.” And they say, “Thank you Teacher Ali.” It is one of the cutest things J

Random classroom fact: To erase the board I have to ask a student for the duster (aka eraser). It is one students job to keep the duster for the classroom.

For lunch, we had rice, beans, and CHIPS (aka French fries).  What a day…we added something new to the menu. That being said, they put the chips on top of the beans so they tasted like rice and beans.

In the afternoon, we were supposed to do home visits with Charles Gashumba (the man who is head of sponsorship), but he was called into Kigali last minute for some business. I was bummed because I was really looking forward to it, but hopefully we will get the opportunity to do it some other time.

Instead of going out on home visits, we went to teacher devotions which go from 3-4. Today, there was a guest speaker/pastor and he went until 5:30! Unfortunately, it was very hard to understand what he was saying because he would not let the translator finish before he began with his next thought. After teacher devotions I got to talk to Amber for 45 minutes or so which was awesome! I got to wish her a happy birthday, hear about her life, and catch her up on mine. The rest of the evening, we read and wrote in our journals, and then we headed to bed.

March 2, 2012: Practicum Day 12

Today I gave my first exam as a teacher. BIG MISTAKE! I was supposed to administer my first exam at 8:30 so I went to pick up the copies of the exam from Moses at 8:15. When I got to Moses, he informed me that they were not ready and that I was to teach a different lesson during my exam time slot and then take another teachers time slot to give my exam. My first thought was, “What in the world am I going to teach? I have already been teaching numbers for a week.” Luckily, I had written the exam in my journal, so I pulled from that and wrote questions on the board to prepare them for the exam later in the day. I informed them that the picture sequence I wrote on the board matched exactly what would be on the quiz. Many of them would not pay attention so I said, “I am just trying to help, it is your fault if you do poorly because I am giving you the questions.” The students spent the majority of the period doing the exercises and then we went over them at the end of class.

After that class, it was tea time and then I went to Orange to give them their exam. Teacher Rita was there to get them started on the exam, but she left and it turned into chaos. Kids were talking, getting up, looking at each other’s papers, and there was nothing I could do about it because there are so many students. Several of them turned in their papers having done #1 incorrect so I tried to instruct them several times how to do it, but they would not listen. As they handed their exams in, I had to send the majority of them back to their seats to fix their work. I also had students stealing exams to take home and write answer for other kids. As a punishment, I made students sit with their faces in the corner or against the wall. I made them switch positions every time I walked past and if they moved when I did not instruct them to, I told them I would rip up their papers.

I then had another short break until 11:15. During that time, I discussed with Teacher Rita what I should be teaching this coming week. I will be teaching the alphabet for the first portion of the week, and comparisons for the second half the week. After speaking with her, I went to the library to check out a P3 English book in order to find some sample questions. From 11:15 to 12, I administered the exam to P3 Pink. They would not get settled, so another teacher came in to help. When I began handing out the test, I instructed them that if they stood up or talked before everyone was done, I would rip up their exam. This class was more well behaved than P# Orange, but there was still some cheating. I had one student using his book, so I took his exam, sent him outside, and made him start over. As everyone finished, it started to get loud, so I put the people who were still working outside to finish up.

For lunch we had rice with meat, but my meat was the intestines. While at lunch, we talked with a teacher about grades, and he informed us that a 50% is average. After lunch, we headed to the bus park to buy tickets to go back to Kigali for the weekend. We got tickets to leave at 3, so we went back, got our stuff, and cleaned up. We gave Jackie (the woman’s room that we are staying in) our key so that she could sleep in the room for the weekend because she has officially returned from leave. Gashumba (the man in charge of sponsorship), is trying to figure out if we will need to change rooms or not. We told everyone that we are leaving so that no one thinks they “lost us.” Usually, if someone doesn’t see us for a few hours, they say, “We lost you.”

The bus back to Kigali went very smoothly. When we arrived at the Ramera Bus Park in Kigali, we hopped on a bus toward Chez Lando which is the stop for where we live. Overall, it cost us less than 3 USD and took us about an hour and a half. It was definitely worth it! I looked forward to coming home all day. We got to eat real food, made by Janet and enjoyed the company of everyone. We have to pay 2000 franc to eat while we are at home because they have already paid for us to eat rice and beans at ANL in Kayonza. I spent the rest of the night grading papers. I have not yet taken the average, but some students did very well (41/41) and others did very poorly (2/41).

We are halfway through our practicum experience which is insane! As I think about teaching, I have several different feelings. I absolutely love working with kids, but as far as the classroom goes, I do not really enjoy writing lesson plans, or grading papers. It is frustrating having no respect from the students, because I have no form of discipline. It is very hard to get any lessons done because there are 50 students who turn to their neighbor and talk. At this point, I really don’t want to be a teacher. I don’t know if that is simply because of the African setting, or because that is not what I want to do the rest of my life. I have been so trained to the American Education System full of resources that this is very difficult. All that being said, I know that God will continue to teach me through this experience. I pray that I will come out of it with a more clear answer of the path which I will take.

During my devotions, I turned to Isaiah 40:28-31 where it states, “The Lord is the Everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the youth men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” There are times during this experience when I feel as though I have no strength or feel as though I cannot last through another session in the classroom (in a sense I feel faint), but God renews my strength and helps me every time I am in the classroom.

March 3, 2012: Practicum Day 13

Such a good day back in Kigali! Kimmie and I woke up and headed to ABC Bagel (a business started by Americans and the Mzungu hangout on Saturday mornings). We went to volunteer because they were short on workers, and business was CRAZY! I was taking orders, manning the cash register at times, and packing up other goods that customers bought, such as tortilla, bagel chips, cream cheese, salsa, etc. The store opened at 9, and by 10:30, all the doughnuts were sold out because several customers came in and ordered 2 dozen plus doughnuts. By 12:30/1, we had sold out of all bagels, and doughnuts. As I worked at the counter, it was fun to hear all the different accents of the customers. I always wonder what everyone’s purpose is here in Rwanda. What brought them here? How long have they been here? What is their purpose here? God has placed all these people here for His good, and that is such a beautiful thing.

