Lightning Strikes

Yesterday was a crazy storm. I had just finished playing soccer with the local team when a storm started; hail, wind, rain, hammered the surroundings. Water was pushed under both the front and back doors. Lightning was flashing, thunder claps vibrating the house. Josiah and Keyana were crying and we were not enjoying the lack of electricity and the dark storm. I was also concerned as we have a young man staying with us who had went for a walk into the bush and he had not returned yet. We finally decided to make some supper, so were at the sink getting a few things together, when there was a bright light flash outside the window and I felt electricity flash through my arm and chest. I yelled in surprise and fear, Josiah started crying and Karlene looked at me like I was strange. I asked her if she hadn't felt that. She said all she had seen was a flash of light. I told her what I had felt, Josiah immediately said he had also felt something like that. He had been touching me at the time. Karlene was very surprised since she had been inches from me. We sat down, tried to calm the kids down and prayed for safety. The storm continued for an hour of constant lightning and heavy rain. It was an unnerving and strange experience, and we are glad that we are all fine.

Time to Think

I have been a bit under the weather in the last few days. This is difficult, but has also been a blessing. Time spent at home resting, reading and recovering have been a great; I feel more relaxed. Time to help in small jobs around the house. Time spent with arms elbow deep in the suds have been appreciated (by others). Shelves are up as well, and more emails attended to. Finished an excellent book that challenges us to live out our faith as men - Courageous Faith by Paul Coughlin .

But I am still struggling with what I can focus on that would make the biggest difference in the classrooms of the precious children in the 12 schools that I am hoping to impact. I taught for 2 weeks in a school 4 km from our house. This experience was much more beneficial than first anticipated. Building relationships with staff was the main goal, but I understand more about the challenges of these rural schools. I have experienced teaching 38 in a class when there are supposed to be 54; most absentees chose to stay home as they could not understand English well enough to learn with me. This class is one year away from writing exams that are all in English.

I went to visit their teacher yesterday, but was disappointed to find that her and a colleague had gone to town for the day - going to town is an all day experience as it is 70 km away. You have to catch the public transport bus or hitch, both take a minimum of 4 hours. When I arrived I found the Gr. 6 students scattered, and as soon as they saw me, it was big smiles and shouts of welcome sir. After I discovered their teacher was away, they asked me to come teach. I was surprised, and told them it was after 1. They are done by 1:10 for the day. They still insisted I should come teach. I had some time, so I sent them to the room and followed. After a short discussion, I found they had only had a math lesson for the day, so offered to teach English. I told them to go home if they were hungry or tired; 10 stayed anyways, about 5 said they would like to but had afternoon tutoring to attend. So I taught letter writing format and how we would mark this in Canada. I presented them with the topic of what would you ask to be changed in your school if you were asked. They were not very free with suggestions as we brainstormed together. They seemed to be nervous to offer any suggestions. I made a few - more classrooms, lights, substitute teachers - this seemed to help and they nodded on all of my suggestions. They added a few of their own. Then I showed them how a letter should look, and what should be in it. They stayed for an hour working away. When one finished, it was one paragraph with quite a few mistakes, and interesting wording of sentences. But I could understand what the message was. I am careful to judge as I have experienced the learning of Spanish recently. After 20 minutes of revising and more suggestions, I told the students I had to go, but would collect their letters tomorrow. I was astounded at the desire to learn, that they would voluntarily stay after school one more hour. If they get the help, these kids can make it!

I have identified several weaknesses that perhaps could be worked on at once. Math skills are weak, students count on fingers when adding, subtracting or multiplying simple facts. Student textbooks are low on practice - very thin compared to what I am used to. English vocabulary and writing skills are varied, and half of the students are not really able to communicate in English. There are no effective provisions for remedial work in my opinion, despite all lessons being ability grouped.

It would be great to have a classroom of computers that are equipped with English learning software like Rosetta Stone. I did some Spanish learning with it, and it was amazing how it did not use any English, just pictures to teach the vocabulary. Pray with us that decisions will be made as to how best to respond to my experience.