Sunday, September 23, 2012

Back to School!


Apologies for not writing in a few months. This summer has been a lot of bouncing around from one place to another, and while I have been pretty good about putting up pictures, I admit to slacking on the blog end of things, so let’s get back on the blog wagon!

The summer was great. I stayed in Bo for a week, getting to know the new group of volunteers and so far they are turning out to be pretty awesome J Then there was Cody and Ivy’s wedding, which was incredibly fun. And of course my family came to visit and that was a fantastic two weeks. Then I was off to Freetown for a week for a mini vacation and then our mid service conference. After that it was back to Kamabai to get ready for the start of school, which technically was on Monday. Now I am in Freetown helping to train the new PC response volunteers that are going to be working in the universities here training teachers. So, hopefully by next week I will be back in the classroom teaching!
I’m excited for school to start back up this year. I will be teaching Chemistry in addition to Biology and Integrated Science. My middle school kids will be taking the big test this year to see if they can move on to high school, so I’m a little nervous about preparing them the best I can. I think though that if they commit to coming to school, they will be able to do fine, but, we’ll see.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who donated materials that came over with my family. It has been the absolute best distributing them all and seeing everyone get so excited. Everyone is so grateful and says they are praying for everyone in America who helped them. I am really looking forward to distributing all of the school supplies this year as incentives to hard working students; I think it will be a great motivator. Also all of the amazing supplies Mom brought over for the library and teaching in general are starting to make me feel like a real teacher. I mean now I have an actual eraser to erase the chalk board, I don’t have to use a piece of sponge. How cool is that?! Before she left, Mom spent some time hanging up posters in the library and the place looks great. I’ve been doing some last minute organizing and it’s crazy how different it looks from last year. So many thanks to everyone who donated money for textbooks! Thanks to you Kamabai Secondary School now has 85 new books that both students and teachers will be able to use. I am really overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity. People I have never met gave so much to my community and it was really beautiful. It has been such an awesome experience to see how just one little thing can make someone so happy. All of the women are showing off with their new earrings, the little kids love their toy cars and I can’t even talk about how cute the little girls with their new dolls are. I’ve given out stuff to ten different families and there are still left over things to give out at Christmas. Thanks again to everyone that donated; it really means a lot to everyone in Kamabai.

 Since Mom and the girls came everyone in town is asking me how they are doing. It’s awesome that everyone knows my family now. The kids really loved the summer school that Mom and the girls put on and when they ask how they are doing, they always ask about Miss Kayla, Miss Kelsey and Miss Sallay (mom’s African name). And of course, Simon Says is in Kamabai to stay. Some things from summer school with the American ladies are gonna be hanging around Kamabai for awhile.

Alrighty, I’m feeling a little tired, so I will call it good for now. Thanks again to everyone that donated, it really meant a lot to everyone :)