After volunteering, we went home and had Janet’s pumpkin soup and watched “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” I finished grading papers, and found that the overall average was a C, which I was happy with considering the teachers told me to expect a 50% average. Part of me questions their grades because many of the cheated. I also began to work on ABC lesson plans for Monday.

After the movie, Julie, Kimmie and I went to Emeralds Coffee/Guest House to get some coffee and catch up. We all shared the ups and downs of our practicums. All of us have both the positives and negatives of our practicums, but we all know that God is working at all of the sites. Despite the fact that it may not be exactly what we wanted, He is placing opportunities in our lives to connect with the Rwandan people which are a huge part of this study abroad experience. 

For the rest of the evening, we ate dinner and then headed to “Heaven Restaurant” with everyone who was home for the weekend to see a movie. On Saturday nights, the restaurant is designed to be dinner and a movie, or you can just go for the movie. It is on a patio that is outdoors with roofing over half of the area. It has a big screen, tables, and some movie chairs. For only 2500 franc (a little less than 5 USD), we got to see a movie, had unlimited popcorn, and a free soda. That beats the 9 bucks for JUST the movie at home. The movie of the night was “The Iron Lady.”

When we came back from the movie, we hung out and enjoyed being reunited and in the company of each other. I look forward to continuing the building of relationships with the rest of the group when we return to Kigali.

I have been going through Romans recently, and chapter 8, verses 18 through 39 really struck me. A prominent theme in these verses is about God’s goodness. In verse 28, it states, “for those who love God, all things work together for good.” A few verses later, in verse 31, it reads, “And what then shall we say to these things? IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?” This verse makes me feel like all things are possible. With the strength and goodness of God, we have the ability to do all things. Especially through this experience, when I feel incapable of being the sole teacher in the classroom, I remember that by God’s grace and His goodness, I can and I will. He is for me and if I am working to further His Kingdom, He will give me strength. He will not allow me to be torn down.

March 4, 2012: Practicum Day 14

This morning, I went to Africa New Life, Kigali for church. The sanctuary was very nice. It had tiers going down, and the stage had several musical instruments. The walls were pained with fabric squares which made the interior design very aesthetically pleasing.  The pastor, Pastor Charles, spoke on Prayer. He started in 1 Samuel 12:23 and posed the question, is it a sin to fail to pray? When we decrease in prayer, we are more vulnerable to sin. So, when we skimp on prayer, how does it affect our everyday lives? He then moved on to Ephesians 6:18 and stressed the idea of PRAYING AT ALL TIMES! By being in constant prayer, in every occasion, we can “extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one.”

The pastor then offered up some quotes:

• “The evangelization of the world depends first upon the revival of prayer. Deeper than the need for man---aye, deep at the bottom of our spiritless life, is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing world-wide prayer.” This quote really hit me, because I often find myself frustrated with the youth of America. The high school and college years are driven by alcohol and sex. So often, people do not respect themselves. Much of the youth in America is living for themselves, not a God who is greater and much bigger than us. God gives me a reason to live. It saddens me to see people give in to the media or temptation just to have a popular social status. This quote made me realize, that it is first through prayer that I can have an impact on the lives of these young individuals.
• Martin Luther stated, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first 3 hours in prayer.” I hope that I can get to a point in my life where I am saying this too!
• Pastor Charles then went on to say, “We are in a hurry to finish prayer, but we aren’t in a hurry to eat or finish a movie.” This was a very convicting statement because I often find myself doing just this. I find myself cutting my time in prayer short so that I can journal or read my book for class. I pray that God can help build me up in prayer. I pray that I can strengthen myself in prayer and find myself in constant prayer because it is through prayer that I find peace in Jesus Christ.

Overall, the service was very, very nice! The children’s choir from Kayonza came to perform because the Board of Directors is in Rwanda for the first time.

Well, that was church. But this morning, I woke up at 6am to an insane rain storm! There were cracks of lightening and rolls of thunder. The lightening was hitting right down in the valley. I wish I was awake for this!!! I love rain and thunder storms J when we went out to get a taxi to head to church, there were no motos or taxis in sight. When the rain comes, people disappear and the streets go dead. Later in the day, when the rain had stopped, the place where the motos and taxis sit was full and people were out. At church, the pastor said several times that the service started late and was emptier because of the rain. You would have thought everyone was snowed in! After church, we headed back to the Go-Ed house and I packed up my stuff and made some chocolate chip cookies.

We headed out of Kigali, back to Kayonza around 5. The bus on our way back was a small one crammed with 4 people per bench and all of our stuff. It makes stops more frequently than the larger busses, but it still got us back just fine! When we got back, we bought some boxes of water and headed back to campus. We will be staying in the same room, but Jackie and he daughter will keep their stuff in our room and come as they need. Unfortunately, having two more suitcases in the room makes it crammed, but it is not a problem, we will manage. Before prayers, we gave our boys some chocolate chip cookies and watched Step Up with them. Then, we did some journaling and headed to bed. I am praying that God will give me a positive heart for the week and that I will rely on His strength to get me through.

IF YOU MADE IT THROUGH THAT WHOLE POST, I AM IMPRESSED! I can't wait to be blogging normal again back at the Go-Ed house. This truly has been an incredible experience thus far. It is hard to believe that my time here in Rwanda is almost half way over. I am blessed to be here.